Day 1
- Arrive & take the E-2 bus and Uber to our Magical Art House AirBNB in the Bywater.
- Eat at Coop’s Place in the French Quarter for “New Orleans food.” Food was okay, we got the taster plate, the bartender was also kind of a jerk.
- First time to Café du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets [tally: 6 beignets]
- Vaughan’s Lounge for a live band and costumed Twelfth Night party (Jan 6) the start of the Carnival season. This was really fun.
Day 2
- Breakfast at Mister Gregory’s, delicious Louisiana sausage breakfast sandwich
- Voodoo Tour by Free Tours on Foot, excellent tour with a pay-what-you-can model (see more here)
- Explore the French Quarter
- Happy hour at Lüke, 75 cent oysters and half off drinks (fell in love with The Sazerac)
- More beignets at Café du Monde [tally: 9 beignets]
- Tourist alert: hurricane rum drinks and dueling pianos at Pat O’Brien’s
- Zydeco night (Thursdays) at Rock ‘n’ Bowl, weren’t super into this, it’s kind of like repetitive contra dancing
- Frenchmen Street where we saw the Young Fellaz Brass Band play on the street corner (before the police arrested the man selling delicious food from his truck…). Best music of the whole trip, all of the musicians are young folks.
Day 3
- Rent a car at Budget
- Jean Lafitte Swamp Tour which we had a Groupon for (see more here), they also do pickups if you don’t want to rent a car, we got to see alligators and turtles and birds and see the canals and bayous we wouldn’t get to see by food.
- Visit the House of Dance and Feathers in the 9th Ward (see more here), we might have liked it better if we knew more of the history and what questions to ask. The museum is Mr. Lewis sitting in his shed with photos and memorabilia scattered all over the place, so it’s interesting just to talk to him.
- Wine, cheese and music at Bacchanal Wine Bar. You walk into the store, buy a bottle of wine and some cheese, they’ll plate the cheese for you and you walk into the courtyard with your wine and listen to live music, every night.
Day 4
- Coffee at Hey! Café
- Explore the Garden District
- Take the Canal Street Streetcar to City Park
- Beignets at Morning Call Coffee Stand [tally: 15 beignets]
- Eat amazing ribs at The Joint
- Spend the evening gawking at drunk people on Bourbon Street and walking around the bars & music on Frenchmen Street
- Delicious local hot links and alligator sausage at Dat Dog on Frenchmen
Day 5
- Brunch at Satsuma, eh, just a normal brunch place it was close to our house
- Second Line Parade, amazing! Find weekly schedules on WWOZ website (see more here)
- Boiled spicy crawfish at Cajun Seafood, for a first timer 1lb was enough
- Hot 8 Brass Band (Sundays) at “The Den” in The Howlin’ Wolf, note the address takes you to a sketchy deserted corner, it’s down a couple doors and in the back of the bar, very touristy
Day 6
- Brunch at Cake Cafe & Bakery, yum! Lightly fried catfish on challah, and shrimp n grits.
- Head to the airport! Goodbye NOLA