A NOLA Anniversary - Part 4

For our last morning in New Orleans, we decided to pack in a few more quick sights as we walked around the corner. But the day would not have been complete had we not started it in Big Easy style -- a patio serving of beignets and iced chicory cafe au lait. This time, however, we went to the New Orleans Musical Legends Park off Bourbon (where we watched live musicians on our first night) for Cafe Beignet. There wasn't nearly the same size line and the beignets were practically twice the size as Cafe du Monde, so we were happy.



This is the Cornstalk Hotel. It is supposedly the place where Harriet Beecher Stowe stayed when she witnessed the slave markets in the city and decided to write Uncle Tom's Cabin. The reason it got its name was because of the cornstalk wrought iron work. (If you click on the picture, you might be able to see the detail better.) One of the early owners built it because his new bride was homesick for her corn fields back in Iowa and he wanted to give her a little bit of her home in New Orleans. It's now a super cute bed and breakfast.

New Orleans had pirate lore long before it was cool. This block-long alley next to the cathedral is named Pirates Alley, though it's questionable why. Legends have all sorts of stories of pirate hideouts along the route and of Jean Lafitte meeting with Andrew Jackson to plan the Battle of New Orleans against the British in 1815. But pirates or no, Pirates Alley is still well known for the Faulkner House, where William Faulkner lived and wrote. His house is now a bookstore, which I'm sure has plenty of copies of As I Lay Dying.

Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, now a famous bar.

Our last meal in New Orleans was at the Gumbo Shop off St. Peter Street. My family would always eat lunch here when we were in the French Quarter. We split a platter with jambalaya, red beans and rice, crawfish etoufee, shrimp creole, and maque choux, but we decided to order our own strawberry and strawberry-banana daiquiris. :)

There was a woman who set up shop just outside our window during dinner. We watched her sing and play her keyboard all during lunch.

But before we left to go back home, she urged Shaun to grab a tambourine and play right along with her! After all, when in New Orleans...
Laissez les bons temps rouler!

A NOLA Anniversary - Part 3

Sunday, our first anniversary! We had officially been married for over a year, and it felt awesome! Our day started out driving to the Northshore to go to church at Church of the King in Mandeville, the town I grew up in. We had heard some great things about this church and really enjoyed the service a lot. It was great to start our second year of marriage worshiping our God together.

Then the next hour or so was dedicated to showing Shaun the life I lived before we met in Colorado. I showed him my old high school and my old house, the house I had always dreamed of living in someday, and the highway ditch where I once fit a whole Ford Mustang, complete with my driving instructor. (Don't worry, Shaun was driving...)

After the brief tour, we stopped for lunch at one of my favorite places -- La Madeleine. It's a chain like a Panera Bread, but it's all French themed with quiches, sandwiches, French onion soup, and strawberries Romanoff. After our sunny patio lunch, we were ready to head back to the Quarter.

After heading back, we decided to take it easy and spend some time at Pat O'Briens, arguably the most famous bar in the French Quarter. It's well known for it's "dueling" pianos, two pianists are up at the bar and take turns playing songs requested by the patrons. It also has hundreds of beer steins hanging from the ceiling. We ordered the typical, two hurricanes in the souvenir glasses, and kicked back for the next hour and a half.

The picture above shows the dueling pianos and the beer steins. This video below is a clip we took during the song "Sweet Caroline," which apparently is the number one requested song at Pat O'Briens.



After Pat's, we went back to shower and change for our anniversary dinner. Yet again, Shaun earned some serious brownie points by surprising me with dinner reservations at Arnaud's for the big night. It was right off Bourbon and Bienville, which made for an interesting walk in our finery! The cute Canadians I mentioned from Friday night at Acme had actually raved about their dinner they had had at Arnaud's the night before, though I had no clue we'd be going there! It definitely lived up to its hype. We had such a great meal!

My handsome husband and I at our table.

Shaun's plate had a sampling of wild mushroom veal, crab cakes, and a crawfish rice dish. I ordered duck with a blueberry and port wine sauce. And we ordered pomme souffles (puffed up potatoes) and smothered okra for the sides. Everything was very tasty!!

Our runner was so great! She was really fun and a great sport when Shaun launched his water all over the table. (Apparently that is now our anniversary tradition... Shaun spilling his drink. At least this time it was not a smoothie, nor was it on me, haha!) Here she is making us our dessert at our table. Bananas Foster, yum! Everyone in the restaurant turned to watch as she flambeed the bananas, and then once our dessert was in its proper places (our tummys of course!), Shaun and I noticed a sudden influx of runners flambeing bananas at other various tables. We are quite the trend setters! :)

When Shaun made our reservation, he had mentioned that it was our first anniversary, so Arnaud's had a big, red heart balloon tied to the back of my chair, signifying to everyone in the restaurant that we were a big deal. :)

If our first year of marriage is any indication of what the rest of our life together will be like, I say bring on the next 80 years!

A Streetcar We Desired

All we wanted was a streetcar. We had heard about a big music and art festival being held at Palmer Park that Saturday from 10 to 4 and were told to just "get on a streetcar as far as it will take you." So we tried.

