#1962 remembering NOLA

In my last post I mentioned that this time last year, my sister and I were in New Orleans. I really had fun on that trip and I have a lot of good memories of the days we spent there. I've pulled a few photos that I don't think I've shared here, so I want to reminisce.

One thing I realized as I was looking through the photos is that I could totally do a whole post on the food we had. I took pictures of just about every meal. There is some seriously good food to be found in the Crescent City. I'll have to keep that post idea in mind.

I'm just gonna put a bunch of pics here and describe a little of what I remember.

We stayed in the French Quarter at the beautiful Hotel Monteleone. The first evening we were there, we went on a ghost tour, which was super fun. I really enjoyed looking at the beautiful buildings with their lights on. 

This is Pirate's Alley. It is an amazingly short street right by St. Louis Cathedral. See that white door? That's where the William Faulkner Bookstore is.

One day we went over to City Park. What I remember most about City Park was the adventure we had in getting there which involved getting on the wrong streetcar, then walking through a part of town with beers, which we probably shouldn't have been doing, and finally getting on the streetcar but not knowing the streetcar etiquette. When we did get to the park, we didn't really know what to do or look for, so we called an Uber and went to a shop to have po'boys.  It was an interesting day.

That night, though, we went to Faubourg Marigny neighborhood for dinner and walking around it was, as the kids say, lit. Frenchmen Street is the best!

On the Saturday we were in NOLA, which happened to be Lizzie's birthday, we started the day with an amazing brunch, then took the streetcar to the Garden District for a walking tour of the neighborhoods to look at the mansions and also one of the famous cemeteries. After the tour, we walked to another little area where there was strolled and had a nice treat. It was a beautiful area.

The photo above is adjacent to the Garden District, but has a different name. Look at that tree, though!

The Carousel Bar is in the Hotel Monteleone. I can personally attest to the delicious breakfast cocktails they have there. When the bar opened at 11 AM was about the only time we could get a seat at the actual carousel. It's awesome. Look up at the mirror above the bartender. There we are!

I took this photo when I was in my cups. It made me smile when I saw it as I was going through the photos. I pretty much loved everything about Frenchmen Street.

These oil lanterns are everywhere. They don't ever put out the lights; they burn day and night and they look cool.

The architecture in the French Quarter really appealed to me. I loved the galleries with the big ferns hanging from them. Remember, this is November and look how beautiful the ferns are. That is really something I can appreciate, especially looking back on it during an extremely gloomy, cloudy and rainy SLC day.

There is so much diversity in New Orleans. There are the old parts of the city like the French Quarter and the Garden District, then there's the vibrant downtown area too. It's a happenin' place.

One more look at the ferns and the architecture. I don't think I'd want to live there, but I sure did enjoy spending a few days there. It was enchanting. I loved walking around and as I mentioned, the food was spectacular. I'd love to go back sometime - I think MT would really like it there too. BUT, there are lots of other places waiting to be explored, so I might have to put a return visit to NOLA on the back burner.

#1808 NOLA day 4 in pics

Back to New Orleans...

Lizzie and I had planned the first three days in the Big Easy pretty meticulously, planning everything from what we would see and do to where we would eat. We left Sunday open so if anything got left out  or if we wanted to go back to a particular place, we would have the option to do that. We thought it was a good idea, but we were a little overwhelmed with the openness of the day when we woke up on Sunday morning. We pored over the guidebook to look for anything we had missed, but we had been pretty thorough, so we decided the best way to start the day would be at the Carousel Bar.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the Carousel Bar is located in the hotel where we stayed, the Hotel Monteleone. The bar is an actual carousel, but instead of horses, there are 24 bar stools. The stools do circle around the bar which takes about 15 minutes. Every time we walked past the bar on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, there was no room at the carousel, so on Sunday we decided to be there when the place opened at 11 AM. We were not the only people with that idea, but we were one of the first 24, so we got our seats and ordered some breakfast cocktails. I had a milk punch (which I will describe in the food post) and Lizzie had a Bloody Mary. We chatted with people and took silly photos and ordered another round (another milk punch for me, Baileys and coffee for Lizzie.) It was fun!

YIKES! Scary clown behind me!

The bartender told us to take this photo.

After a couple of pre-brunch cocktails, we were ready for food. The first place we went to was packed and we weren't in the mood to wait, so we kept walking. Lizzie suggested we turn down a street and we happened upon Salon by Sucre. Actually, I'm not convinced we happened upon it because Lizzie had mentioned it earlier in the morning so she probably knew right where it was. Anyway, we had brunch (food post will have details!) and a couple of mimosas and it was damn delightful.

