Adventure in the Big Easy!

My parents, one of my sisters, and I randomly planned a weekend getaway to New Orleans! None of us had really done New Orleans before, so it was a great adventure! Before work on Friday, I hefted my suitcase out to my car so that I could go straight to my parents' house right after work. Everything went as planned, we boarded our flight, and off we went on our grand adventure! We had a layover in Salt Lake City, where we met up with Diane and all flew together the rest of the way. We landed in New Orleans about midnight local time and took a taxi to the Saint James Hotel. Since we landed in the Louis Armstrong airport (and because he was awesome), we had to take this picture.

Our hotel was nice and I thought the "Do Not Disturb" sign was very cute!

Here was the pretty sitting area in the lobby. Fancy, eh? Just stay tuned for a small "adventure" that took place at the hands of this hotel. :/

Anyhow, we didn't really have much trouble falling asleep because it was late and traveling is exhausting. We woke up early the next morning and my parents went to a presentation thing while Diane and I explored the French Quarter a little bit. We did some shopping and browsing. We discovered that Pralines are a big deal in New Orleans and that the main souvenirs are Mardi Gras masks and alligator heads. They also love their beignets. This has been an exceptionally stressful year at work and, don't get me wrong, I love teaching, my coworkers feel like family, my boss is phenomenal, and I love working with my students, but sometimes the burdens and extra responsibilities just stack up and you don't really even know what to do with yourself, As my sister and I walked along the streets of the French Quarter, I just felt peaceful. The weather was perfect, the streets were bustling, but not overly crowded, live jazz music roared from sidewalk cafés, and I was just there, in the moment, spending time with my family in a city that was completely new and fresh for me. When I returned to work, one of my co-workers asked me how the trip was and all I could think to tell her was that I felt like I had found my smile, and I honestly meant that.

Diane and I explored the beautiful St. Louis Cathedral.

Then, as we passed by Café Du Monde, we saw that the line stretched way down the street, so we opted to find the "to-go" line instead and just ate beignets as we walked. They are just basically little square donuts with some powdered sugar in them. They were good, but they weren't to die for. However, when in Rome... so if you're in New Orleans, they are a must-try just for the cultural aspect.

Next, it was lunch time, so we picked one of the little sidewalk cafés and ordered our food. One of my work friends had told me that I had to try a Shrimp Po Boy and I was hesitant because I'm not really a big seafood person, but as I said before, "When in Rome...!" So, I went for it and did not regret it. It was actually pretty good! It's just a shrimp sandwich and it doesn't look like much, but fresh shrimp is truly delicious. 

While we were there, we enjoyed some live jazz and it was awesome!

When we were finishing our meal, we realized that it was getting close to time for our parents to join us, so we ordered them some food and they came and ate with us. We were glad they were able to make it because that café is seriously exactly what I had envisioned when I thought about New Orleans.

 

After lunch, we had a little more time to explore before meeting up with our guide for our French Quarter walking tour. Here's a pretty statue of Joan of Arc that was gifted to New Orleans by the French.

Just some fun around town!

Once our tour started, our guide took us all over the place. We were able to visit St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, which is New Orleans' oldest cemetery, started in 1789. The above ground tombs and their burial customs (even their modern customs) are extremely different than those in California and anyplace else I've ever been. However, their burial practices are definitely reflective of their needs due to climate and limited space. Marie Laveau, who is called the Voodoo Queen, is buried here. Here's her tomb, along with a little info about her.

Among all of the old tombs, you'll find one that just doesn't seem to fit.

This pyramid is Nicholas Cage's tomb. When he dies, this is where he will be buried. Our tour guide told us that he had made some mistakes that angered the spirits and that a curse was upon him. Shorty after his mistakes, his career started tanking and he was trying to figure out how to fix it. He was told that to undo the curse, he had to build his tomb close to the VooDoo Queen, so he was able to purchase a space here, in the same cemetery as Marie Laveau, to reverse the curse. Fast forward a couple of days, we were taking a ghost tour of New Orleans and our tour took us to Madame Lalaurie's house where she had done horrible things to her slaves...like human experimentation. She had tortured them, performed surgeries where she would take limbs, etc. from other slaves and attach them to another's body, murder...pretty much anything that is too terrible to imagine. The rotting corpses and still-living people were found in her home during a party in which a fire broke out and her guests were trying to clear the building. Awful. Our guide told us that one night, several years ago, he was giving the same tour he was giving us and when he told this story, the man looked shaken and asked, "Are you talking out that house? That's MY house." That man was Nicholas Cage and this is how he angered the spirits. Crazy, no?

