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

 

Shore Getaway

Hello there! Last weekend Bob and I went to Wildwood & Cape May. I had never been before, and he had only been once a long time ago. We had a really good time. The weather was in the low 70's during the day and very sunny all weekend long. We got down there Friday around 4:30 p.m., and left Monday morning. 
We stayed at a 1950's motel called the Caribbean Motel. Wildwood actually has the largest amount of 1950's motels in the country, some still operational. There are so many neat neon signs still there, and I got a lot of pictures of them. Our motel room had Heywood Wakefield furniture in it! I wanted to take it all home with me! I loved our room. It had vintage reproduction midcentury modern lamps, too. The motel had a nice heated pool too, which I swam in on Sunday for a bit. 
On Friday night we walked about a mile to grab dinner at an Irish pub called Cattle N Clover. We weren't too impressed with the food, especially not our appetizer of mozarella sticks, and it's hard to mess up mozarella sticks! After we were done with dinner, we walked back to our motel, hung out there for a bit, and then got an Uber to North Wildwood, where we got dropped up at another Irish pub. We had a drink there, and then walked around the area to check it out. We sat at another outdoor bar and had a couple of drinks, and then got an Uber back to our motel. 
On Saturday morning we headed to Cape May, which is about fifteen minutes south. I loved Cape May! It's such an adorable little town. There are colorful Victorian homes all over, which is one of the big things CM is known for. We went to a few antique shops, and other shops, and I got a few small things. We also had an early lunch at a place called Dock Mike's Pancake House, which was really busy, and we had to wait about half an hour for a table. The food was decent there. 
After we were done shopping, we headed back to Wilwood to go to the beach. We weren't sure how far we'd be able to go into the water, because of how cold we'd be. The water temperature was the same as the air temperature! We did go in, but I didn't submerge completly, although Bob did. It was really nice to get to go in though, and to lay on the beach and listen to the water. I love that sound. 
After we left the beach, we went back to our room, and got ready to go out for dinner. We walked to a place on the boardwalk called Doo Wop Diner. It actually is rated the #1 place on Trip Advisor to eat in Wildwood. It's a 50's style diner, with 50s's style tables and vinyl booths, and the waitresses even wear poodle skirts. Our waitress was really sweet. I just got a tuna wrap there, and it wad fine. It's hard to mess that dish up! 
That's enough for now; I'll write more about the rest of the trip in another blog post!

Bought this cute Swedish tray at the Scandinavian shop in Cape May

Southern Road Trip, Part II

Hello there! So, this post is about the second half of my recent southern vacation. We left Charleston on a Tuesday morning, and stayed in Savannah through Friday morning. It rained less in Savannah, which was definitely a plus. But, it was EXTREMLY hot and humid every day. It's the humidity that kills you. Regardless of that, Savannah was our favorite stop for the trip. There are tons of Irish, Scottish, and English pubs there, and we both love those pubs. We like casual atmospheres, and we usually will just sit at the bar, and order our meals from the bartender. So, we liked the restaurant options a lot better in Savannah than Charleston. 
I also liked the shops better there. I found some great things, like Pyrex dish towels, some lovely antiques (salt and pepper shaker, snack bowl, and a bowl with cherries painted on it), a vintage reproduction tablecloth, and cute potholders. We went in a few antique shops there, but the place whiere I got all the kitchen antiques was from an antique mall called Picker Joe's. I read about in Miss Victory Violet's blog post about when she visited Savannah. Otherwise, I wouldn't have heard of it! Their prices were very reasonable, too. 
We checked out a few bookstores there too, and I picked up a book on sale. I go to the library in my town, so I don't like to spend money on books, and rarely do. One of the bookstores had two kitties sleeping in it! They looked like they were Maine Coons, which is my favorite cat breed. I posted a picture below of the gray one. I had a gray Maine Coon, who ran away a year ago. She lived with my parents, not with me, but I probably paid more attention to her when I was over there, than they did living with her, ha. I just think they are the most beautiful cats, and they are also one of the most intelligent breeds.
The riverwalk is really neat too; it's a street that has a lot of little shops and restaurants and bars right along the river, so on the other side of the street is a sidewalk and the river.  We went to a rooftop bar for a drink one night, which overlooks the river. 
Right by our hotel was a very famous ice cream shop; it's 100 years old. It's called Leopold's Ice Cream. The lines are crazy there! They go out onto the sidewalk. We went there twice. 
I was disappointed that every ice cream place we checked out on our trip didn't have cookie dough ice cream, which is my favorite flavor. So, I just got vanilla ice cream at Leopold's.
It was good of course, but I wish they had cookie dough or birthday cake, which one of their menus said birthday cake was coming in August, ha. So, we just missed it.
On our way home, we stopped in Raleigh, and stayed there for a night. We got there around 3:00 p.m. So, after we checked into our room, we went walking. We were staying on a street that had a few restaurants and bars very close to our hotel, which was great. Of course, we found an Irish restaurant right away, ha. We went there for a couple of drinks, and then we walked to Raleigh Beer Garden, which has more beers on tap than anywhere else in the world (350)! I don't drink beer, but my husband does. We sat outside there for awhile (there's a lot of outdoor seating), and the weather had cooled off a bit by then, so that was nice. Some people had dogs with them, and one was SO adorable that I had to go over, and ask to pet it. It was a two month old puppy mixed breed that the woman had adopted for a shelter. I also asked to pet another one; a 150 lb Great Dane! I can't wait to have my own dog someday (when we have a house). 
We ended up walking back to the Irish restaurant for a last drink, and shared some chicken fingers there. We went back to our room after that, and left for home the next morning. 
We had a great time on the trip, but I wouldn't go back down there in the summer, ha! I'd go back to Savannah, but the other places I probably wouldn't.  

Our hotel in Savannah

Fireplace in our hotel room in Savannah

 

The Irish restaurant in Raleigh

Raleigh

Raleigh

On the drive to Raleigh, at a rest stop