The Big Easy, Trip #5 For Me

Hello there! Well, another work week has started up, after yet another weekend that just flew by. This post is going to be about the beginning of the trip that I took with mom to New Orleans and Nashville. On Sunday, 10/8, we flew to New Orleans, and even got in a few minutes early, despite the hurricane that was supposed to hit NOLA the day before, but luckily bypassed them. We got in around 3:00 p.m., and took an Uber to our hotel on Chartres Street in the French Quarter. I had never been in this hotel before, and it was quite nice, and in a good area, as far as proximity to plenty of places to walk to. 
I had made reservations at GW Fins for dinner, so my mom and I headed over there after hitting a couple of shops on the way. I had been there once before, with my husband on our honeymoon. It's a really nice restaurant, with yummy food. I ordered soft shell crab this time, and it was the very first time I've ever ordered seafood at a restaurant before! I'm obviously not very into seafood, but my meal was good, and the bread we got was quite good, too. We both had chocolate mousse for dessert, and while it was fine, it wasn't as good as my mom's! 
Monday we did a lot of shopping in the Quarter, had beignets at the famous Cafe Du Monde (they take like funnel cake!), went to Johnny's Po Boys for breakfast for my mom and an early lunch for me, and also took an Uber to Magazine Street to do some shopping there, as well, and we had a donut at Distrit Donuts, which I make sure to go to every time I'm on Magazine Street. Some of the shops were already closing up when we left there around 5:00, but we only missed one place I wanted to go to. We got an Uber back to the Quarter, and went to dinner at the French Market Restaurant, which I've eaten at a few times with Bob. My mom and I both got a salad there, and we did a little bit more shopping after dinner, and then went back to our room.
We went back to our room much earlier each night than I'm used to doing, ha! But, I didn't really mind, especially because it was CRAZY hot & humid while we there, although it did get a little better in the evenings. We also went back to the room to rest in the afternoon Monday-Wednesday, and we timed it right concidentally each time, because we missed the afternoon rain while we were in our room.
On Tuesday we went to City Park and the Sculpture Gardens and Botanical Gardens there, and we took a street car to get there. I had never been there on my previous trips, and I'm glad we checked it out this time. It's so neat to be in a beautiful, quiet area like that within such a vibrant city. 
My mom and I walked over to Frenchman street around 4:00 p.m., and grabbed some dinner there, and then went to the Spotted Cat Music Club, which is my favorite spot to watch live music. I had looked up their event calendar online ahead of time, and it said that Meschiya Lake & The Little Big Horns would be playing that evening, but unfortunately it was a different band playing. I was disappointed, in spite of this band being good, because ML & TLBH are my favorite NOLA band, and Bob and I even saw them twice on our honeymoon. Meschiya has an absolutely incredible voice. We have one of their CDs, too.

Our hotel's lovely courtyard

Cafe Du Monde Beignets

Hurricanes at our hotel bar

 