Anyways, back to the French Quarter Walking Tour.

We also visited Congo Square (located inside Louis Armstrong Park), where jazz originated. The sign says it all, so I'll just include the picture of the sign. It's actually pretty interesting!

The building behind Congo Square was heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina and has not been repaired or reopened. Sad.

Just down the street, we visited Marie Laveau's home. People around here started to believe that the Voodoo Queen could be in more than one place at a time and this belief mystified people and gave her more credibility. In reality, this is what was happening. Maire Laveau always wore a head wrap tied in  a very distinctive way. She had children and taught them all to do this, just like her. One of her daughters looked just like her and so people would mistake her for her mother. Therefore, people would gossip and mention that they had run into Marie Laveau one place, while another person would claim to have seen her someplace on the other side of town at the very same time, and the legend grew from there.

Marie Laveau and her kids lived on this site between 1839 and 1895 before the existing house was built there around 1905.

This is where Tennessee Williams lived when he wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire".

We also visited several other sites and heard lots of cool stories! We visited the St. Louis Cathedral on the tour and hear some of the history, which was nice.

Just some pretty architecture we came across on our tour.

After the tour concluded, we went to Bourbon Street for dinner. Honestly, this was probably my least favorite meal of the entire trip and Bourbon Street is kinda gross. We saw everything from topless women getting paid to pose in pictures with people (fortunately we were behind them so we only saw bare backs, but still...no bueno) to people standing up on a balcony, pouring beer down tho the street, where a guy was standing, trying to catch it in his mouth, while lots of people cheered. The souvenirs in the stores were a bit more raunchy and it was, all-around, my least favorite part of the trip. 

Once we were done with dinner and our walk down Bourbon Street, we went back to our hotel, stopping at more normal souvenir shops. I bought a Christmas ornament (as per my tradition) and a few other souvenirs for myself and others. 

Once we got back to the hotel, we relaxed for a bit and then called it a night.

The next day, we got up pretty early and were picked up from our hotel by a tour bus, which would be taking us on our adventure for the day! When we decided to go to New Orleans, we knew that we would definitely have to tour a plantation and a swamp. There were several options, but we chose to visit Oak Alley, which was an excellent choice! So beautiful!

It's called Oak Alley because of the oak tree lined pathway leading to the mansion. It was more strikingly beautiful in person and you could tell that the trees had been there for a long time! In fact, the oak trees were there before the house was built. Their branches are uniquely formed and jet out in all directions. Very cool to look at!

This is the other side of the house. Up by the door, they were selling mint juleps and they actually had non-alcoholic ones! I was so excited to be able to try a real southern mint julep since the only ones I've ever had were from Disneyland or homemade. It was delish!

The tour of the mansion was really cool and the house has a lot of interesting history! The plantation predates the Civil War, so I know that it saw some very tumultuous times, but all of that fascinates me so much! It wasn't damaged at all during the Civil War, but the economic downturn meant that its original owners had to auction it off. Many years and several owners down the line, the house was abandoned and cows got it in and lived there for a long time. Consequently, when the house changed hands for the last time, it had to undergo major restorations. Fortunately, they did their research and did a great job at restoring it to its former glory!

At the end of the tour, we got to go out on the main gallery in the back of the house, overlooking the oak-lined pathway.
Side note: we discovered that they take the distinction between gallery and balcony very seriously in New Orleans! A balcony is a narrow platform that comes off of a wall or building and does not have supports (pillars/columns, etc.) beneath it. A gallery, however, is wider, like a sidewalk, and has pillars or columns to support it).
Anyways, in the middle of the tour, they take you up to the second floor and then open the doors to show you the most breathtaking view!

After you take whatever pictures you want, they continue the tour. The whole thing was really cool. I could seriously spend so much time writing about all of the cool stuff they told us, but don't worry, I won't! ;) After the plantation tour, we got ate lunch and then got back on the bus and were driven to a random parking lot where we transferred to a different tour bus. Our driver was hilarious and it was a pleasant ride to the swamp. We got on the boat and started the tour. At first, he was just telling us about the river and not really getting into the swampy area, so we started getting a little concerned that this was not the tour we wanted, but then he turned a corner and it got real! We started seeing little gators and we stopped so we could get a view of them. Our guide threw some marshmallows into the water to attract them so we could get a really good look.









