NOLA N'Awlins New Orleans

Well, after 3 lift-offs and 3 touch-downs, we finally arrived in New Orleans! It's great to have airline points, but not if they make you travel the amount of time it would take to get to Spain and back one way! Yes folks, this was one way!

We made it without crying. Barely. I cant say the same for the babies on board. Beers at every airport. This one's at "Antler's" in Dallas.

Our hotel, the Royal Sonesta, was beautiful! It was my parents 35th Anniversary, and thanks to my sister, we surprised them with champagne and flowers in the room. It was perfect! The rooms were on the exclusive 7th floor, which was great, because our hotel was situated RIGHT ON BOURBON STREET. The 7th floor was in the back and quiet. The rooms were beautiful, we had breakfast and cocktail hour, and all the staff was amazing. Oh, and a roof deck cocktail area.

             So we drank champagne, changed and went out. First my folks and sister and I walked Bourbon Street. Um, my sister even said it was the 'skanky Vegas'. Not a wonderful first impression of the city. It was gross. We got back to the hotel after about 20 minutes walk and I felt like I wanted to shower.

The hotel bar was much more pleasant. The four of us had alligator and Kobe sliders with pickled beets. And coctails. Wine and cocktails. Tyler met up with us and my folks and Jess followed a wedding out onto Bourbon Street (OMG, I cringe imagining anyone's dress dragging in that muck!). Tyler had crabcakes and we continued listening to the hotel house music, which was fabulous.

gimlet

house concoction

                                                                                       
 

NOLA --- More fabulous suggestions:

Rachel sent us this list of top hits!

Restaurants:

Coop's Place: http://www.coopsplace.net/

• best food i have ever eaten. the rabbit and sausage jambalaya is the best tasting thing that i have ever put in my mouth.
• also, convenient and located near the french quarter, so you don't have to go far to get there.

Bacchanal Wine: http://www.bacchanalwine.com/

• awesome place..super great atmosphere. it doesn't have a full menu right now, but the "badass grilled cheese" with french comte and jalapenos is literally the most badass sandwich i've had. get it with a "la fin du monde" beer and you'll be very happy.

Dante's Kitchen: http://danteskitchen.com/

• another great restaurant..it's a little fancier..you will probably need a reservation. i had the  pot likka and it was phenomenal. they have REALLY good mixed drinks. my friends took me here as a last dinner in new orleans. 

Juan's Flying Burrito: http://www.juansflyingburrito.com/

• good mexican food on magazine street. closer to the thrift store i mention below. 

Other:

St. Roch Cemetary: http://www.yelp.com/biz/st-roch-cemeteries-new-orleans

• New Orleans cemeteries are amazing. seriously, you could spend hours taking photos. this was the only one i went to, but it was worth it. super creepy and beautiful. 

Funky Monkey: http://www.yelp.com/biz/funky-monkey-new-orleans

• super cute thrift store. i didn't end up buying anything here, but they had great stuff. maybe a little pricey, but at least worth a look since you should walk down magazine street. my friends have gotten great dresses there.
• according to the reviews, people don't like it. but i had a friendly employee help me and i loved the jewelry and accessories case.

Erin Rose Bar: http://www.erinrosebar.com/index2.html

• this bar isn't spectacular or anything, but it is the only bar around the bourbon street area that is probably worth going to. locals, not stupid drunk tourists.

13 Monaghan: http://www.yelp.com/biz/13-monaghan-new-orleans

• nice place around the french quarter. we stopped in for a drink and a snack on the way to the cemetery. the tater tatchos are fucking amazing.

How long will you be there? if i think of anything else i will let you know! have fun!

Her name was NOLA, she was a showgirl

We are going to New Orleans! Big family trip. It's my parents' 35th Anniversary!

We've gotten some great suggestions! Here's from Kate Brady -

Take the street car out to the Garden District and wander around enjoying the architecture and the gardens- both are amazing. Strange as it sounds- tour one of the cemeteries! Many people warned us that they were unsafe but I did not find that to be the case.

If you are a foodie, I can offer a few suggestions of places we ate that my friend who lives in NOLA recommended to us.

Most of my consumption in New Orleans was mostly limited to 2 categories- drinks & lunch!

The places I did eat though were all fabulous- some with more local "character" than others. In the French Quarter, my friend recommend lunch at the Napoleon House. Fabulous Po'boy & I recommend the Pimms Cup to drink. Also in the Quarter is the Central Grocery which apparently is THE place to go if you are interested in the muffaletta sandwich but it did not appeal to me.

