New Orleans

Doing a photo dump of our recent trip to New Orleans. I didn't call it a vacation because technically it wasn't. Bimmer Man was racing and neither of us had been there before. I wanted to go too! Race weekend is not a bunch of excursions to wherever city we're in - it's literally just hanging out at the racetrack, watching the race monitors, helping with pit stops, watching other teams, and gathering food for the team. It's really not a vacation - but it is really fun work! 

We decided to stay for an extra day and a half to explore the city and eat all the food. It was...somewhat disappointing - in part because there was a huge parade during the weekend and it was so busy that the amount of people buying things had emptied our restaurants and most were closed because they had no more food and needed to restock. We tried Verti Mart for muffalettas and no bread. We tried several restaurants and no stock in beer or food. So yeah...that's New Orleans on the day after a huge Mardi Gras parade for ya. The best food we had was tacos from Val's (not in the French Quarter by the way). That was AMAZING and I would go back for those tacos in an instant. French Truck Coffee had really good coffee and tea. I went there twice because it was so good. 

The architecture was really interesting! I enjoyed looking at all the balconies and the windows and all the flower boxes that people had put together. The streets are all narrow and small - the French Quarter was extremely easy to navigate.

Lots of buildings had the old gas light lanterns and most of them still used gas! I thought they were so pretty at night and what a fantastic way to see the past in action.

We didn't do any tours - but we did see many people taking walking tours. This is the LaLaurie house and is supposedly haunted. Madam LaLaurie tortured her servants (well, slaves, really, let's not beat around the bush with this). She was an awful human being to these poor people. Nicolas Cage apparently owned this house for a bit and only spent one night in it because of the haunting. This story is also the setting for a season of American Horror Story. The house itself is kitty corner from Verti Mart and it's a beautiful home. If there were tours, I would definitely have taken one of the inside to see the architecture and how the families would have decorated these home in the past. 

We're still in the middle of a pandemic and one person that we were with is very germ-conscious so we decided to find a restaurant/bar with a courtyard instead of sitting inside. As it turns out, we liked this one so much that we came here twice. The cocktails were delicious and the courtyard was so cute. 

New Orleans' streets are not so well marked and that's because the old street signs are on the ground! There are new ones but I became used to checking out the corners signs on the sidewalk instead. The tiles are absolutely gorgeous - I noticed many of them in disrepair and I really hope that the City of New Orleans will take the time to have them replicated as closely as possible and do a restoration of what they can. 

Small sidewalks, skinny streets. 

One of the oldest cemetaries in NOLA - they were supposed to be open to the public but they were closed. I read they closed the cemetaries off to the public because of the desecration and graffiti and whatnot to the graves and tombs. They were so interesting to see because in NOLA you can't actually bury a body in the ground. 

On the way to the airport we did see a more modern cemetery - those were above ground also and much larger than the small original cemeteries in the French Quarter. 

Still, they have "weeds" growing in the cracks just like any other city. I saw this and thought it was really pretty. 

Riverboats and cargo ships. Downtown is off to the right and so is the French Quarter - in reference - Cafe du Monde is behind me. 

Overall it was a pretty good trip! I think I wouldn't go so close to Mardi Gras and I for sure would go when it's warmer - like later in Spring or mid-Fall. The flowers and plants and trees were still in their winter hibernation so it wasn't as pretty and colorful as you might think but the sunshine still felt really good! I think next time I would stay in a different neighborhood and take the trolley to see more parks. And definitely go to restaurants when they have food in stock!

-Patty