New Orleans

Jason & I headed to New Orleans this week for a much needed vacation.  It was a nice mix of things to see and do and enough time to relax. 

Our New Orleans Digs - The Terrell House

We stayed at a The Terrell House B&B on Magazine Street.  We really enjoyed the location.  If you went out the door to the right, you could visit the shops on Magazine Street or the Garden District.  If you went left, you could head downtown or to the French Quarter.  Our room was actually located in a separate building at the back of the main house.  There was a wonderful courtyard which we enjoyed spending a few minutes reading and drinking coffee before breakfast.  The breakfasts were delicious Southern/ New Orleans cuisine.  And in case we started missing Radar too much, we could get our pet fix by petting the resident dog (Stella) and cat (Jubilee.)

 

Thursday Afternoon - The Garden District

We spent our first afternoon in New Orleans walking around the Garden District admiring the big houses.  I loved the architecture.  The red bricks, the iron work, the porches - all beautiful.  I wish I could have seen the Garden District back in the 1800 and 1900's when the lots were bigger and full of lush gardens.  You can tell that a lot of the original lots have been divided and smaller houses built in between the mansions.  Still beautiful, but it would have been neat to admire in its original form.

 

Thursday Evening - French Quarter and Frenchmen Street

That night, we ventured over to the Marigny neighborhood for dinner.  We stopped in several bars along Frenchmen Street to listen to bands and had drinks at d.b.a. Then we gained the confidence to walk around the French Quarter.  We went relatively early (between 9 and 10 pm) and it was still pretty crazy. I equated it to a carnival for adults.  Nice to see, but not really our scene.   

Friday Morning - WWII Museum

 

Friday morning we woke up relatively early and spent the morning at the The National WWII Museum.  The museum is HUGE.  They show a pretty neat movie about the war with special effects (chairs shake, smoke, snow, etc.)  While I didn't like some aspects of the museum that I felt glorified aspects of the war, it was still overall very educational and worth visiting.

Friday Mid-day - Ferry to Algiers

After the museum, we rode the ferry across the Mississippi River to the residential neighborhood of Algiers so we could see the city from a different vantage point.

Friday Afternoon - Nola Brewery Tour

After grabbing a quick lunch, we headed to the Nola Brewery.  The tour was one of my favorite parts of our trip.  The peeps were cool and the beer was good.  The plant is tiny!  They literally hand fill bottles.  Neat to see an operation so small, especially after visiting St. Arnold's here in Houston and Abita (see below.)  Uh... p.s. you might see a trend in our trip. Seems that Jason has taken to craft beer recently.  A little obsessively.  Like he wants to start home brewing in our garage.  Hmmm.

Friday Evening - Dickie Brennan's

We celebrated my birthday a day early by eating a nice dinner at Dickie Brennan's.  Our favorite part of the meal was definitely the banana fosters bread pudding... delish!

Saturday Morning - Abita Mystery House

Saturday was fun.  We headed north of New Orleans, across Lake Pontchartrain (literally we drove 30 miles across the lake) to Abita Springs.  Abita Springs is a tiny little town that feels like it's in the back woods.  We visited the Abita Mystery House in the middle of town - sooo cool!  I can't even describe it's eccentric quirkiness.  Not sure what type of individual it takes to dream up and execute such an idea, but I'm glad they did.  Totally worth the $3 admission fee.

Saturday Mid-day - Abita Brewery Tour & Brew Pub

Oh look... another brewery.  Didn't I mention there was a theme to our trip?  Which I guess is fitting since people just assume you go to New Orleans to drink.  We just did so responsibly and away from the French Quarter.  Which isn't exactly what people expect.  This time we did our drinking (or tasting) at the Abita Tasting Room and Brew Pub.  Another fun tour, but overall, I liked the Nola experience better.

Saturday evening we ate dinner at Capdeville and grabbed a drink at The Bulldog.  Then, being the old fogies we are, we were in bed, watching reruns of Northern Exposure, by 8 pm.  No joke.  But just pretend I didn't tell you that.  If it makes you feel better, you can pretend we were partying it up on Bourbon Street.

Now we're back in Houston.  I'm trying to enjoy my last few hours of vacation before having to head back to reality tomorrow.  I do have to give a shout out to our dog sitter for the weekend, Nicole at Lucy Goo Pet Sitting.  She did a wonderful job watching the house and the dog while we were away.  Radar calmly greeted us when we got home, and I can tell he had a nice, content weekend while we were gone.   A much better alternative to dog kennels or boarding facilities.