After brunch we realized that we had not made it over to the river. How can you go to New Orleans without looking out over the mighty Mississippi River? The answer is you can't and from where we were, the river was very easy to find.

A steam paddle boat and the Point Algiers ferry

One of the options we considered was taking the ferry over to Point Algiers. It's a free five minute ride across the river, but in the end, we decided not to do that. Instead, we strolled through the French Market.

French Market

The French Market is an open air shopping space that has pretty much any type of souvenir you can imagine. There are also food places. It's pretty interesting. There is a LOT of stuff in there. We enjoyed walking through the place and we did buy a couple of things.

From there we just kept walking up the road and found ourselves on Frenchmen Street, my favorite street, I think, in the city. We had been there on Friday night and it was THE place to hear live music. It was the same on Sunday afternoon. As we wandered down the road, we came upon a bar, Maison, that had a five-piece jazz ensemble playing. We went in, got a seat at the bar and spent a happy hour or so drinking beer and listening to music. I was in total heaven. The beer was good, the bartender was handsome, there was football on the TV and the music was excellent. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

This dude on the clarinet was fantastic

The next band wasn't as good, so we left Maison and went on down the street to the Spotted Cat Music Club. The Spotted Cat had been on our list for Friday, but it was so packed that we passed on it then. On Sunday afternoon, a band was having a CD release party, so we went in, got a beer and a couple of seats and proceeded to enjoy the hell out of the musical stylings of The Asylum Chorus.

The stage of The Spotted Cat

Asylum Chorus on stage!

Not only is there good music and a pleasant vibe at this bar, it is animal friendly. This dude brought in his dog and we were all amused.

That's a dog with a bone in the bar

Also, there is a piano in the ladies room because inspiration can strike at any time, I guess.

Ladies room

When The Asylum Chorus show was over, a new band set up and began to play. Lizzie and I decided to go across the street to Marigny Brasserie, the same place we ate on Friday night, to have appetizers. I have to admit that I don't have totally clear memories of this part of the evening, but I do have photos of the food, so I know it happened. The Asylum Chorus was also at the restaurant having a post-gig meal. I fist bumped them all on the way out of the place.

After eating, Lizzie and I walked back to the French Quarter and to the hotel. We stopped at a couple of places along the way to take some photos:

Lights on the bridge over the river

touchdown Jesus on the back of St. Louis Cathedral

Back at the hotel, I was mesmerized by the pretty ceiling:

We went to our room, ordered room service, watched TV and went to sleep. It had been another fantastic day!

#1806 NOLA day 3 in pics

C'mon y'all...join me in celebrating Lizzie's birthday in New Orleans!

Our third day in the Crescent City was my sister's birthday. We had a big fun day planned and it started with a New Orleans tradition - brunch. We went to Muriel's Jackson Square and promptly ordered mimosas to start the day properly.

The meal was delicious, so rich and filling that I couldn't even finish mine. The restaurant brought out some bread pudding with a candle on it for Lizzie's birthday and I had to give it a try. Yummy.

After brunch, we took the streetcar up St. Charles Avenue to get to the Garden District. That neighborhood is so different from the French Quarter, it's like it's in a different city. I guess technically it was a suburb when the French Quarter was the city. The Garden District is full of big old trees and beautiful mansions. We took a walking tour of the area and learned about the history of the neighborhood and highlights of some of the mansions.

Yes, that is a Swedish flag. If I remember correctly, the Swedish ambassador lived here or something.

 This house used to belong to the author Anne Rice. She wrote her Witching Hour book here.

The sidewalks in the Garden District, like most sidewalks in New Orleans, are not flat. There are a lot of tree roots growing under those sidewalks, so there is a lot of uneven ground. Another interesting note, the roads are actually higher in the center because there is so much rain in the city that the roads are sloped so the water runs off into the drains.

Another part of the tour took us to Lafayette Cemetery #1. As with all cemeteries in New Orleans, all the tombs are above ground. I thought it was because New Orleans is basically below sea level and can flood easily, but the guide said that was an urban myth. I don't remember what reasoning she gave for the above ground tombs. No matter. It's pretty interesting. By the way, there are lots of cemeteries in New Orleans.

