N’awlins

Aras & I took an AHH-mazing trip to New Orleans this week.  It was my first time visiting, and I had a blast!  I loved so many things about it – the charm, the architecture and signature scenery, the history and culture, the music everywhere, the food, the thriving night scene… it was so many things to take in, and I loved every single bit of it.

I have a ton of pics to share, so I’ll start with the ones of actual shots of us enjoying the trip, and give some highlights on our adventures.

Just arrived! 

We stayed at the Maison Dupuy Hotel, just a couple of blocks back from Bourbon Street.  Cute hotel, and a great rate (because I am a deals-kinda-girl, y’all know this!).  :)

First drink – hurricane!  Beads on, and ready to go :)  Unfortunately, the thunderstorm kept us to the hotel restaurant and bar the first night, but it was still nice, with good food and a fabulous acoustic guitarist covering some good songs!

That hurricane was preeeettttyyyyy strong :)  Feelin’ good.

Day 2 was a bit of walking around and exploring – definitely had to hit up Café du Monde for coffee & beignets and had some amazing traditional n’awlins lunch at Coop’s Place.

I am totally licking powder sugar off the plate at Café du Monde.  no judging.

We walked around some more, saw some crazy characters and sights… including a totally random blue man looking to swindle some tips for photo ops AND we stumbled onto a set for this movie being filmed in NOLA currently – Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  It was really cool to see how they were pulling the set together!

This blue man is weird… and I got even more freaked when I saw that he had silver bling fangs. 

Ehhh, but whatev, I’ll risk it and go for the photo.

Then later, we decided to hit up the town for dinner and a for reals night on Bourbon Street!

Ready for some fruity drinks & debauchery!

Aras being a badass and drinking right by the coppers.  What I later learned is that he was more scared of the horses than the officers :)

Bourbon Street booze times!

We enjoyed some delish greasy good food from Mr. Chubby’s Cheesesteaks right on Bourbon – Aras even kept it local style and had the n’awlins cheesesteak.  We also saw some amazing street performer musicians, and equally entertaining, likely under the influence, regular ole’ locals dancing.

Getting’ a lil’ silly

I didn’t go into any clubs that night because of the pesky rule about not bringing drinks inside, but it didn’t matter… my favorite music of the entire street was at this tiny drink stand where the guy was blasting all my favorite gangsta songs.  I just decided to turn this spot on the sidewalk into Sharla’s dance zone.

Day 3:  we hit up a place for breakfast along the river, but it wasn’t amazing.  Shopped and meandered around the area for a bit, just roaming around the streets.  In the afternoon, we got a rental car and headed about 30 miles northeast to go on a swamp tour – I would never have even thought of doing this, but I saw a deal pop up on Groupon, and it looked really neat, so we went for it.  I’ll have to do a separate post with more details and a ridiculous amount of pics … it was so beautiful!

Silly and taking shadow pics – we were glad the sun was out finally!

At Pearl River, getting ready for the tour… too bad the cute pigtails didn’t last very long in the speedy (windy) boat!

That night, we got all de-swampified and ready to head out for some upscale NOLA dining – another deal I scored on Groupon at Atchafalaya.  Food was delish, and the restaurant was an adorable, charming house in the Garden district.  The cab ride there totally stunk it, but we rode the streetcar back, so that was a fun little experience to make up for it :)

Ready for another night out :)

After we made it back to the French Quarter, we hit up Bourbon Street for one final night.  We didn’t stay out too late because we had an early flight the next day, but still had some good times!

Obligatory silly drinks!

We made it on a balcony!  At Club 544

Totally loved this trip!!  This is definitely added on to my current list of favorite places to visit – Charleston, Vegas, and NYC.  I am pretty sure I’ll make it back someday soon! :)

More to come …. pics and vids of the sights and sounds of New Orleans and the swamp tour!