We had so much fun getting away together for a weekend in New Orleans! Jason and I really enjoyed getting to spend some rare one-on-one time together, and walking around in the City that Care Forgot was an eye-opening experience!
Bourbon Street itself was an experience like no other: mostly strange and a little sad, but with plenty of humor thrown in for good measure. The other sections of the city were as diverse as the crowd on Bourbon, with everything from opulent antebellum mansions to entire neighborhoods that still stand devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I wish we had been able to make it down sooner after the hurricane to take some photographs of the damages, because I get the feeling that when they're finally done with all the rebuilding, it would be an impressive "Before and After" series.
We booked our hotel through Priceline and got a great deal, as usual, for a room at the Marriott in the French Quarter for just $70 a night. We thought that was splendid, but we it turned out even better than we expected! After we managed to navigate around the parade that happened to be leisurely making its way up Canal Street by our hotel and finding our way through the enormous lobby to the concierge desk, we were informed that they had run out of standard king rooms. At first we thought we were just going to end up in a room with 2 queens, which would have been okay, but then the nice man at the desk said he would upgrade us to a corner suite instead at no charge! It was fantastic!
We had more space than we knew what to do with, and we just couldn't get over the panoramic views of downtown from the 34th floor!
Other than our time spent staring out the windows in awe, most of the weekend was spent eating way too much delicious, creamy Cajun food. From the bread pudding at the bistro on Bourbon Street to the crawfish pasta at the Chartres House Cafe, I don't think I had a meal the entire time that didn't leave me blissfully satisfied. It's a good thing we also spent a lot of time on our feet walking around, or I'm not sure we would have fit through the front door when we got back home! Here is a sample of some of the yummy food we got to try:
And here are a couple of other snapshots Jason took. I think I was around 15 weeks at the time, and you can see my belly rounding out a little! It's getting much more impressive these days. : )
During our tour of the Big Easy, we made our way through all of the landmarks we had time for: The French Quarter, the Ninth Ward, one of the historic cemeteries, the Garden District, and the artists' markets in Jackson Square. After sampling the beignets at Cafe Du Monde, picking up some souvenirs at Aunt Sally's and negotiating a good deal on a beautiful, colorful painting from a street vendor to hang in the sunroom, we felt that our work in New Orleans was done. Mmm... beignets...
On our way home, we drove a little ways down the Coastal Highway so that we could walk along a beach to complete our weekend of relaxation. Mission accomplished!
A big, huge "THANK YOU" to my Jamie and my parents for helping out with the kids so that we could enjoy some time together.
There were too many favorites for me to narrow down to a blog post, so I threw some of my faves into a gallery instead! Click on the picture below to take a peek!
I wanna go back to NOLA!
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