New Orleans - Day 1

After our return from the Bama game, we spent two days at home in Atlanta before taking off again. We've been wanting to go to Baton Rouge for the FL/LSU game for about eight years now, and for various reasons have never been able to make it. We booked hotel rooms back in February, and then after we both got new jobs and no longer had quarterly deadlines to meet, we decided to make a vacation out of the trip and spend a few days in New Orleans before heading to Baton Rouge for the game. We wouldn't have been able to do that in any previous years, so I guess some things really are worth waiting for! I've been to both New Orleans and Baton Rouge with my family, but Bo had never been to the state of Louisiana, which meant this was going to be our "new pin" trip on our travel map this year. We were also really looking forward to go on a trip by ourselves for the first time since last Christmas. Even though we've done a ton of traveling this year, it's all been with other people (whom we love of course!) and we were long overdue for a getaway together.

We flew out verrrry early Wednesday morning so that we could have three full days in the city. I am not a morning person, so it was pretty rough...until we got upgraded to first class! Usually Bo gets stuck in coach when I get upgraded, but the flight was so empty that he got to come with me this time. We caught up on some sleep during the flight, and with the time change it wasn't even 9am yet when we got into New Orleans. We headed straight to Cafe Du Monde to have a few beignets for breakfast. They were delicious!

We walked around the French Quarter for a while and hung out in the park at Jackson Square.

From there we headed to Willie Mae's Scotch House for lunch. Despite the name, they do not serve alcohol - they are known to have the best fried chicken in all of America, as claimed by the Food Network and the Travel Channel. And now, by us too. It was sooo good. Unbeknownst to us, it is also located in the ghetto...so next time we will not be walking here. Lesson learned, but at least we went during the daytime.

By then we were tired and full so we decided to go check into the hotel. Our upgraded room (woo!) wasn't ready yet, so we had a few hours to kill. We made our way down to the hotel bar and the guy next to us told us that the Archbishop had passed away the week before, and his funeral march was going to be this afternoon right in front of our hotel. Sure enough, we walked back outside and noticed people starting to gather along the sidewalks. So we camped out for a while and got ourselves a great spot. It was very cool especially since it's not something that happens very often.

After that we walked over to Bourbon Street, a few blocks away. We of course had a few bourbons ourselves, and bar hopped along the street for a few hours. We loved that there was no open container law and could check out a lot of different places all with a drink in hand. That, and the fact that happy hour at every bar was 3-for-1!

Bourbon Street by day

On any given corner it was pretty common to find a random band - and they were all awesome.

Finally we headed back to the hotel. We stayed at the New Orleans Marriott on Canal Street. Our "upgraded" room itself was really nothing special, but the view was pretty awesome.

That night we had dinner at Acme Oysterhouse, a recommendation from one of Bo's co-workers. We got the "boo" fries (cheese fries with gravy, what a fantastic idea!), and split a dozen raw oysters and a dozen char-grilled oysters, which were excellent.

From there we ventured back to Bourbon Street for a fun night on the town.

 

Our favorite bar - Jean Latiffe's Old Absinthe House

Bourbon Street by night

Zydeco band



Jazz band