NOLA

My first trip to New Orleans was last year, Spring Break, with my sister-in-law, Aubrey. Ever since then, I've wanted to go back, and to show Casey this amazing city.  My wonderful mom-in-law, Cindy and her fantastic friend, Brenda, took care of our kiddos while Casey and I got some awesome quality time together. And ate our way through the city. It was a great little vacation. 

We flew Spirit, something Casey wanted to try after listening to a Planet Money podcast about it. It was cheap and easy.

 

 Initially, Casey was a little underwhelmed about NOLA, but he was excited about the 5th Circuit Court. Unfortunately, it wasn't in session...but just seeing it got three "Wow!"s from Casey which was really funny. #lawnerd

We were there Saturday afternoon through Tuesday morning, so we made the obligatory trip down Bourbon Street. That was definitely the lo-light of the trip. Trashy, in every way. But the rest of the trip was really nice.

 We stayed in a pretty little hotel in the Central Business District. It was a good home base, and a quiet place to relax after the craziness of Bourbon Street.

 We had breakfast, twice, at the Ruby Slipper. Huge biscuits and delicious French toast. Totally recommend. It was Casey's favorite meal of the trip. Any time I get to eat a biscuit the size of my face, I'm happy. ;)

 Sunday morning after breakfast, we road the St. Charles streetcar into the Garden District, which Casey thought was cool. Unfortunately, it's really slow and made us late for our walking tour. We almost missed it!

 Thankfully, we caught up with them and toured the Lafayette cemetery and the Garden District.

 

It was a little warm, but I loved the architecture and atmosphere, and of course, the history. Few places I've visited seem to have so many stories to tell. 

  

After the tour, we walked down Magazine street and had some very fresh fried oyster and shrimp po-boys.  Yum.

But, my favorite meal of the trip was dinner was at Luke's.

 Oh, the oysters. Casey, with our 1st two dozen oysters. So good...and only 50 cents an oyster!

 So we ordered another two dozen. New Orleans is not about restraint! Plus raw oysters were one of those things I couldn't have while pregnant, so I had some catching up to do. I had pate, too...another pregnant no-no. So enjoying NOT being pregnant anymore! I did have to pump semi-constantly, which was a definite drag, but a necessary evil.

My first bloody mary, with bacon vodka and bacon garnish. Nothing wrong with that! Jimmy J's also has, oddly, great oatmeal. A little something nutritious to balance out the booze, right?

 After that, Monday morning, we wandered around the quarter, doing a little shopping and sight-seeing.

 I posed for the same picture last trip. I was skinnier then :( But we'll get there. Happy to be back in NOLA, nonetheless.

 The last dinner was a fancy one, at Restaurant R'evolution. Don't ask about the apostrophe. No idea why. Casey had gumbo and bread pudding each night and french toast each morning. They definitely had the best gumbo of the trip.

 And delicious baked oysters. And dreamy peanut butter ice-cream. Yum.

 Afterward, we rolled ourselves across the street to listen to some jazz in the Music Legend's garden. It was fun.

 The last thing we did Tuesday morning was visit the National WWII museum. I mostly went because I figured Casey would like it...but I kinda loved it. The museum is entirely focused on the American perspective, which was a little disappointing at first, but it had such a wonderful mixture of deep, personal recollection of veterans, authentic items like uniforms, ration packs, etc and large scale exhibits that gave you a larger over-view of D-Day and the Pacific fronts. It was very thought-provoking, the amount of passion and genius and sacrifice of the war. It certainly made history come to life.

 And they had huge real planes...and you could get on this narrow, terrifying catwalk and look down at them. Cool, but scary.

By then, we were ready to come home to our cuties.

Love them.