A Weekend Trip to the Big Easy

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Stepping out onto Bourbon Street you couldn’t tell that there was a pandemic going on. The street was packed and lines to get into restaurants were long. We started our trip with the jazz brunch at The Court of Two Sisters Restaurant (https://www.courtoftwosisters.com/ ). After lunch we spent some time (in a torrential downpour) exploring the shops and getting our traditional Christmas ornament souvenir and some pralines (https://leahspralines.com/). We made a pit stop at The Bombay Club (https://www.bombayclubneworleans.com/), our favorite quiet respite just off Bourbon, for drinks and snacks (the Bombay fries with malt vinegar aioli were fantastic!) For dinner we had raw and fried oysters with hurricane cocktails, and then headed off for the “5 in 1” ghost tour with Haunted History Tours (https://hauntedhistorytours.com/). Our tour guide spent a couple of hours taking us around the French Quarter, telling us ghost stories of the local haunts. This trip to New Orleans was a family trip and we did have to preface the trip with some educational information - I wasn’t prepared at how crazy Bourbon Street was at night! While I love the convenience of the location of the Royal Sonesta Hotel (Royal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans | Sonesta), getting back to our hotel room after dark was a little crazy. A hotel off of Bourbon Street would probably be better with little ones in tow.

We started out day 2 with a swamp tour. We booked Swamp Boat Adventure with Louisiana Tour Company (https://louisianaswamp.com/). It was about a 2 hour leisurely ride through the swamp area of Barataria Preserve, about a 40 minute drive from the French Quarter. We saw many alligators big and small. Our guide was feeding the gators marshmallows, and it enticed the gators over to the boat. He was very knowledgeable and had grown up in the bayou. He had a baby gator on board for everyone to hold, which delighted the kids (and adults). That night for dinner we ate at historic Tujaques (https://tujaguesrestaurant.com/) followed by some much-needed pool time to relax!

On Day 3 we had the quintessential New Orleans breakfast beignets at Café du Monde (https://shop.cafedumonde.com/). We arrived a few minutes before 8am and the line was pretty short. It seemed like everyone planned on being there at 8, because shortly after we arrived the lines became very long. There was a shorter line in the back that most people didn’t seem to know about. We decided to spend the morning riding the St Charles streetcar; it was only $1.25 person for a round-trip ride that lasted about 1.5 hours. It was a nice leisurely ride through some lovely parts of the city with many historic and beautiful homes and buildings.

Lunch at Deanie’s (https://deanies.com/) was awesome! We tried to have dinner here earlier in the week, but the line was way too long, so an early lunch worked out nicely. I had the shrimp remoulade salad and it was absolutely delicious. It came with some Cajun boiled shrimp and a white remoulade dressing. In the afternoon we went to the New Orleans school of cooking (https://neworleansschoolofcooking.com/.) Note to self: next time don’t plan on eating lunch before the cooking class... We had a wonderful time learning how to make and eat corn and crab bisque, chicken etouffeé, and pralines. The chef had a great passion for Creole and Cajun food and people, and was a wealth of knowledge. They also have a nice shop with seasonings, cookbooks and kitchen tools you can purchase after your class.

We finished the trip off with dinner at Muriel’s on Jackson Square, but we didn’t have any luck getting to sit at the ghost table we learned about on our Haunted history tour.

 

What I learned from this trip is that there are two kinds of people that visit New Orleans. The people who come here to appreciate the food, culture and music; then there are those who come here to party like it is the last night on earth.

For us it is about the food and culture, it is a great city to explore when you don’t want to travel to far but still feel like you went to another country.

 

Travel tips-

• Travel is back and restaurants and the service industry are understaffed, make reservations or be prepared to wait in line for hours to get a seat at a decent restaurant.

 

• Also get to the airport at least 2 hours early for a domestic flight. Lines are long at the ticket counter and through TSA. The TSA line at MSY was the longest I think I have ever seen. Thank goodness it seemed to move pretty quickly and it only took an hour to get through the line.

 

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