Hey everyone! Our trip to New Orleans was short and sweet, but it was fun and filled with great food. This was the first trip we've taken since we both started working full-time, so it was some much needed time off. Getting back into the groove of things work, diet, and fitness-wise was a little tough, but I'm getting there for the most part. Here's an overview of our trip - many photos ahead (thought not even 1/4 of the ones I took lol).

Day 1 #

We had an 8AM flight out of Lovefield and the flight to MSY was just over an hour. From the airport, we took an Uber to get to our Airbnb...but it didn't go exactly as planned. If you follow me on Instagram, you know basically what happened. About 3 blocks from our destination, our Uber driver got T-boned by a car who ran a stop sign. Luckily, we were in an SUV and the offending vehicle was a tiny hatchback, so nobody was hurt. The worst part is that they left the scene before our driver could file a report and we ended up waiting for the police for 2 HOURS with her in her car. And they NEVER SHOWED. Towards the end of it, we were getting kind of frustrated so we were glad when she offered to just drop us off and take our number in case the police needed anything (they didn't). The good thing that came out of it was Uber immediately refunded our fare because of the accident. :-)

By this time, it was after 1PM and we were starving, so we had our Uber driver drop us off at Cafe Henri, a nearby cafe that was suggested to us by our Airbnb host. I had some major interior design envy and the folks who worked there were so nice.

  1. French toast with strawberries and cream and avocado toast with eggs and green toppings
  2. Cafe Henri doors
  3. Inside Cafe Henri behind the bar

The Airbnb #

Stephen and I use Airbnb every time we travel. I know some people are concerned with whether it's safe, clean, etc., and while there are some bad experiences, we have never had an issue with it. We always carefully read reviews and listings. Most of the time, it's more interesting and affordable than staying in a hotel and we have always liked the hosts we've had.

This time was no exception! Our Airbnb was attached to a coffee shop called Solo Espresso which was on the bottom floor of the owners house. It was in the St. Claude area of New Orleans, which was far enough away from the hustle and bustle the French Quarter and close to the Bywater area (which was one of the areas I liked the most). The home itself was a beautiful studio, with the interior being done by the owner's friend and an awesome concrete shower. They were even selling tacos and ice cream one morning when we were leaving, which was awesome.

  1. Exterior of the Airbnb
  2. Kitchen of the Airbnb
  3. Solo Coffee under our Airbnb
  4. Tacos they sold outside the Airbnb

For dinner, we had to check out Bacchanal Wine since it was recommended to us by so many people. It's a backyard party type environment with great wine, food, cheese (!!!), and music. One of the highlights was their cheeseboard, where you basically get to pick whatever cheese and meat you want out of a fridge, and they plate it up for you with all the yummy trimmings. We had a great time (and may have ordered to much food).

Outdoor dining at Bacchanal Wine
Outdoor dining area
  1. Cheeseboard from Bacchanal Wine
  2. A dish from Bacchanal Wine
  3. Duck confit from Bacchanal Wine

Day 2

Our second day began with brunch at The Country Club. Stephen actually found this place online and when he saw that they do drag brunches, he knew I would be into it. Unfortunately, it only happens on Saturday, but nonetheless the food here was great. The interior was stunning; it made me feel like I was a rich old lady, but the people working there were not uppity at all. It was a notably LGBTQA-friendly place. In fact, I noticed New Orleans in general had a lot of public support for the LGBTQA with all the pride flags hanging about.

  1. Eggs benedict and crab cakes from The Country Club
  2. The beautiful ceiling inside The Country Club
  3. The outside of The Country Club

After brunch, we spent the day at New Orlean's City Park. From there, we checked out the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Sculpture Garden, and the Botanical Garden. It was a beautiful day with the perfect weather, so it couldn't have been better. The botanical garden had a green house full of succulents and cactus, which I'm ALL about. We also got to try some beignets from Morning Call.

  1. The botanical garden
  2. Me inside the cactus greenhouse
  3. Outside the cactus green house
  4. Inside the cactus green house
  5. Selfie inside the New Orleans Museum
  6. City Park

After a long day exploring the park, we decide to kill some time (and spoil our dinner) by getting some gelato from Angelo Brocato. For dinner, we went to St. Roch Market, which was stunning and filled with so many options for food!