In the Garden District, my friend said the best place to get a New Orleans specialty- the Oyster Po'Boy was at Parasol's Bar. This was not a place I would have gone without her recommendation- you could have heard a pin drop when we walked in (clearly it is frequented by locals) but in the back room of the bar they make po'boys and it was crowded with locals getting their lunch.

These would me my food recommendations- mind you, the last time I was in NOLA was early 2005 so I cannot promise they are still in business or the food quality is the same! But if you are looking for some local eateries instead of just the touristy places, they were pretty good! And of course, speaking of touristy places- you have to go to Cafe du Monde!

In terms of places we went to drink- my friends' favorites were Lafitte's , Pat O'Briens & Tropical Isle in the French Quarter. We also went to Columns in the Garden District a couple of times.

Sorry- this got really long!! If you go to New Orleans , I hope you have a great time! I have fond memories of my trips there so I hope you like it too.


--Kate Brady
(edited version!)
Do you have suggestions?! 

Chocolate Doughnut Waffles!

Cold Thursday night right after a sick day. All our blankets are at the laundry for winter cleaning. What do I want for dinner? Waffles! And Tyler, like always, obliges to my cooking cravings. In return I had to boil and peel the tomatoes for backyard sauce. So I go to get the waffle maker and see the little cake maker that we use to make doughnuts. So now I want chocolate munchkins. Tyler makes them so good! What do I get? Chocolate waffle doughnuts! My husband is the most creative! And they are DELICIOUS!

Chocolate Doughnut Waffle Batter                                           We listened to the new Mastadon album - The Hunter and its awesome awesomeness. I boiled and peeled heirloom tomatoes. Tyler sang and swore. Good thing he put those paper towels down - the batter was leaky! Any excuse to use powdered sugar, right? Welcome to Tyler's test kitchen!

     Prep and cook. 
It took a few test runs to find the best cook time. Third time's the charm! Light and fluffy!

VOILA!

To-Dos

Didn't get much done last night. And there were so many best intentions! The bedroom is to be re-arranged, and a lot of prep work before then. Tell me, how do you keep the corners of your house clean? It seems that I have packed things into every corner. And I dont know where else to put the stuff besides the back of my closet - a place where no thing is found again! So more corner cleaning before the bedroom can be done. Then we have BIG plans! New carpet, new handmade headboard, new seating area. It's only been 6 years since we put the furniture in there, might as well change it now! We tried once and the slant in the room made us feel like we were in Alice in Wonderland... or in Cottage D. Hopefully we can find the right balance this time! 

In the meantime, we will think about camping, shall we? 

Fishin'

We went fishing earlier this summer. Well, we did a lot of fishing and no catching all summer. But, we did some catching when in Dennis Port, MA. Found a bait and tackle place when we were looking for the liquor store, got hooked up with some scup jigs, and guess what? Caught some scup! And an amazing view.

Best idea ever - shacking up with someone's mooring so you dont
have to paddle and fish! or worry about drifting into the reeds. 

Herring River

We paddled the ocean for about a mile from Dennis Port to Harwich, went up the Herring Pond river, swam, and ended up somewhere in Harwich which we later found out was on the cusp of the West Reservoir (already through the East part) on Bells Neck Road. We hauled out the boats in the evening, figured out we had spent 8 hours on the water and wondered how we were going to get home. A local and his bulldog pup offered us a ride (we declined once finding out his intake for the day), and told us where we were! We called a cab, I went home, picked up the car, and drove back to a freezing Tyler, mad about not having any safety equipment and oh, remembering that he had a dry well but we had nothing dry! Epic. 

Home on the Range

Cannot WAIT to get home today. Got to work super early so I could leave early. We did a deep clean of the house on Saturday, and believe it or not, we are both motivated to clean the rest of the house. Our living room looks completely different now that we got rid of the carpet and brought out cowhide in. Much more rustic, less cluttered, a relief! Pictures of that to come. We also had some sort of mind bending creative experience last night. We both came up with such great ideas for the rest of the house. So that means we are deep cleaning bedroom and rearranging furniture and making a headboard and a new lighting fixture. Making, not buying, making. It's sometimes great to had a Dad who collects stuff. We will be putting a lot of it to good work! So the transformation begins! Look for it all here! Oh, and I get to change my Mucha calendar to October! See, it's a great day!


From our walk last night (food, football, puppy!, coffee, ice cream)

Are these the most gigantic zinnias you've ever seen? That's what they are, right?
***Correction - Dinner Plate Dalhias