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New Orleans, LA – July 2012

I posted previously about mine and Lori’s Flights to Memphis, New Orleans & Nashville for our 10th Anniversary Trip.  We finally got around to organizing all of the pictures and now to posting about what we did in each city.

After a fun couple of days in Memphis we had a good flight with only a little bit of weather to dodge on the way to New Orleans on Sunday July 22nd.  We arrived early in New Orleans and after unloading and covering the plane I got on the FBOs wifi with my iPad to find us a place to stay.  Priceline again came through and I booked the Marriot on Canal St. right next to Bourbon St. & The French Quarter for only $70/night!  We called a cab and were heading into the city in no time.  We had decided not to rent cars in Memphis & New Orleans as it seemed easier to just take cabs and public transportation which worked out very well.

When we arrived at the Marriot our room was not ready yet so we dropped off our bags and headed out on the town.  We walked down Bourbon St. and explored the French Quarter.  We again stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe so Lori could add another bear to her collection and then we stopped for lunch at the Crescent City Brewhouse.  As recommended we took the Super City Grayline Tour through New Orleans.  This tour was a little disappointing but we did get to see quite a bit of the city.  Afterwards we checked into the hotel and went back out to tour more of the city by ourselves.  We took the bus out to The Garden District where we walked around Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 and past many of the old mansions including Anne Rice’s house.  Afterwards we made our way back to The French Quarter which was busy and we had a hard time finding a place that didn’t have a long wait for dinner.  We ended up at Cafe Maspero which wasn’t spectacular but we were very hungry and needed to eat so it worked.  Lori again had catfish and I had a shrimp po’ boy.  After dinner we walked back through the French Quarter and stopped at a couple of places including another frozen drink bar which seemed to be very popular in New Orleans as well.  One of the interesting things was that you could take your drinks with you and walk through the city which was perfectly legal.

On Monday we woke up and went to the famous Cafe Du Monde for a breakfast of beignets and cafe au lait.  Our first plan was to take a ride on the Steamboat Natchez along the Mississippi River.  This was a very nice ride with great scenery!  We then decided to check out the famous Pat O’Briens for lunch which was excellent!  We had Hurricane’s and I had a combo of jambalaya, gumbo and etouffee which was unbelievably tasty.  This was probably my favorite meal of the whole trip.  We then again walked down Bourbon Street and ended up at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop which had an even better Hurricane than Pat O’s!  After a trip to the hotel to freshen up and relax for a bit we again were out on the town.  We wanted to check out the Riverwalk Mall but it had already closed for the day.  We ended up having dinner at Gordon Biersch Brewery and then went across the street to Harrah’s Casino.  Lori and I found a craps table and had a good time for a couple of hours.  We both did very well and walked away from the table while we were ahead.  We headed back towards the hotel but again went down Bourbon Street to see what was going on.  It wasn’t nearly as busy as the previous night and we ended up at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop again which was very neat at night as they don’t have any lights and it is just candlelit.  Finally this fun filled day ended and we were back to the hotel.

On Tuesday we had plans to go on an Airboat Adventures tour through the Louisiana Bayou.  This was one of the highlights of the trip and VERY interesting.  We took the small boat tour and got up close with many of the alligators and other wildlife of the swamp.  Our guide fed the alligators marshmallows to bring them up close to the boat.  He was very informative and we would highly recommend going on one of these tours!  When we got back we called up Mardi Gras World and they sent a shuttle to pick us up.  This was another very cool experience that is a must see!  This is a working warehouse where most of the floats for the Mardi Gras parades are designed and fabricated.  My pictures won’t do it justice though so if you are in New Orleans you must check it out.

Here are some videos that we took on the trip:

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Three days in New Orleans had flown by!  We traveled back to Jackson Square where we met with a local street artist named Trevor Scott who custom painted us a cat playing a saxophone on Bourbon St.  We stopped in the beautiful St. Louis Cathedral and then ended up having dinner at Somethin Else Cafe which was simple but delicious – I had a crawfish po’ boy and gumbo.  Our last day in New Orleans was over and we headed back to the hotel so we could get an early start for Nashville the following day.

Click here to read about the next stop on our trip – Nashville.

Click here to see all of the pictures from our trip.

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