After the tour, Lizzie and I walked through the neighborhood to get over to Magazine Street where we stopped at a sweet shop called Sucre.  It is a lovely shop and we enjoyed a nice treat (which I will include in my food post!) After the snack, we strolled back to St. Charles St. to get back on the streetcar and go back to the French Quarter.

We hung out in our hotel room for a little while and watched some TV, then it was time to go out for dinner. That night we went to a restaurant by James Beard award winning chef Emeril Lagassse and we chose NOLA.

The restaurant seems pretty small from the outside, but it is three stories tall with lots of seating. The decor is warm and quirkily elegant.  We were seated on the third floor. We had a nice table and an excellent server named Paul who was tall, so we called him Tall Paul. He was quite patient with us. We were a little giddy with the whole experience.

The food was amazing, the service was wonderful and it was so fun to be there with Lizzie on her birthday. I can't say enough how delightful everything was that day. And look how cute and happy Lizzie looked!

I didn't want the meal to end, but I was so full that I couldn't even find room for dessert, so it was time to go. We decided to stroll back along Bourbon Street because it was Saturday night and it seemed like the thing to do. It wasn't great. As I mentioned before, there is not a lot of charm to Bourbon Street, in my opinion. It just felt like something we had to do, so we did it.

Bourbon Street

 
Even so, I thought it was a great day. I hope that Lizzie had fun and that she will remember this birthday fondly.

#1804 NOLA day 2 in pics

I told you I would show some photos of our second day in New Orleans, so let's go!

Lizzie and I spent about four days in New Orleans. Friday was our second day there, but the first full day. We had lots of stuff planned, so we got right after it.

We started off with breakfast at The Old Coffeepot restaurant. The food was very good, but the service was not very good. We were treated so poorly that we left feeling kind of disappointed because the day before had been so great and all the people we had come in contact with had been really nice and friendly, so it was a bummer.

Our goal for the morning was to go to City Park. From reading my guidebook and looking online, I knew we could get there by taking the streetcar. From our adventure the previous night, I knew there was a streetcar stop right across from the Voodoo Lounge where we had started our tour the night before. We headed that direction, strolling through the French Quarter. Some photos of the Quarter:

A small band jamming on the corner of Royal and St. Phillip

the window of a voodoo shop

wrought iron galleries of the party houses - notice the beads

I think we were walking along Bourbon Street. A quick note on my thoughts of Bourbon Street - it's pretty yucky. In the day you can see it's not nice, except for the architecture. At night, it's just a zoo of people in various states of intoxication. Bourbon Street's main purpose is to take your money and get you drunk and maybe show you some boobies. (Lots of strip clubs.) Not my favorite scene, but it had to be seen.

Back to my story...

We get to the street where the Voodoo Lounge is and we see the streetcar tracks. When the trolley came, we climbed on and asked the driver if the trolley was going to City Park. Nope. We were on the wrong line. Here's the thing: the bus and the trolley symbol in the map program on my beloved iPhone look very similar. The driver told us we would have to head up the road and we would find the right line.  We were grateful for his information, so we hopped off, got a beer at Voodoo Lounge and headed up the road.

Here's the thing: while walking around with a beer in your hand seems pretty normal in the French Quarter, when you get out of the Quarter and you're kind of in between neighborhoods and it's noon, walking around with a beer might not be your best choice. Just a little tip from me. Nothing bad happened and we got where we needed to be, but we felt kind of awkward.

Canal Street

We eventually got on the streetcar headed for City Park. It seemed to be mostly full of local people. There were a couple of other tourists sitting by us who also wanted to go to City Park, but they got off way too early. I was surprised when they got off the trolley. I felt kind of sorry for them standing in the middle of the road looking at their map. (Lizzie and I didn't use a map, but we did use our phone's map program.)

When we got to City Park, we didn't really know what we were going to do. It was hot and humid and we were slightly out of sorts from our weird morning. We found the Morning Call restaurant, got some water and went to get our bearings and figure out what we wanted to see. We decided it would be appropriate to check out the Pavilion of the Two Sisters.  Some photos of City Park:

Spanish moss on a tree along St. Johns Bayou

Look at the size of this tree!

The Pavilion of the Two Sisters and a funky statue

another funky statue in the Sculpture Garden

We looked through the Pavilion and saw a tiny bit of the garden. There weren't many other people around and the garden staff was clearly setting up for a party and we felt kind of out of place, so we decided to leave. City Park is really big, but we didn't really know what we wanted to see or what we should see. We were also hot and tired and getting a little hungry, so we decided to find the restaurant we had chosen in the neighborhood, Parkway Bakery.

