The Rest of the Day

There was way too much to put this all in one post. After our great Garden District tour Karla and I went to lunch at the French Quarter. I had a hot tip from Beth that we needed to try the original muffuletta. I love those so I talked Karla into it which wasn't too hard. She is so up for anything. Central Grocery had a big ol' line. Out the door even but it only took about 1/2 an hour to get through it. 

 

At least there were interesting things to look at in the aisles of the store while we waited.

You fight for a seat in the back and devour lunch and make room for others.I loved the whole experience. I wrapped half the sandwich up for Mendis to enjoy as per his request. So after lunch we were ready for our next tour: the New Orlean's City Tour. Our first guide had really told us so much there wasn't much we didn't already know but it was still fun to do it.

We went to the city park which was huge and rather famous.

We drove down the trolley lines to get there and went right past a bunch more mansions along the way.

We got a closer look at the Super Dome as well.

On both tours we got to check out the famous cemeterys. They use crypts for two reasons. It was a European tradition that the original settlers brought with them and it helped with the shallow water table and flooding. While this tour's cemetery was more famous and huge we both like the first one we visited at the Garden District the best.

 

This partial column signified a death cut this life short.

So creepy looking

This was the first cemetery we went to.

We learned that the walls here even contained bodies. The Catholic church was against cremation but when bodies were laid in the crypts in these outer walls in about 3 years they were essentially cremated because of the heat here. So they would just scrape the bodies to the back where they would fall down through the opening in the back and accumulate. They just kept scraping and adding to it over the years. Family togetherness I suppose!

This day I logged about 17,000 steps because after the second tour of the day we did some shopping as well. We searched everywhere for those cookies and checked out the Pralines as well.

These were the cream of the crop and believe me Karla & I did our research!
It is such fun to wander through the French District and shop. Lots of fun stuff to look at like candy and antiques and you name it.

That night we went to a fun little restaurant all together and tried out some alligator bites for appetizers. It made my mouth tingle so I only had one piece and stopped. The fish and chips was divine though!

Alligator

 After dinner one of the wives gave us the highlights of the ghost tour they took the day before. Very fun

This restaurant always has a table for one set in the back for the man who hung himself on the balcony!

Then since we were there we thought we better go see Bourbon Street. Not our favorite. I guess you have to see it once but twenty minutes was more than enough for us. It's loud, smells bad and nothing but strip clubs and bars I think. There was wall to wall people. People even brought their kids to see it??  More in your face than Vegas and alot dirtier too. There were homeless people, drunks and dogs everywhere. Yup twenty minutes was more than enough.

The Garden District

While we walking around in the French Quarter we ran into tours companies like crazy and Karla and I knew we had to go on some but we just didn't know which ones. So I texted with Gay Nelson that night and after about 2 hours of texting and calling and arrangements we were all set. The next day we had some touring to cram in. We got up bright and early and hit the Garden District tour right off. It was a bus tour that dropped you off and the tour guide took us all around the district. It was so awesome. I love old historical homes anyway so this was right up my alley.

Our cute little tour guide. I loved her accent and her tour was great. Check out cast iron fence behind her. So interesting. She gave us all Valentines Mardi Gras beads and boxes of probably the best non homemade cookies I have ever had. It's her family's business and Karla and I spent the rest of our days searching for them to no avail :(

So back to the tour. We walked all around and saw some of the most gorgeous homes. 

Blocks and blocks of them.

 

 

 

 The sidewalks were killer, literally. The cobblestones were so lumpy and bumpy because the live oak tree roots were causing upheavals all over the place. You had to look down while you were walking. I forgot to tell Mendis that and on our last day he took quite a tumble on one.

 

 

 I was fascinated the the fences were still strung with Mardi Gras beads everywhere. It was so pretty actually. And to my credit I only took one strand!

 

 This old home housed the OPera Guild and we got a tour on the inside which was gorgeous as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tour was so great. I just loved this area. We also toured a graveyard with her and walked right past the Commander's Palace which is the best restaurant in town. It's the signature Brennen restaurant.

 Sandra Bullock's house

 John Goodman's house

 Archie Manning's house

 

 

I make no apology for all the pictures! These places were too gorgeous.

New Orleans

We had a quick trip in February to New Orleans. We were both pretty excited about it because it was someplace we had never been before, even me! We arrived just after Mardi Gras ended thank goodness. Heavens knows we would not have loved that after just 10 minutes on Bourbon St. While I had a blast running around with Karla everyday and visiting with sales people every night at dinner Mendis spent every single minute at meetings. Even dinners were business meetings for him so he barely got to see much of anything. So I felt like I had to make up for it apparently. 

 It was an amazing city and not what I expected. The view from our room took in the warehouse district.

 Coming in to the city you can see how all the highways are elevating to protect from flooding. 

Yup there's the Superdome.

 Lots of interesting art but I especially enjoyed the big billboard.

As soon as we got settled we went down the street for dinner. We had heard this was the place to eat so we thought we'd try it.

 

 Lots of people but the atmosphere was interesting for sure. Best advice I can give anyone is just go with it. It's not clean, at all so keep your eyes on the horizon and ignore the floor. The food was good but like everything else in the city very over priced. I had the famous burnt ends poboy and it was really yummy. We had to try the red beans and dirty rice to see what all the fuss was about. It was tasty but not to die for. Lacked seasoning and not spicy like we expected. That's always a plus for me though. In fact none of the Cajun food was too spicy at all.

After dinner we walked to the French Quarter to check it out.

 It really was beautiful with all the old buildings and the wrought iron work. 

I really loved it especially at twilight.

 It didn't take us long to find the world famous Cafe Du Monde known for their chicory coffee and beignets! We waited in line about an hour to get some beignets. They were so good but I thought they tasted alot like a funnel cake. Not that that's a bad thing.

I discovered another place a couple days later thanks to a hot tip by another spouse and it was absolutely phenomenal. Cafe Du Monde is a must try but then you MUST move on practically across the street to this little hidden gem.

 Now these beignets were incredible. So light ans flaky and unique. I have forever been ruined for beignets!

I took this picture so I can find this place again. Even the cross streets. Besides Nadine and Will were coming the following week and they had to know about this place for sure.