So I have never been to NOLA before and so I decided to take a 4 day weekend to celebrate my 27th Birthday! It worked out really well because my friend Becca and her husband David wanted to celebrate their anniversary (that occurred earlier that month) and living in Florida meant that they were only a 5-6 hour drive away! It was about 12 hours for me but well worth the drive!
Keep on reading for my day-by-day adventures!
Day 1, October 15: Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday dear Katie, Happy Birthday to Me! I actually left Wednesday evening and stopped at Elizabeth’s for the night so that I would be able to get an earlier start the next morning. And she had graciously agreed to watch the puppy for me so that was also a great relief not having to worry about him. I was surprised with birthday presents and a Hello Kitty piñata! After getting some goodies to start the road trip (from the piñata)… I was officially on my way to NOLA! I had to decorate, of course, so I brought some signs for the hotel room and my pink happy birthday hats. The hotel was about 30 minutes outside of NOLA so we just stopped somewhere nearby for some dinner. Tomorrow would be a busy day of sightseeing and then late tomorrow night (maybe around midnight) was when Becca and David would arrive! It was just a busy/boring day of driving 12 hours, so not the most eventful birthday. But the birthday weekend was looking promising!
Day 2, October 16: Walking Around NOLA
Today was a busy day. Aside from just walking around the French Quarter, there were multiple museums and restaurants that I tried today that were a part of the French Quarter. The architecture of the buildings is very distinct, a mix between French and Spanish styles. One of the parks in the French Quarter is Jackson Square. This is where the US purchased Louisiana during the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. And what is right near Jackson Square in the French Quarter? Cafe du Monde, one of the most popular coffee shops known for its cafe au lait and beignets! Their coffee is made with chicory which makes it slightly more woody and nutty. It was good and I bought a can to take home with me. Now about the beignets! They are pieces of dough that are covered with a heaping pile of powdered sugar. They are delicious and pair perfectly with the chicory coffee! I did try Cajun and Creole food during my entire visit to NOLA. I just couldn’t get my taste buds around liking it. I think the Americanized “Cajan” foods that are sold in restaurants in the midwest are nothing compared to what actual Cajun and Creole food is like. For me, I wasn’t a fan, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to keep trying it. I was going to give it a fair chance.
I went to a few museums today. One was the Louisiana State Museum Cabildo. It’s located in Jackson Square and used to be where the home of the Spanish government in NOLA back in the day. The museum is full of the history of Louisiana and includes information, artifacts, and works about it. I also went to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, which explores the history of Southern food and drinks. It talks about different chefs in the south, different foods from beignets to jambalaya, restaurants, sugar, red beans, recipes, kitchens and just galleries of food and drink. In 2011, one magazine named one of the five greatest museums dedicated to food. The other museum that I went to today was the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. It was pretty small but talked about the history of pharmacology and is housed in the building of American’s first licensed pharmacist. There are all kinds of surgical instruments (for blood letting???), bottles filled with “drugs”, methods of administrations and even voodoo potions. Oh and there was a (non-working) soda fountain, I guess for when you came for surgery you could have a soda during it? There was also an upstairs that had some doctor’s spectacles and a scene of a doctor’s study and a sick room. Before heading back for the night, I walked Bourbon Street. This is famous for its bars and night clubs (strip clubs?). I would come back here again with Becca and David but wanted to get a (sober) view of the street at least once.
Day 3, October 17: Walking Around NOLA Again
After getting ready in the morning, Becca and David joined on the long adventure of exploring NOLA. Our first stop was the Old Ursuline Convent that is the oldest building in the Valley and a Catholic Church home to Ursuline Nuns as a convent and orphanage/school for girls. We did a tour of the inside and then it was time for breakfast at Croissant D’or Patisserie! It was a good breakfast but the line was out the door and we went early in the morning! The next stop after pastries: the Voodoo Museum. It was just a collection of items in a very small 2-3 room building. I’m not sure it was worth the hype that I had given it in my head, but I did learn that there is a difference between Voodoo and Hoodoo! Voodoo is both a religion and a practice and it comes from coastal west Africa where the idea of God is that he is detached and removed. Therefore, day to day interactions occur with Spirits. Hoodoo is American and assimilated. While slaves of African descent could have views recognized as Voodoo, Americans forbade the people to practice their heritage. So basically Hoodoo is a slightly mispronounced name of Voodoo. Essentially it’s just a mixture of various African practices of those who were living in America. For lunch, we walked around the French market. We looked at the stuff that was being sold and then we stopped in the Central Grocery and Deli (also a line out the door) to try the original Muffuletta sandwich, the home where it was invented. Basically it’s a sandwich on sesame bread. It’s made with a muffuletta olive salad (onions, giardiniera, oregano, garlic and olive oil), salami, ham, Swiss, provolone and mortadella (a type of sausage). It was an interesting sandwich to say the least. But I was hungry so I ate all of it!
After the French market and lunch, we decided to go to a distillery tour at the Old New Orleans Rum, the oldest rum distillery in the continental US! We had a tour of the distillery and learned about how they made their rum. We got to taste different things (such as 121 proof rum!) and at the end of the tour, I ended up buying the “Old New Orleans Cajun Spice Rum” that is rum with a mix of 7 spices: chicory, clove, cayenne, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon! After the tour, we headed back to the French Quarter and just walked around and looked at different things. We were all waiting for our haunted walking tour! This was my favorite part of the entire trip! A tour guide walked us around the French Quarter and gave us some history on the buildings that we saw, the haunted stories that are connected to the buildings, and different sightings that had been reported. It was fun but we had done so much walking that I was getting tired. But we weren’t close to calling it a night yet! It was time to explore the bars and clubs of Bourbon Street. It was very rowdy, and while I wasn’t really drinking (and definitely not flashing anyone), it was still a sight to see with everyone else drinking and flashing and throwing beads around. Finally it was time to call it a night. Tomorrow we head home, but we did have a few sights to see before heading out!
Day 4, October 18: Cemeteries and Mardi Gras World
The first stop we went to was the St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 and St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. They are above ground vaults because they can’t bury people in the ground because of the water levels (although there is folklore surrounding this as well). St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest and most famous Cemetery.
Mardi Gras World was pretty fun. Mardi Gras World is a working studio that is open to the public where people can see the Mardi Gras floats come to life. Apparently, they also send out other Mardi Gras parade floats to other parts of the world as well. They were all very detailed and it was fun posing with some of the different creations.
All good trips have an end, and my time in NOLA had ended. I was a fun way to spend my birthday instead of just hanging out at home. It was also fun since Becca and David got to join me on my adventures! I can’t wait to do another joint vacation!