New Orleans, Part I

Hello there! So, here's my first post about our recent short and lovely trip to New Orleans. I'll posted about the rest of it in another post soon.
So, I went to New Orleans last Wednesday night with Bob, and left last Saturday morning. We were only there two full days, so the trip was a real whirlwind. Since we've been there together twice before, we knew where to go with our limited time. We left our hotel room around 10:45 pm on Wednesday, and went to Erin Rose, an Irish bar that we love. It has a dive bar feel, which we also love. We had a couple of drinks there, and split a grilled cheese sandwich. After that, we went to a bar called Boondock Saint on Bourbon Street. We try to stay off Bourbon for the most part, but that bar is decent. It's always interesting to talk to bartenders or servers in New Orleans. Most of the ones we've talked to are not from New Orleans. At Erin Rose, a guy came in with some dollar bills safety pined to his chest. It was his birthday, too (it was mine on Wednesday). We ended up finding out that in New Orleans, that's a thing; people will give you money to pin to your chest on your birthday, ha. So, someone told me I should do the same thing... and I made a whole $3. We got back to our room around 2:30 am, and so we didn't get up as early as I wanted to the next morning. 
On Thursday we started out by going to Johnny's Poboys, and then going shopping, naturally. Johnny's is my favorite spot for Poboys; they've been open since the 50's I believe, and are reasonably priced, and really good. We of course went to Trashy Diva as soon as the opened at noon, and I got two dresses I had been wanting for awhile but was waiting for my trip, and I also picked up an Erstwilder brooch I had been wanting. We went to some other stores in the Quarter, and I picked up a Hello Kitty cupcake Christmas ornament a the Christmas shop. We also walked over to where a store called Wicked used to be, but I was very disappointed it was gone. They sold Retrolicious and Folter brand there, among others, and last time I was there I bought two dresses.
We took an Uber over to Magazine Street in the Garden District in the afternoon. Magazine is one of my favorite streets in New Orleans. There's a lot of little shops and restaurants one after the other there. We went to Trashy Diva's other clothing shop location there, where I picked up another Erstwilder brooch. We ate at Juan's Flying Burrito there, which we hadn't been to before, and later we walked down to District Donuts, and I got a glazed donut there, which was SO good, and huge. We went in a few other shops, but I didn't get anything else. We also stopped by this outdoor area where an artist named Simon works on his art, and he also employs other artists who paint for him. I've bought magnets from him before, and I really love his paintings. He uses New Orleans phrases in his paintings like "Ain't nothin' a poboy can't fix" and "Laissez Les Bons Temp Roules" (English= let the good time roll). 
I posted a picture below of me next to the entranceway to his outdoor area.

Our first night there; my birthday

 

I bought this dress at Trashy Diva on Thursday

Magazine Street

Simon's art area

My haul from the Royal Steet TD

Unicorns & Rainbows

Hello there! Today Bob & I are just staying home. I'm going to work out, read, and just watch TV/relax. He's going to be doing some cooking and baking, like he always does on Sundays. Yesterday I cleaned, did laundry, worked out, read, watched TV, and met my friend for a couple of hours. We went to Marshall's & Kohl's. I didn't buy anything at either store; I didn't see anything I really liked. But, that's pretty typical for those stores. I used to buy a lot of things from both of those stores, but my style has changed considerably since then. I still do like to check out the housewares section though at both places. It's been a pretty quiet weekend, but this coming weeked Bob & I will be in Massachusetts for the New England Shake-Up. 
In the pictures below I'm wearing my Retrolicious unicorns & rainbows dress I bought in New Orleans. It's such a colourful, fun dress! It really looks like a Lisa Frank print. When I saw it in the store window, I knew I had to try it on. There was one left in my size, thankfully! The shop owner said they just got it in, but it really already almost sold out. It's really tight in the bust, and has a little room in the waist. Retrolicious uses the best fabrics. I'm always excited to see what they come out with next.

Dress: Wicked (Retrolicious)
Necklace: Modcloth
Brooch: Deer Arrow
Purse: Trashy Diva
Shoes: Shoe Bakery

~Bye bye for now!

New Orleans, Part II

Hello there! I'm so happy the weekend is here. Bob and I are going to the New England Shake-Up next weekend, and I'm pretty excited for that. We haven't gone before, and it'll be the first time we're going to a rockabilly event in the Northeast. We might get to see some beautiful foiliage on our drive up. If you didn't know, New England is famous for their foliage. The leaves haven't started changing here yet, which I'm glad about, because I'm really not looking forward to the quickly advancing advent of fall. By the way it's not fall yet, it's not until the 23rd. One of my pet peeves is people rushing the seasons!
The first picture below is just showing a typical New Orleans building. I just adore the architecture/design there. It's like no other place I've ever been. I also of course love how much colour is used on the buildings!! Many places have brightly coloured doors. There's a picture of me below in front of a bright blue door. I also really love the huge balconies. I would love to have one some day. 
It was the Southern Decadence Festival for most of the time we were there. It's a huge gay festival. We didn't see too many signs of it until Friday night, especially on Bourbon Street (which is what we figured). It was neat to see. I'm a huge supporter of LGBT. 
The last night we were there we saw a wedding parade in the street! We had never seen one there before. The last picture below is of the procession. It was really cool to see! There was a lot of dancing and music. During our trip we did see some other brides & grooms getting their pictures taken though. I can see why people would chose New Orleans to get married!

Southern Decadence

Patrick, the cat who lives at our hotel!

A Wedding Parade!