Travel

Our first visit to New Orleans was a few weeks back. We spent an afternoon there, and to be honest, we were a little let down. We explored the French quarter on a cold, windy afternoon. There weren’t a ton of people out and about because of the weather, and the streets we were walking down had an eerie feel. We still had a good time wandering around and being together as a family, it just wasn’t exactly the New Orleans experience I was expecting.

The one area we did enjoy was Jackson Square. Kiddie corner to Jackson square we found the highlight of the afternoon, the beignets! We got them at Cafe du Monde, a French cafe that’s so aesthetically pleasing–it looks like a French cafe from the 1860’s. And they really were so delicious! But there should be more to a city than adorable rectangle shaped pastries, right??

Although we were a bit disappointed with New Orleans our first visit, the beignets were good enough that we went back, along with the promise of parts of the city we hadn’t yet explored! And I’m so glad we did. We saw so much more of the city, and the family friendly parts, when we visited the second time. And I’m hooked on New Orleans now.

Check out our second and 10x better experience in New Orleans HERE.

We visited New Orleans for our second time (more on our first time later) this past weekend! We ate a LOT of good food, and saw some neat sites as well. New Orleans is super hot and humid during the summer so we tried to limit our time outside to shorter spurts so we didn’t burn our little ones, so we did a lot of fun air conditioned things.

We stayed with some of our good friends from work at an adorable little Air Bnb in mid-city, with a bright outside (like so many of the homes in New Orleans), an interesting layout inside, and vintage decorations. The little mini vacation was gifted to us by Nick’s co-workers, which was so so sweet. It was a much needed and much appreciated little getaway.

The first evening we arrived just in time for a late dinner. We went to Ye Old College Inn for dinner. It was tasty and had a fun Cajun vibe to it. We ordered the veal which had really good reviews online, and as an appetizer got the crawfish nachos! I wish I had a picture, because they were both good, especially the crawfish nachos! But they were so good they were gobbled up instead of photographed, ha.

The next day we headed to Elizabeth’s for brunch. We had been here once before and it is my favorite place I’ve eaten at in New Orleans! The vibe is amazing and very New Orleans, and the food is Southern, flavorful and fun. On this visit to Elizabeth’s I ordered the bananas foster french toast and Nick ordered the chicken and waffles. And as an appetizer we got the praline bacon, something they are famous for! It’s bacon cooked with brown sugar and/or syrup on it and maybe the tiniest bit of black pepper (?) and it is SO good.

After Elizabeth’s we headed over to the Garden District to attempt to walk off our brunch. The Garden District is full of gorgeous old historic homes and lots of lush greenery and flowers. We walked through the Lafayette No. 1 Cemetery while there, and it was so neat. It was full of super old tombs, most from the 1700’s and 1800’s. The tombs were upright rather than underground and were each a piece of art. I loved how individualized they are, such a special way to commemorate the dead with a personalized tribute to them. Although everything in Louisiana is covered in greenery, this cemetery seemed especially so. It was stunning.

After we finished in the Garden District we headed over by the Mississippi River, to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. We saw fish, sea otters, sting rays, sharks and more. My favorite part was a portion of the aquarium devoted to the marine life in the Louisiana swamp area. They had alligator and fish exhibits, and then a separate play area with fake boats that kids could play in (which Jay loved!).

Following the aquarium, we went to try to find the “Before I Die” Wall, an outdoor art installation, done by Candy Chang in New Orleans back in 2011, but we couldn’t find it anywhere! I was bummed, I’ve been dying to go there for years ever since I learned about it in my Contemporary Art class. I think they might have painted over it, but let me know if you’ve heard otherwise!

It was an art exhibit created on a home that was ruined in Hurricane Katrina. Candy Chang painted a wall with chalk paint and then painted on the words “Before I die,” with a bunch of blank spaces for people to fill in the blanks with their response (in chalk). I think it’s such a thought provoking and tender question, especially for the people of New Orleans to have contemplated after suffering such devastation in Hurricane Katrina.

This is not my photograph (obviously, because we didn’t find it) but this is what it would’ve looked like.

The final thing we did was visit Sucre, a bakery and gelato shop. It had life changing macarons and gelato. We didn’t try the eclairs, but I’ve heard they’re award winning too. Once again no picture because they were gobbled too fast.

All in all it was a great weekend! I’m so looking forward to a few more visits in the next couple months while we are in the area. Let me know if you know of any more places we need to visit!