December 2013 - New Orleans

It's becoming an annual event where we take a long weekend in December and go somewhere fun.  This year we went to New Orleans.  I love this city!

We stayed at the historic Roosevelt Hotel (A Waldorf Astoria Hotel, thank you very much!).  It was in a great location - Right off of Canal Street one block up from the French Quarter.

The lobby of the hotel was decorated for Christmas.  It was very beautifully done.  Because it was December (and pretty cold!) there weren't that many people (as compared to say...July).  There were still quite a few, especially over the weekend.

In front of Canal Street - the widest street in America.

 

Scenes from Bourbon Street...

 

Christmas on Bourbon Street.

 This club had some interesting displays in the window...

 

Where's my drink??

First full day - heading to Jackson Square. 

St. Louis Cathedral.

  

Inside St. Louis Cathedral.  As many times as I've been to New Orleans, I don't know that I've ever been inside the cathedral.  It's beautiful.

 

Nice backdrop - St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo on the left and the Presbytere on the right.  We took the hop on/hop off tour of the city which was pretty cool.  

The tour dropped us off on Magazine Street where we found Joey K's and had our first good meal of the trip.  Shrimp Po-Boy and authentic Red Beans and Rice (with andouille sausage).

We actually went through the Garden District, which was something that I'd never done.  Next time, I'll have to do the walking tour.

For dinner that first night, we got lucky and we were able to walk in to Galatoire's.  It's been open and run by the same family since 1905.

Crabmeat Yvonne.  This was awesome!  Lump crabmeat and shrimp with mushrooms and a light wine sauce.  John had a crabmeat au gratin that was amazing!  I would highly recommend this place.  The food, the service, the atmosphere - all fantastic.

 

After another stroll down Bourbon Street (which is a great place for people watching!) we headed back to the hotel to change.

In front of our hotel.

The place was called "The Swamp".  I don't know the name of the band but they were really good.  They did covers of Prince and Morris Day and the Time.  Then he was showing the crowd how to do this dance and I wanted to get up and join but I hadn't had enough alcohol. 

The next morning was Cafe Au Lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde.  The place always has a line out the door and it's open 24/7~ except Christmas or if there's a hurricane.

Breakfast of champions!

Next we did a steamboat ride on the Mississippi.  We were rollin' on the river....

John on deck of the steamboat Natchez.  There are only two real working steamboats: this one and one that is on the Ohio River.

The tour was interesting.  The captain gave us the history of the New Orleans port as well as the history of the river.

That's a bald eagle sitting on top of that post.  I've never seen one in person before.

Fort St. Phillip.

The paddle wheel is propelled by the steam engine in the engine room on the bottom deck.  It was freezing on the top deck so the engine room was a nice place to go and get warm.

Scenes along the Mississippi.

Skyline of New Orleans from the river.

The two bridges that cross the Mississippi into New Orleans.

After the steamboat ride, we had lunch at a place called the Gumbo Shop over on St. Peter Street right next to St. Louis Cathedral.  A nice bowl of gumbo hit the spot.  In an effort to work off that gumbo, we walked over to the National World War II Museum.  The whole museum is dedicated to D-Day.

The museum was very cool.  They had room where you could listen to first hand accounts of the various stages of the war and how it affected real people.  We stayed until closing time, which was 5pm.  We could have stayed longer as there was a lot more to see.

On the way back to the room, we stopped by the restaurant that we were having dinner at that night...the legendary Antoine's.

Antoine's is the oldest family run restaurant in the US.  It was opened in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore and serves French Creole food.  For appetizer we had Escargots a la Bordelaise.  If we were ever going to try escargot again, this would be the place.  Not bad.  The girl that served them to us CLEARLY didn't like them.  She made the worst face when she placed them on the table.  The food was good but the service was rushed.  We were out of there in an hour.  That was a little disappointing.

The next day we just walked around.  I like the vibe of the quarter.  This is Pirates Alley which is a little side street that runs right next to the St. Louis Cathedral and connects Rue Chartres to Rue Royale.

Shopping on Royale we cut over to Bourbon.  Notice how clean the street is even after a night of partying the previous evening.  One of the things I like is that the city keeps the streets very clean.

This building is part of the Ritz Carlton hotel on Canal Street.  It used to be Maison Blanche, a department store founded in 1840 by Isidore Newman.  My Uncle Randy (married to my dad's sister) is a direct descendant of Isidore Newman.

On the agenda for the day is the historical cemetery tour.  We meet outside Reverend Zombie's Voodoo House.  Interesting clientele outside of tourists.

Waiting on the stoop of Pat O'Brien's for the tour to start.

This pyramid is a new addition to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.  This is where the actor Nicholas Cage will be buried WHEN he dies.  (He's not dead, yet, folks.)

 

Tomb of Marie Laveau and our tour guide, Ernie.

One of those old buildings that I'd love to go into and have a look around.  They have places to rent in the quarter.  You'd better have some cash, though.  I saw a 300 sqft apartment that was $1,500 a month.  While I think it would be cool to live there (for a short time) and soak up the experience, I don't think it would be THAT cool.

Final dinner of the evening.  The Grand Poobah of restaurants...Commander's Palace.  This place is in the Garden District so we took a cab.  It doesn't look like much from outside but those looks are deceiving.

Classic drinks.  I got a side car - which was really good!  John got a Manhattan.  Commander's Palace is where a lot of the famous chef's from New Orleans got their start.  Paul Prudhomme and Emeril both started here.

 

I got a scallop dish and John got a stuffed flounder.  Both of them were absolutely fantastic.  I think this was, hands down, the best meal we had in New Orleans.  I would go back there anytime.  We made our reservations about two months ago and we still couldn't get the time we wanted~ the place was packed!

We had an amazing time.  New Orleans is a wonderful city.  We ate delicious food and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in a city that's got soul.  I love the laid back attitude and the overall friendliness of New Orleans and I hope to go back again and again.