New Orleans Adventure

Hello my friends, I'm back from New Orleans with some photos and stories to tell you.  My older sister Roberta and my younger sister Denise and I flew out on Tuesday April 14th - we had to be at the airport at 4 am!  Our plane took off at 5:30 and we flew for 3 hours to Phoenix, changed planes and flew 2.5 hours to New Orleans.  We got a taxi to the French Quarter and were settled in our rooms in the early afternoon.  We awaited the arrival of my daughter Amy as we had dinner reservations at 7:30 pm.  The Magnolias were just starting to bloom on the tree in our hotel courtyard!  We stayed in a historic hotel called Place d'Armes in the French Quarter - right adjacent from Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral.  What a wonderful place!

This hotel has three courtyards!  This is the center one that I passed through each time I went to my room.  It's so tropical here.  We did have a fair bit of rain while were were there, but we also had dry times and it all worked out.

This is the fountain.

This is the pool courtyard.  

When I opened our room I was enchanted by the brick walls and high ceilings!  I really enjoyed staying here.  We stayed in this hotel the last time we visited 15 years ago and loved it then.  I shared the room with my daughter Amy.

The room had 3 tall casement windows - the man who brought my luggage up told me that we had to open the window and use a little slide lock and that was how you went out onto the balcony!  This was our view across the street.  There was a charming dress shop below this balcony.

I turned my head and was happy to see Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral - and then the bells begun to ring the hour.  Joy!  On the right is Muriel's Restaurant where it's customers can bring their drinks out on the balcony to enjoy the scene.  It was raining on our arrival so the streets were fairly empty.

My daughter arrived and got settled in and then we walked to Tujaques (pronounced "two jacks") across from Cafe Du Monde for dinner.

I expected to have crawfish étouffée, but it wasn't on the menu!  So I had a small beef tenderloin covered with a garlic puree, atop garlic mashed potatoes and squash.  Yum!

Roberta ordered a dessert for us all to share - a banana bread pudding with a bourbon glaze.  It was so soft and fluffy and delicious!

We all headed to bed after a nice visit with plans to meet up for coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde in the morning.  Just a block and a half from our hotel!

Would you like to join us?  The coffee is French Roast with Chicory, blended with hot milk to make Cafe Au Lait.  The beignets are hot rectangles of pastry dough dropped in hot oil, brought out and doused with copious amounts of powdered sugar.  Yum yum!

Want a closer look?  :-)

You walk in, wait for a table to vacate, swoop in and wait for a server.  This place is heaven.  It's open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except on Christmas Day and if a hurricane passes too close.

What a fun town - horse drawn carriages can be heard clip clopping by at all hours.  My one regret is that we never got around to a horse and carriage ride.. but we did plenty of other things!

All of the balconies have beautiful wrought iron railings.

We decided to head to Pat O'Briens Bar as this was my daughter Amy's first visit here and I wanted to show her this great place.  So, off to Bourbon Street we went.

And there it is, this unassuming facade.  But inside is the most beautiful and welcoming courtyard!  Just beyond it is Preservation Hall where jazz musicians jam each night.  You can listen from the sidewalk as they play inside.

We were there when it opened at noon and got a great table by the fountain.  At night there is a gas fire out of the top of the fountain which is pretty neat to see!

What would you like?  4 Hurricane's please!  This is the quintessential drink of the French Quarter!  It is a fruit punch with 4.. yes 4 shots of 150 proof rum.  :-)

Now my dear friends.. I don't drink much.. at.. all.   BUT.. I sipped this down.  And we had a good old time chatting around the table and by the fountain.

Cheers!

Lookie at the pretty water drops.. :-)

The hallway entering Pat O'Briens has all these old rifles hung on the ceiling.

My daughter Amy is why we are all here.  She was going to visit here with her husband on a business trip but found out it would be very short so decided to stay home.  I said.. why don't we go on a mother-daughter trip here?  So we planned to do it and she asked if her two aunties wanted to join us, they did so the plan was made!  So, cheers to Amy!  She's such a devoted mother and wife that and this was her first "girl's trip".  I think she had fun.

I had to make 5 files of photos to share so I didn't overload you with this one.  So, I will put up the next one soon.  We are heading to the beach the day after tomorrow.  Dayle spent the whole week cleaning and prepping the trailer/caravan for the trip, isn't he a doll?  I hope you enjoyed visiting New Orleans with me!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)