I was feeling some pain in my knee and even though it turned out the restaurant was only about a 20 minute walk from the park, we took an Uber. I will be doing a separate post about the food we had on our trip, but I'll tell you that we had po' boy sandwiches for lunch from Parkway, and they were damn good. Lizzie had the sausage sandwich and I had the fried shrimp sandwich and we were both very pleased and content.

It was super easy to find the streetcar station from the restaurant and we had a nice stroll through a nice neighborhood to get there. We also realized that Canal Street (where the streetcar line is) has a stop very near Royal Street, where our hotel was, so we took the line up to Royal and walked a couple of blocks to the hotel. Sheesh! We should have spoken to the concierge before we left. The morning could have been much easier, but we turned it into quite an adventure.

We chilled out at the hotel for a couple of hours, then headed back out on the town. Our destination that evening was the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood for dinner and music, but first, a stop at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar (again) for a beer. We got a little table out on the sidewalk and sipped our drinks and watched the people. Lafitte's is right at the top (or bottom) of Bourbon Street. Apparently it is a favorite of locals, but there were plenty of tourists around too. It was fun to watch what was going on. Since it was early, I think the place might have been the first stop for some folks on a Bourbon Street bar crawl.

The Marigny neighboorhood was quiet and lovely. Lots of cool houses, quiet streets, good vibe. We easily found our destination, the Marigny Brasserie. I will tell you right now that this dinner was my favorite, top to bottom, that we had in New Orleans. Everything was great from the appetizer to the dessert. You'll have to check back for details on the meal :) Also, the service was excellent. Diana was adorable and friendly and took our picture:

 
After dinner our plan was to go across the street from the restaurant to the Spotted Cat Music Club. Instead, we wandered down Frenchmen Street and took in the sights and sounds. We went to artist's markets that were set back in gardens and were just beautiful.

One of many artist's markets on Frenchmen St.

We had poems written for us instantly by these dudes:

Poets for hire

My poet was the guy on the left. I gave him the word "vacation" and he wrote me an opus. I totally love it!

Frenchmen Street was my favorite street in the city. There are bars along both sides of the road and live bands are playing music in every one of them. Blues, jazz, funk; it's all happening. You can stand outside a place and listen, you can go in and have a drink and enjoy the tunes, you can keep walking down the street and soak it all in. It's fantastic. It was Friday night, so it was pretty packed along the tiny sidewalks and party buses were going down the street and it was a scene. So fun!

We stopped outside several places, but we didn't go in to any of the bars. I was tired after the long night on Thursday and being out in the heat all day Friday. I felt kind of old, to be honest. Fortunately I think Lizzie was feeling the same, so we headed up Frenchmen Street and back to the French Quarter.

As we strolled down Royal Street toward the hotel, we heard a brass band playing and saw a bunch of people standing around taking photos and looking down the street. Of course we had to see what was happening. I'm glad we did! There was a wedding party dancing in the street, complete with the brass band. The bride and groom were in front of the whole parade; the bride with a white parasol and the groom with a black parasol.

Wedding parade!

We stood on the sidewalk and waited for them to pass by. Wouldn't you know it? They turned right up Royal Street, so as the wedding party walked by, we fell in behind them, joining the "Second Line". If you click on the link about second line parades, you'll learn that the parades are a New Orleans tradition. The first line is the main party, in this case, the wedding party, then the second line is people like us who join in as the party passes. The funny thing is that Lizzie had mentioned going to a second line parade on Sunday and we were trying to get more information about where it was and when and those sorts of details when this wedding party popped up organically for us. Timing is everything and we were totally in the right place at the right time. It was cool and fun and sort of amazing. The amount of coordination that has to happen to have a wedding party parade in the French Quarter on a Friday night would be daunting, but there it was. So fun!!

We followed the wedding party until they turned up a street before our hotel. We continued on to the hotel and went on up to our room. It had been a day that started off not great, but ended on a high note for sure.

#1803 NOLA day 1 in pics

What am I waiting for? Let's go to New Orleans, y'all!

My sister, Lizzie, and I left cold, snowy Salt Lake City on November 17 and headed southeast to New Orleans, Louisiana. Neither of us had been there before, so we were dang excited about our adventure.






We arrived in the early afternoon, got a shuttle to the hotel and it was go time! 

