New Orleans 2012

Last Tuesday morning Scott and I got up at the crack of dawn, went to crossfit, then came home, showered and loaded up the car and headed down to New Orleans for a few days.  Scott has been before, but this was my 1st time.  When we left Little Rock the sun was shining, by the time we rolled into NOLA it was cloudy and rainy looking.

We got to NOLA about 4pm, checked into our room at the awesome Hotel Le Marais with was only 1/2 block off Bourbon, changed clothes and decided to make a trip down Bourbon (where I had my 1st ever hand grenade) before our dinner reservations at Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse.  We never spend a lot of money on a meal, but we went all out and it was worth EVERY penny.  We had the shrimp and grits appetizer, we split the bone-in ribeye and mashed potatoes.  There was NO room left for dessert.  It was one of the best meals I have ever had.  After dinner we hung out at the Cat's Meow for a bit then called it an early night.  (FYI..you know you are old when you go to New Orleans and are in bet by 10pm every night)

My 1st ever Hand Grenade

Our Awesome Hotel

Wednesday we got up early and walked around the French Quarter and the French Market before than rain started.  We even visited the famous Cafe Du Monde and had an order by Beignets.  They were good, but really just tasted like funnel cake to me.

I had been stalking the weather for a week before we left so we knew there was a HUGE chance of rain and we pack umbrellas, rain jackets, and I even took my rubber rain boots.  The rain didn't slow us down too much.  We had lunch at Felix's Restaurant and Oyster bar, relaxed in the room for a while, made a few more trips up and down Bourbon, found a bar where we liked the entertainment and hung out there until dinner.  We decided to eat dinner at Pier 424.  This was our one and only bad meal while in NOLA.  The service was terrible.  We ordered BBQ Shrimp and we seriously got 5 shrimp and a little think of garlic bread pudding.  There was sooo much BBQ on all of it that it was pretty much non-edible.  After we left we stopped and got a couple of slices of pizza and again called it a night.

The Back of St. Louis Cathedral @ Night

St. Louis Cathedral

On Thursday we woke up to heavy rain.  After breakfast we got in our car and went to the one place that was do or die on this girls list of things to do in NOLA.  We went to lululemon.  I have been needing some shorts to workout in and trainers at crossfit swear by these things.  It just so happened that they had a showroom in New Orleans and I was pumped.  I had to order stuff online with no idea how it will actually fit.  I went in thinking I was going to buy 1 pair of shorts.  I walked out with 4 pairs of shorts (2 for me and 2 for Scott).  They were a GREAT purchase.

After lululemon, we drove through the lower 9th ward.  This is something that has always interested me and I was very curious to see the homes the Brad Pitt's Make it Right Foundation had built in this area after Katrina.  We didn't spend a lot of time here, but I am soo glad I got to see it.

Once we got back to the hotel, the rain had about stopped so we walked down to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for lunch.  Later Thursday afternoon we met up with a guy I went to high school with that just happened to be in New Orleans for a couple of days.  We went back to Felix's for dinner then headed back to the room to watch the NCAA tournament.

Friday morning we packed up early and headed home.  We actually made it back in time to go to crossfit Friday afternoon.  Both of us were exhausted, but we needed to work off all of the excellent food we had eaten.

As you can tell we are terrible about taking pictures where we are actually in them and we never got a picture of us together on this vacation....MUST GET BETTER about this.