A Day in New Orleans

Last weekend, Ben and I went to New Orleans with Carl (Ben's dad). Sadly, Ben's mom Deena was in Birmingham for a conference and didn't get to join us. We flew to New Orleans Friday night after work (although after several delays, didn't get there until after midnight). Carl had a limo pick us up from the airport. Talk about arriving in style!

We stayed in a suite at Harrah's that was FABULOUS! I think it was bigger than our entire house!

We hadn't eaten in a while, so we ordered room service- some mac and cheese, a ham and cheese omelet, and a club sandwich for a "snack"- then headed off to bed. And let me tell you, this is a bed you can't wait to get in and never want to leave!! Can you spot Ben?

In the morning, we walked to breakfast at a little cafe in Musical Legends Park. Ben and I just had an egg bagel and a chocolate eclaire and Carl had some coffee, then we met our tour guide for our 2-hour walking tour of the French quarter. The three of us noticed that Lloyd, our tour guide, had some striking similarities to Terry, our walking tour guide in Berlin- both squinted their eyes shut while lecturing instead of looking at the people, both seemed to know everyone we passed along the way, and both gave really great history on our tours.

It was neat seeing all the little streets in the French quarter, which Ben pointed out felt a whole lot like Europe. Here I am on Bourbon Street...

...and here is a picture from Jackson Square, which in this picture sort of reminds me of Disney World.

The houses there mostly have Spanish architecture (even though originally settled by the French) with cast iron railings. Lots of houses there were in movies or are owned by famous people, such as this house belonging to Nicholas Cage (and it's in foreclosure-how crazy).

There were street performers playing music for the crowds, people walking everywhere, and tons of people dressed up for Halloween, even in the morning! We saw some great costumes, but sadly, I didn't get any pictures.

After working up an appetite from our tour, we thought we'd kick it up a notch and eat lunch at Nola, an Emeril Lagasse restaurant. We sat right up at the bar in front of the kitchen and could see them making all the food that went into the wood-burning oven.

Our food was DELICIOUS! Roast beef brisket (with fried onion rings on top that I took off of course) with brie mac and cheese and white beans for me, fried chicken with sweet potatoes and snow peas for Ben, and shrimp with cheddar grits and mushrooms for Carl...BAM!

We spent a lazy afternoon walking in and out of art galleries on our way back to the hotel, then spent the rest of the time there before going back out for the night. I took a bath in the tub in the bathroom that was about the size of my bedroom at home! This picture only shows a small part of the bathroom.

After a short nap and then getting ready, it was out to dinner at Commander's Palace, an incredible restaurant nestled in amongst houses in a residential area. Another great meal, as if lunch wasn't enough- a soup sampler with turtle soup, red fish bisque, and chicken and oyster gumbo (although none of us really cared for them- especially not the turtle), veal with crab meat and polenta and asparagus for Ben, and Carl and I both ordered the pecan-encrusted grouper on a bed of corn pudding with spiced pecans.

Dessert was bread pudding with a whiskey cream sauce and rootbeer apple cobbler with pumpkin ice cream.

Talk about stuffed! Ben and Carl both raved about their dinners and both gave theirs a 10, but I was actually sick to my stomach and nothing was hitting me the right way (as Ben can vouch for when I got sick later in the middle of the night), so maybe my 7 for the fish meal would have been a 10 on a different day.

After dinner we saw the musical Cats. I didn't get a single picture of us dressed up for the show, but after seeing all the people in Halloween costumes and cat costumes, I was disappointed in my dress anyway and wished I had planned to wear a costume that night. We all really enjoyed the show, which was full of great music and dancing, and all the things they sang about cats and the way they moved around the stage just confirmed in my mind how much I hate sneaky, slinky cats! I loved the show though :)

We went straight to bed after that full day. Needless to say, we were thankful for the extra hour of sleep with the time change since we had an early flight home. We flew to Atlanta, where we met Deena and had the same flight home from there. We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory once we were all back in Louisville and recounted the day before to Deena. What an awesome weekend...totally worth the trip, even if it was short!