The hotel we chose was the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street in the French Quarter. If you ever find yourself in NOLA, give yourself a treat and stay at this beautiful hotel. I felt like a fancy lady, even in my jeans and sneakers. From the doormen to the housekeeping staff, everyone was friendly and smiling. The lobby, which I'm sure is splendid at all times, was especially gorgeous all decked out in Christmas finery. It was magical.

Christmas trees in Hotel Monteleone lobby

After we unpacked and got our bearings a little, we went to Napoleon House for a cocktail and a late lunch. I'm going to do an entire post of the food and drinks that we had in New Orleans, but I'll tell you that I enjoyed a Pimm's Cup and some jambalaya for my first meal. And it was delightful. We sat in the courtyard and listened to a fountain burbling away while we soaked up the sub-tropical temperature and congratulated ourselves on making the trip happen.

Entry to Napoleon House

After dining, we strolled along the narrow French Quarter streets until we ended up at St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square.

St. Louis Cathedral

As we walked through Jackson Square, we heard a jazz band playing and followed the music. The band was playing on the other side of Decatur Street. We noticed there were lots of people standing around, looking across the road. We finally heard someone say that the tree lighting ceremony was about to start, so we stayed there and waited. After some time - not too long, but not that short either - there were speeches and a countdown and the tree was lit.

note the fleur de lis on top

 It was fun and I'm glad we waited for the lighting.

That night we went on a ghost tour with French Quarter Phantoms. You might not believe in ghosts - I don't think that's really the point of these tours. Mostly you hear some history of the area and the buildings and if you've got a guide who is a good storyteller, it's totally worthwhile. Our guide, Miss Angela, was an excellent storyteller, so I had lots of fun. You know what else is fun about New Orleans? You can walk around with an adult beverage in your hand as long as the beverage is not in a glass container. We started the tour at a bar, the Voodoo Lounge, and had a halfway stop at another bar,  Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar.

such a cool place!

Along the way we heard stories of spirits and vampires and even zombies. We stood outside voodoo shops and saw the outside of the LaLaurie mansion.

one of many voodoo shops I saw

the LaLaurie mansion

I thought the ghost tour was great and I was glad we jumped right in and did it on our first night there. It kind of set the tone of the trip for me, to just go for it and have a good time. I was feeling pretty tired, but I'm glad we powered through. But still we weren't done with the evening.

After the tour we walked back to Decatur Street and went to Cafe du Monde. EVERYONE says that is THE place to go for cafe au lait and beignets, so who are we to argue? I skipped the coffee and went straight for the beignets. Yeah, they are good. Fried dough covered with powdered sugar? Yes please. I know I said I'd post food pics later, but you gotta see this:

beignets

Lizzie and I shared an order; we split the third beignet. I don't truly know if I could have eaten all three. I might have tried, though, but I was full of beer and water.

We went back to the hotel, but we weren't quite ready to go up to our room, so we went into the Carousel Bar. You will hear much more about the Carousel Bar in a later post, but I'll just say that it is the bar in the Hotel Monteleone and there is in fact a carousel in there. There's also a lot of other very nice posh seating. A jazz combo was playing and the place was bustling on a Thursday night. I don't know how, beginner's luck, I think, because we found a table and ordered a Sazerac cocktail. The drink is made with Sazerac rye whisky and some other stuff. I didn't like it at all, but my sweet little sister thought it was A-OK. She finished hers and mine. We chatted with a nice couple from Houston (lots of Texans in NOLA) and chowed down on the fine bar snacks (similar to Gardettos but with a slightly different flavor and lots more peanuts). I wanted to ask for a to-go cup of the snacks, but I didn't. They were sure were tasty!

Inside the Carousel Bar

After our drink and snack, we were ready to go up to our room. We shared the room; it had two double beds that were extremely comfortable. Very high thread count on those sheets. There was a lovely bathroom with kind of an industrial toilet - not like the kind you have in your house, but the kind that is in an airport or a rest stop, you know, with the lever flusher. I should have taken a photo. It seemed out of place in such a lovely bathroom. That's my only slightly negative thought about the room: the toilet. It worked well though.

We had only been in New Orleans for half a day and we totally crushed it! We ticked off everything on our itinerary for the day and we still had three full days in front of us. I just knew we were in for a great time because the first day was completely wonderful.

Want to hear about our second day in New Orleans? Check back on Friday...well, you won't see if if you check too early, so better to wait until Saturday because I'll write Friday night.

Until then...