Quick Trips: New Orleans

Did You Know? Calling all party animals, “When you get ‘last called’ in New Orleans, you can take your drink and put it in a plastic cup and walk down the street with it. That’s perfectly legal in the French Quarter as long as your drink isn’t in a glass or metal container.” ( v i a )

New Orleans!

New Orleans

Wafiq & I went to New Orleans over the 4^th of July. We both saw a break in work & pounced on the opportunity. Southwest had an awesome deal for flights so we had to go (I love when that happens). This was our first time flying Southwest, and it was as smooth as can be. People in Texas love Southwest airlines sooo we’re officially part of the club.

I’ll apologize in advance, I didn’t bring my camera on the trip so all of these photos are from my iphone…. womp womp

OMG & before I forget… I bought this cute, pink carry-on piece of luggage the day before we left & I was excited to finally have my own, pretty piece of travel. Well. When we got to the airport, Wafiq was pushing along both the bags through the airport on our way to check in. As we reached the 2 story high elevator, he set the bags up, leaned back against the railing, and we started chatting. MY bag had a mind of its own and took the fast route down the elevator by tumbling down the 2 floors of steps! I’m telling you, a 2 story high elevator! The entire airport below had their eyes on us as my bag was near airborne bouncing to all the way to the bottom. When we finally rescued my luggage it was scratched up and bruised badly. No more new, sparkling luggage for me. Although, we’re thinking of purchasing the entire luggage collection because through the airborne hurling, the handles, wheels, & zipper all stayed intact – very impressive!

Garden District

New Orleans — Outside Commander’s Palace // Forever 21 Dress: HERE // Sunglasses: HERE

Garden District

The first day we stayed in the Garden District, outside of the French Quarter. This is the same place where Sandra Bullock’s mansion is & several movies were filmed because of the grand style homes. The night was as I imagined, we ate Fried Alligator & Rabbit Stew for dinner at this place called Cochon. Totally recommend. It was a cute place that had a great atmosphere. The alligator tasted like chicken, but tougher. The rabbit.. tasted like dark meat chicken? When in Rome, right?

Alligator

New Orleans

We went to Hot Tin for drinks which had a skyline view of New Orleans at night, anything for a good skyline moment. In the same hotel there was a small jazz bar downstairs which was actually my favorite part of probably the entire trip. A gentleman & his wife were playing the piano & singing while a few onlookers danced around the room. Really up my alley, I love live jazz, intimate venues, wine, and people dancing. We went up to Hot Tin to see the view… and then headed back down to the jazz bar.

The rest of our time was spent at the Omni Royal inside the French Quarter. Looking back we should’ve stayed in the Garden District. The French Quarter is too much! Smells, people, commotion, crazy. I think we’re spoiled living in Austin because we have partying, live music, and crazy any day of the week so it takes a little more to impress? I hate saying that because I know there are devoted people to New Orleans, but that’s my opinion. The Garden District is quaint & sophisticated. Plus flowers, beautiful homes, flowers & more flowers? >> swoon

Swamp Tour

We did get out of the French Quarter for a little bit one morning & did a kayak swamp tour which we loved. We like kayaking or canoeing so this was an activity that would’ve been hard to go wrong. We saw a few alligators, huge cypress trees, and learned all about the swamp lands – which neither of us have ever had the opportunity to do before. So, bucket list, check!

Overall we stayed at our hotel pool a majority of the time… it was so nice!

I know what you’re thinking.. Café de Monde?! For beignets?! We skipped that and went to Café Beignet instead because we heard they’re very similar, minus the lines. And yes, those things are fucking delicious. Wafiq thought they were similar to a croissant with powdered sugar on them (*eye roll*) but I could eat 10 of them x 10 more… +1.

I will say, for two people who eat pretty healthy most of the time, by the end of the trip we were craving some lettuce or rice or grilled chicken with Lemon! (We literally steamed broccoli with meatloaf as soon as we got home.)

If we ever adventure back to New Orleans >> Garden District all the way!