Early Friday morning, Justin and I loaded up the car and headed East on I-10. Before long, we were in Louisiana! I have never been to Louisiana so I was really excited for this trip - mostly for the food! This trip was to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary, which was on Monday.
Friday night, we began our LA experience with none other than Bourbon Street. It was wild and crazy enough for me in the "off" season; I have no desire to experience Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. We checked out a few places I was told were good by a co-worker who is from LA. We walked in and right back out of several places...
Of course I had to walk in the voo-doo store. What trip to New Orleans would be complete without it?
And we stopped in Harrah's for some gambling - my first time to do that too. Justin and I decided we would each play with $100. I got $60 in chips and sat down to play Blackjack. After losing 6 straight hands with a minimum bet of $10, I was down to $0. I decided that this wasn't any fun, so I didn't even play with my other $40. I'm such a risk-averse finance person.
Taking a seat after being in the smoky casino. I can't stand cigarette smoke - it makes me sick!
And now on to one of the best places I have ever eaten. Adolfo's is above the Apple Barrel bar on Frenchman Street. Talk about a hole in the wall. One thing that did amaze me about NO, is that almost every single place we went was cash only. Even these nice restaurants where we spent $50 - $60 a meal. In addition to Adolfo's, we ate lunch Saturday at a place called Mandina's, which we found by a fluke. It was also excellent!
We found the best music on Frenchman Street. This guy was playing at the Apple Barrel while we waited for our table upstairs. He was pretty good; reminded me of Old Crow Medicine Show.
The trumpet player at The Spotted Cat (far left on the mic) was 82 years old. We hung out here for awhile - I really liked them.
One of the many street bands; these guys were playing up the hill-billy look. I mean, c'mon, the singer/harmonica/banjo player was in a dress and hat and the celloist was barefoot and shirtless. Where else but NOLA?
Another band we heard while walking by that drew us in for a listen at a place called BMC. They were more of a funky band.
We bought day passes so we could ride the trolley's around everywhere. That's how we found Mandina's restaurant. We were riding one looking for a place to eat when before we knew it, we were really out of the tourist area. But there were several other older people who were obviously tourists still on, so I told Justin they were obviously going somewhere so we should follow them. If nothing else, when they got off the trolley, we would too so we'd be in a bigger group until we could catch a trolley back. Well, it turned out they were going to eat at Mandina's, and since we were looking for something to eat, this place looked pretty good - and it was! Apparently, it is one of the best places to eat!
For dinner Sunday night, we made reservations at NOLA, one of Emeril Lagasse's restaurants. It was delicious! I had the grilled pork chop and Justin had the duck. Bam!
And finally, I couldn't leave NOLA without stopping at Cafe du Monde and eating some beignets. So this is the last thing we did Monday morning before getting on the road back to Texas.
I can't wait to go back and eat some more!