They say New Orleans is the most European city in America. Well, we decided it must be most like Italy in the form of public transportation.

The Whitney Wyndham is a block from St. Charles Avenue, where the streetcars run, we we walked over to the pickup spot and waited for a few minutes before this streetcar came rolling up.

Needless to say, we decided to take our chances with the next one.

We waited a couple minutes before deciding we should just start walking down St. Charles and pick the next available streetcar as it approaches us. So off we went, hand-in-hand down St. Charles Avenue. It was a warm day, but we were optimistic. We walked down to Lee Circle and turned right. It had been maybe 20 minutes by now at our leisurely pace, and we were wondering why we had yet to see a streetcar.

A man on his cigarette break outside a hotel told us we were bound to see one soon at the stop there. After all, streetcars come by about every seven to eight minutes. We took his advice, but decided we were so close to the beautiful Garden District of New Orleans, that we wanted to continue our walk until we got picked up. So off we went again.
We saw beautiful homes in the Garden District. It was a really pretty walk and shaded by lots of towering oak trees, so it wasn't too bad really. But after those 11 blocks, we were no longer around the gorgeous homes nor shaded by stately oaks. After a couple more blocks, we were desperately wondering where the streetcars were, so we ducked into a Walgreens to buy some bottled water and inquire.

Ends up, the streetcars are sporadic on the weekends... as a general rule. No wonder we hadn't seen one for the past hour and a half! But we were already too far gone (over 2 and a half miles) to turn back around, so onward we pressed, determined to get to that art festival.

Shortly there after, we heard a faint noise on the tracks. Could it be? We glanced back and saw our long awaited streetcar barreling down the tracks, so we ran full speed to the next stop in order to get on.

And on we got!

We rode until we arrived at Palmer Park. But by then it was 3:50. The vendors were packing up their wares and the live music had ended. It was a very anti-climatic ending to our streetcar adventure.
But undaunted, we decided to ride the next streetcar (by now they were back on schedule) a little ways back to Audubon Park and just meander through the scenery there. Dinner was in the general area, so we wanted to stay a little longer on that side of town.

Shaun decided to work on his fitness.

On the walk to dinner we saw this gorgeous, old brick building and tried to decide what it was. After some sleuthing, we concluded that it was one of the cutest elementary schools we had seen.

Dinner! Finally! We were hungry after our long trek across New Orleans. Shaun, being the romantic that he is, had surprised me with the restaurant, Le Crepe Nanou. It was a cute French restaurant that apparently had quite a name for itself. We were there early so we were the first ones seated, but by the time we got our entrees, the restaurant was packed and a line waited outside!

Appetizer of seafood gratin -- a cheesy baked dish of crawfish tails, shrimp, and crabmeat.

We ordered two crepes to share -- a ratatouille crepe and a crabmeat/creamed spinach crepe!

Dessert? No, we didn't get sweet crepes. We opted for the Creole Creamery instead. We decided to pass on the olive oil flavor, but the Ultimate Cookie Dough and Lavender Honey were delicious!

And if there was ice cream, my friends, you can be sure it was a good day!


(PS- I apologize for the cheesy literary allusion in the title... the English major in me just couldn't help it...)

A NOLA Anniversary - Part 2

Saturday morning started the way most every tourist's day starts in New Orleans -- with some delicious beignets and chicory coffee at Cafe du Monde on Decatur Street. A beignet (french for "doughnut") is a square of fried dough crowned with a mound of powdered sugar. So good! I ordered a frozen cafe au lait... Shaun opted for a chocolate milk instead. :)

The line to get into Cafe du Monde was about 30 minutes long again, but we watched street performers across the street and the carriage drivers advertising their tours.

Shaun liked the beignets!

A lot.

Breakfast of champions!

After breakfast we wandered the French Quarter and just admired how pretty it all was. The wrought iron balconies and tucked away courtyards are just a tiny piece of the city's charm.

The courtyards are hidden away behind the buildings, but between units you can sometimes get a passing glance at one of these "secret gardens."

Vestiges of Mardi Gras parades past

The French Market is a large farmer's market in the French Quarter with all sorts of produce, trinkets, and deals. Our purchase? A bottle of Miss Dior Cherie perfume for a steal of $30. When we got back to the hotel we found out why. Same bottle, totally different smell. I think we were duped. Bummer.

Saint Louis Cathedral -- This mini basilica is an iconic image of the French Quarter. We were lucky enough to get inside before the two weddings they were holding that day. Pshh, we thought, the Academy's chapel is doing twice that today!

This band, The Smoking Time Jazz Club, set up shop in the center of Royal Street and performed like 5 different songs. We sat and watched for quite a while and enjoyed the couple in the right side of the picture who ballroom danced to each selection. We enjoyed it so much that we bought a copy of their CD. A much better purchase than the Dior...

We stopped into shops frequently to enjoy their AC. This mask store was one of our favorites.

Like my very own Cyrano de Bergerac! :)

Spray painted performers everywhere.

And then came the streetcar fiasco...