January - A Trip to the Big Easy

I woke up the other day, looked at my calendar and was pretty surprised to see that it was February. Surely, I thought, I mus have accidentally turned the calendar page too soon, but it was no mistake on my part. January was over, and the second month of the year had begun.

But what about January? What happened? How did I fail to write even one tiny entry for the month?

Well...the answer to the latter question is "I'm lazy." And the answer to the first query is:

We went to New Orleans!

I did not take this picture, but it was the first image that popped up in my Google search for New Orleans, and I think it's a good way to start off this picture ridden post.

We started off our journey on the coldest day of the year, January 7. Seriously...it was daaarn cold. This airplane thinks so too.

We did, after a few delays, make it to NOLA, and first thing we headed here:

No, it's not a crack house. This fine establishment is actually Vaughn's Lounge, home to the famous trumpeter Kermit Ruffins...who plays a pretty mean horn. :-)

What made it even better though, were the complimentary Red Beans and Rice that came with the show. Delicious!

Really....it was really really good. So good in fact, I made the same dish the weekend after we got back...and I'm thinking about making it again right now. Mmmm.

The next morning we walked around the French Quarter and saw the sights. This place is famous, but I'm too lazy too look up what the heck it is right now. ;-)

What's better than that though, are the SUPER YUMMY Beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Here is Daniel (a.k.a. White Beard) eating one.

They taste like a bit like funnel cakes minus the funnel part.

From there, we did some more sight seeing.

Daniel with a canon. Cool.

The Pirate Cafe! The bartender made me a wonderful Irish Coffee. She was very cool and chatted us up quite a bit.

Some more fooling around with historical statues.

For lunch, we stopped at the Central Grocery and had THE WORLD'S GREATEST SANDWICH. I do not say this lightly. It was so good my mouth waters thinking about it right now.

The Muffaletta:

Really...so good.

This was taken at a convent...but that didn't stop the Mustache from it's hijinks!

Nuns on the run to see this stache!

We saw this very cool street band as we were heading back to the hotel for the afternoon.

The dogs add to the band, I think. :-)

That night we headed over the Emeril's restaurant for our anniversary dinner. The highlight of the evening came with the Monster piece of Banana Cream Pie.

I like pie. :-)

Then we headed over to Tommy's Wine Bar for some fun live music and some delicious wine!

For lunch the next day we stopped at the Palace Cafe and had Banana's Foster. Holy Yum, it was good.

Fire!

Then we headed out to the streetcar to head up to the Art Museum. Don't let those palm trees fool you. It was freezing!

As we were waiting on the Streetcar though, we happened to notice this guy:

Yes...he is a hobo, with an umbrella hat, shouting into a bullhorn to "Repent! Repent and Be Saved!" Daniel sneakily took this picture, which made us feel a bit guilty...but the hilarity overcame our guilt and we giggled about it later. :-)

The next day we headed to the Garden District to have the famous Sunday Brunch at Commander's Palace. The food was amazing and the staff was amazingly nice, plus we got the Jazz Band to play "Kansas City" for us.

Then, after our delicious brunch, they brought out our desserts and they had totally outdone themselves.

My Strawberry Shortcake.

Daniel's Bread Pudding.

With full bellies, we headed out to explore the Garden District. We didn't get to go into the Graveyard because it was closed on Sundays, but I did get a couple of good pics from the fence.

And just a reminder....it was cold!

That night we decided to go out and party it up for real. We started out at Patty O'Brien's and had the famous Hurricane, then we went up and down Bourbon Street, which...was not the best idea I've ever had.

But I'm ending this post on a positive note and not with memories of vomiting.

So thanks New Orleans, for a great trip, awesome food, and sweet music.*

*Daniel took a ton of video, so I'll upload some of that eventually to give you a taste of it all.