We both have wanted to go to New Orleans for a long time and there are so many sights to see, so we ended up being major tourists half the time. However, thanks to our generous host family: Jim and Emily (and their dog, Moe), we explored many a local venue off beat path.
What to do a in a city with a limited budget? A budget, mind you, that we had gone over slightly and expected to go over some more in NOLA (and we definitely did go over). The answer: walk: walk around neighborhood after neighborhood, explore it and take pictures, and maybe stop for a po boy or beer every so often.
shotgun houses!
We arrived on a beautiful, sunny afternoon, had some beers with Em and Jim and then headed off to Frenchmen Street to meet our friend Meredith who is down in NOLA for the winter. We wandered Frenchmen waiting for Meredith (Em and Jim had told us it was a great street for live music) and that was where we happened up the Spotted Cat - it was so much fun we had to return for the amazing live music on Tuesday.
This was at a little restaurant on Frenchmen that serve Tater Tot Nachos. I would highly recommend them!
Em had emailed me a list of things to see and do - so for the next three days we were men about town - soaking in all that NOLA has to offer. They live off of Magazine Street - a really cool street full of restaurants, shops and bars (I got myself a couple of birthday tie clips at an Antique Mall), we also explored the River Bend and Uptown areas.
We ate beignets at Cafe Dumonde, explored the French Quarter, ate muffaletta at Napolean House, and bought some records at Peaches record store and the Louisiana Music Factory (FYI: Louisiana Music Factory is way less expensive).
The Spotted Cat was definitely one of our highlights and as I mentioned, we saw some really awesome, local live music. Our two favorites were The Loose Marbles and Mechiya Lake and the Little Big Horns. Here's a youtube clip!
Let's see... what else happened while we were there.... oh yeah, I TURNED 30! I had a wonderful day. After yummy breakfast at Slim Goodies Diner we headed off to the Jean Laffite National Park to walk the trails through swamps and along the Bayous and canals. We then headed back to New Orleans for some amazing Po Boys at Domilise's, met Em, Jim and another old friend, Bette for some birthday beers and then and had an AMAZING dinner at Jacques-Imo's. All in all, an amazing 30th!
We were bad about taking photos with people - so our trip in NOLA was semi documented [sad emoticon] and we don't have photos of things like Em and Jim and their beautiful home, birthday drinks, etc.
We were hoping to make it up to Oxford but schedules didn't work out [another sad emoticon] so we made our way to Galveston Island!
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