New Orleans
We were told “You Must go to New Orleans!” I didn’t know much about the city, so I polled Facebook friends for ideas. The most common advice was “Eat ALL the food!” This city is famous for its jambalaya, seafood, po boys, red beans and rice, etouffée, and beignets. I was excited to try a few.
Our first stop was a walk through Jackson Square. A brass band was playing and we stopped to listen for awhile. There are street performers all over the place in the French Quarter. I soon realized that if I gave a tip to every musician, I would quickly run out of money. If you visit New Orleans, definitely bring some extra cash along to tip the musicians.
Our quest to try new foods began at a place called Nola Po-Boys. Here is a video of us trying these delicious sandwiches and the famous gumbo that everyone was talking about.
After trying the po-boys we moved onto another most recommended spot, Cafe DuMonde, home of beignets. These tasty little square pastries were quite reasonably priced. 3 for $3.85. They were served hot and covered in a mountain of powdered sugar. I enjoyed mine with an iced coffee.
There are a lot of artists displaying their work on the street corners and plenty of galleries and shops to walk through. We loved looking at all the Mardi Gras masks that were for sale.
We stayed at a hotel where we parked our car overnight for $40 and then took the streetcar around the city. We found it hard to find parking and were told it wasn’t safe to park our car overnight most places because of the number of break-ins. I’m not sure if this was entirely true, but we decided to go the safe route this time.
For dinner, we chose a place called Gumbo Shop. We wanted a sit down place where we could try a bunch of things but not break the bank. This place had a combination platter dinner so we ordered two and shared them between the four of us. Each dinner included either a salad or soup to start, an entree, a side, and a dessert. Mark ordered gumbo, etouffée, mashed potatoes, and a praline sundae. I ordered a salad, a combo plate that included red beans and rice, shrimp creole, and jambalaya, mashed potatoes, and chocolate cake. It was such a feast and we loved every bite.
The girls had very strong opinions about New Orleans. Ivy didn’t seem to like it much. She said it smelled and too many people were smoking everywhere we went. She also said it was too loud and overwhelming. We were only out until about 8pm, but the minute the sun went down, the streets kind of felt like the midway at the state fair. It is obviously a place people go to drink and party. We were there on a Thursday, and not close to Mardi Gras. I can’t imagine what Mardi Gras is like.
On our 2nd and final day in New Orleans, we went back to Cafe DuMonde for another round of beignets and then drove around the garden district where we had the most amazing bagels at a coffee shop called Rabbit’s Foot.
My final thoughts on New Orleans were the food was great, the music was great, but the atmosphere was not ideal for those who get overstimulated by noise and crowds. Mark LOVED it. He is more extroverted than I am. He liked striking up conversations with the street musicians and capturing them on video. Here are a few short clips.