In the middle of our tour, our guide busted out a baby alligator and had us all take turns holding it and passing it around the boat. This little guy was super mellow. I was surprised that his skin was so soft. It felt a little bit wet, not wet in the sense that it had been in the water, but just a cold moist feeling. Each time we passed it to a new person, the alligator would have to find its equilibrium, so it would squirm just enough to get back into balance and then it was super calm again. He really even seemed to be enjoying being petted and all of that. He was a trooper, for sure!

Who knew that swamp land could be so beautiful? And it was even more beautiful in person!


After we finished the tour, we got dropped off back at our hotel. We went up to our room for just a few minutes to grab our sweaters since we would be out late that night. Remember how I said that I had purchased some souvenirs yesterday? Well, we put all of our souvenirs in the bags on the desk and I noticed that my bag was missing. So, we double checked the room, but I knew where I had left it. Mom and I went downstairs to ask the front desk about it. We knew that it had been lost at the hands of housekeeping. It was up on the desk amidst a bunch of other souvenir bags, none of which had been touched, and it was clearly NOT a trash bag. I asked about it and told them all of the things that were missing and they gave me the runaround. They told me they'd get someone out there from housekeeping right away, but we stood there for a long time. Then, they started acting weird, disappearing into the back room and whispering things to each other. They knew that they had done something wrong and they hoped that if they stalled long enough, I would go away. However, I told them that if they didn't produce my items that I would need to be reimbursed for them. I also told them that I would go ahead and call the police to file a report. When I said that, they got really uncomfortable, and magically, my souvenirs were brought to me in gift bags. They told me that I had thrown all of it in the trash and that they had so graciously saved it for me and put it in nice bags. However, I knew as well as they did that this was a lie. The whole situation was ridiculous, but I am grateful I got my stuff back. Nonetheless, I do not recommend staying in the St. James Hotel in New Orleans...don't do it!

After I had retrieved my stolen items, we walked down to the French Quarter to grab some dinner and then meet up for our ghost tour. However, during dinner, like 45 minutes before the tour was supposed to start, we got a text saying that it was cancelled. That sucked. Fortunately, the French Quarter is set up to accommodate tourists and they have offices where you can book tours all over the place. So, Diane ran in and got us booked into a different tour that was most likely more what we actually wanted than the original one. This meant, however, that we had a bit more time to kill, so we decided to go for a walk. We noticed that Café DuMonde didn't have a long line for the first time since we'd been there, so we decided to go in and have a seat and order some fresh beignets. Like my first impression of them, they were good, but nothing major.



After this, we went on our ghost tour! We walked all over the place and heard some crazy stuff, but we loved it! The house below was the most memorable. It is the LaLaurie Mansion that I mentioned earlier. I cannot even begin to imagine the horrors those walls have witnessed. It was fascinating to hear the history, but disgusting that someone could do such horrible things to people. Very sad.

After this, we headed back to the room for the night. It was a great day!

The next day was our tour of the Garden District. We met up with our group on the banks of the Mississippi and it was beautiful!

We boarded a bus and rode to the Garden District, where we got out and began the walking tour. We saw lots of beautiful architecture and homes of many celebrities, like Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Ann Rice, Eli and Peyton Manning's parents, and a bunch of others. However, it's not the celeb status that makes it so cool. The beautiful architecture and history are really what makes it stand out. Our tour guide told us that this is the "family" section, or more tame section, of New Orleans. It definitely seems more family friendly than the French Quarter! After seeing the outside of lots of pretty houses, we actually got to go in one of them! This is the Women's Guild of the New Orleans Opera Association house. It looks like a doll house!

Check out the beautiful interior!













It was a gorgeous house!

Look at the cool detail on this fence! Our tour guide told us that the woman of the house looked through the catalog and selected the most expensive fencing to show-off their money.

We also went to another old cemetery and saw more above-ground tombs.


This is Sandra Bullock's house in the Garden District.


This is the house Eli and Peyton Manning grew up in and their parents still live there. The tour guide told us that they're the nicest people and, sometimes, they actually come out and greet the people on the tour.

This is the house Jefferson Davis lived in and it is where he died in 1889.


After this, we went to a little snack shop and got some lemonade and then boarded the bus to go back to the French Quarter. Once we got back, we grabbed some lunch and even tried out alligator poppers. They weren't too bad!

Next, we headed back to the hotel to get our stuff and then took a taxi to the airport. The airport had really comfy lounge chairs! It was awesome!


Our flight home went exactly as scheduled, which is something that seems to be a rare occurrence these days. I got some amazing sleep on the plane ride home and arrived around midnight...just in time to get a few hours of sleep before going to work the next day! It was an awesome adventure and I'm so happy that I had the opportunity to go!