  1. Gelato and canoli from Angelo Brocato
  2. Inside St. Roch Market
  3. Food from St. Roch Market

Day 3

Day 3 started out with beignets from Cafe du Monde. The line to actually dine there was really long, so we ended up hopping in the to-go line which allowed us to get our food a lot faster. I had a frozen New Orleans coffee with mine and the combination was divine, although very sugary. After that, we walk over to Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral, which was stunning!

  1. Cafe du Monde
  2. Beignets
  3. White Lies Matter
  4. Food from St. Roch Market
  5. Ceiling inside St. Louis Cathedral
  6. Plant wall inside of the Krewe store

After that, we spent the day walking around the French Quarter doing tourist-y things like drinking frozen daiquiris, watching some street performers, and yes, even heading into Pat O'Brien's to drink a Hurricane while watching dualing pianists. I'm always so impressed with how they perform on the spot like that! For lunch, we had the famous Willie Mae's fried chicken. We had to wait outside for almost 45 minutes to be seated, but boy, the service was great and the food was delicious.

Dinner that night was at Acme Oyster House back over in the French Quarter. We yet again had to wait, only about 30 minutes this time, but we got to sit at the bar where to watched our waiter shuck oysters. I enjoy raw oysters and don't like fried oysters, but the charbroiled oysters there are perfection!

  1. Willie Mae's Restaurant sign
  2. Food from Willie Mae's
  3. Outside Acme Oyster House
  4. Inside Acme Oyster House
  5. Charbroiled oysters from Acme Oyster House
  6. Food order from Acme Oyster House

Day 4

Our final full day in New Orleans started pretty late, but was relaxing. We started off at French Coffee Truck which was this sweet coffee roaster and shop. We had a couple of pastries and some New Orleans coffee and we learned they were shooting AMC's Preacher in front of the coffee shop, which was pretty cool. The owner was really nice and when Stephen told him we were headed to the World War II museum down the street, he gave us a free ticket that he had had which included a movie! The ticket was $36 at the door including a short 4D film narrated by Tom Hanks. Not gonna lie, war and military museums aren't my thing, but the museum itself was really well-done so it wasn't bad.

After the museum, we decided to have lunch at Lüke where they happened to be having their happy hour on drinks and seafood. Oysters were $0.75 each! After a late lunch, we spent the afternoon walking through the Garden District looking at all the historic and fancy houses. Stephen found this great self-guided tour that highlighted a lot of the houses, which included John Goodman's and Peyton and Eli Manning's homes. I felt kind of weird looking at people's houses, but they were beautiful! We also walked through Magazine Street, though by this time, everything was closed. But we did make it to Hansen's Sno-Bliz for some killer shaved ice (or as they call it, snowballs).

  1. Our order from French Truck Coffee
  2. Outside the National World War II Museum
  3. Oysters from Lüke
  4. Food from Lüke
  5. Nice house on Magazine St.
  6. Another nice house on Magazine St.

We ended our final night in New Orlean's with dinner at Jacques-Imo's. The entry here was through the bar and to get to the rest of the dining areas, you walk through the kitchen. Despite how busy they were, our waiter was on top of it. In fact, even though we had wait at a couple of restaurants during out trip to actually be seated, once we were, service was quick and we never had to wait long for our food, which is really, really nice. Dinner at Jacques-Imo's was the perfect way to end our trip.

  1. Food from Jacques-Imo's
  2. More food from Jacques-Imo's

I hope you guys enjoyed reading, or at least skimming through this! I'm not very good at keeping my blog posts short, probably because I don't post very often, but I feel like sharing what we do on our travels can help other people figure out places they may wanna go. At least, I hope it does!

Also, slightly random question for you guys: Is it common for New Orleans to be called 'NOLA'? I feel like for me, it's 50/50. Half the time, people know I mean New Orleans and the other half the time, people have no idea what NOLA is. Do you guys know that NOLA refers to New Orleans?


Thanks for reading,

Christina