Snapshots of New Orleans // Day 3 // March 2014

Day 3: Full Day in New Orleans

We woke up fairly early and walked our mile or so out to the French Quarter for breakfast. 

We had passed a sweet little coffee shop / cafe the night before and thought it seemed like a wonderful breakfast spot! 

It was called Petite Amelie, Cuisine Rapide and it was adorable and so delicious! The inside of the cafe is white and very well lit, filled with lots of shabby chic / French countryside inspired decor (chandeliers, rustic bins, ornate mirrors etc.). 

We each ordered an iced mocha and I got a banana nut muffin while KC opted for the Pain Au Chocolat, his favorite. The barista seemed confused by the idea of an iced mocha, but he made it happen. With a little more ice halfway through I was a very happy (read; caffeinated!) camper. :) The banana nut muffin was by-far the best muffin I've ever ordered. It was dense, but not bready, very flavorful, chocked full of walnuts, delightfully buttery and of course, topped with powdered sugar. :) Kyle said his Pain Au Chocolate was pretty good, but not the best he's had. 

After that we walked across the street to a lovely stationary store called Papier Plume and browsed through their selection of beautiful wax seal stamps, leather bound journals, fountain pens and extremely ornate magnifying glasses. It was a very nice store, and we were able to pick up a unique Sudoku mechanical pencil for my father in law's birthday at the end of March. I LOVE buying gifts as we travel! It's one of my favorite combinations in the world! 

Then we continued around the French Quarter, visiting little shops and seeing the city wake up (not an early rising city.. :) ) It was a warm, muggy day but it was nice to enjoy the warmer weather again! 

We visited a fun store called The Kitchen Witch, which sold cookbooks of all kinds from current, to rare to 'just old' ones. It was fun to see so many cookbooks, I kind of wish I would have bought a 'Kitchen Witch' there, my mom and grandma have one (they are supposed to keep lumps out of your gravy! haha) Oh well. The man in the store didn't say a word to us, and I was way too overwhelmed by the choices to choose a book! :) 

Later in the day we also visited Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo (no pictures allowed inside), because we felt like we couldn't miss out on something so interesting and unique to New Orleans. We are not 'believers' but it was interesting to go in and see the altar, dolls and other interesting items that were for sale.

At one point we were walking through the quarter, it's starting to get darker and people are coming out to party.... and I see Pete The Cat across the street. I look at KC and say "PETE THE CAT! PETE THE CAT!" and start running toward the gallery (Gallery Rinard). Just a bit of contrast between me and all of the other 23 year olds out that night.. . ;) Anyhow, this gallery stocks original works by James Dean (the author/illustrator of Pete the Cat) as well as prints. It was really really cool. The woman working there was really awesome and friendly and I ended up getting a print of Pete the Cat and a cat that looks like Duchess eating beignets at 'Cafe Du Meow' :) It was a little pricey, but worth it. :) 

We eventually made it back to our hotel and drove out to Magazine Street, an area filled with boutiques, restaurants and a lot of local artisans. We walked around a bit, mostly finding chain stores (American Apparel, Francesca's etc.) and stores that we weren't interested in buying things in before we decided to grab lunch at Dat Dog. 

The idea behind the place is that you can choose your 'dog' and then your toppings and end up with some really crazy, yet tasty, stuff. They even have veggie dogs. :) 

KC and I both decided to try one of their pre thought of combos. He got the Guinness Dog, which I think was a Guinness soaked sausage, topped with Andoullie Sauce, onions, bacon bits, cheese and mustard (which he left off). I got the Sea Dog, which was a rectangular battered and fried cod fillet, topped with tartar sauce, mustard, onion and tomato. We also ordered Bacon Cheddar Ranch fries. We were intrigued by the idea of the 'White Trash Fries' but decided to go ahead with our order. He got a glass bottled Barq's (rare!) and I got a Mexi Coke. 

My Sea Dog was amazing. If you like fish and chips or the like, this is for you. But the bread was nice because it kept it from seaming greasy! Just. So. Good. KC's was also really really good. So much flavor. I think he would have liked it with the mustard too... ;) 

The fries were seasoned and then topped to perfection. It was a great lunch. And one of the best places we ate while we were in New Orleans! :) 

Around the corner we found this sign, which I am posting for all of my Kansas readers, especially those into history/from Abeline. 'I Like Bike', funny. :)

After that we shopped some more and ended up in an area that was mostly antique stores as well as offices and service based businesses, so we turned around after a bit. Though there were some really awesome signs to be found in this area! (the Jazz Gumbo sign is not in this area, but I wanted to put it with the others, it can be found on Canal Street).

We walked around until it started to rain and then went back to the hotel to rest our feet for a bit!

Then we walked back out to the Quarter (really getting our exercise in here... which counteracts all the beignets nicely!) and decided to stop at Cafe Du Monde, the famous coffee & beignet cafe that has been around since 1862. Because of it's reputation, the line is always 50 or more people long. But it looked relatively short this time, so we stopped in for coffee and beignets. We'd heard from many that these were the best, and were eager to try them ourselves! 

We got to a table and ordered a basket of beignets and a frozen cafe au lait since it was still warm and humid out. It didn't take too long to get our food, but it was fun to watch the people in line, eating in the cafe, street musicians and pedestrians that walked by. We got our food and enjoyed it thoroughly. The frozen cafe au lait was really good, sweet but not too sweet, the beignets were also tasty, but we (out of the two places we'd sampled) preferred the ones at Cafe Beignet so far.

We considered going to the French Market, but it was about to close, so we decided to shop around the Quarter some more.

Eventually we made it back to Bourbon street and decided to try a hurricane again, this time at Pat O'Brien's, the bar where they were made famous. 

It was fun because it's an Irish thing and it was St. Patrick's Day weekend. We each took the obligatory photo next to 'Pat O'Brien' and ordered one hurricane to share (can you tell we're not big drinkers? ;) ). We tried it and instantly determined that it was much stronger, and therefore much better. 

We walked around with it and ended up back at Musical Legends Park, where there was yet-again a live band playing music from a romantic time in the past. We decided to get our dinner there ( @ Cafe Beignet) again and yes of course, beignets. I ordered red beans and rice and he ordered the roast beef po' boy. We sipped on our hurricane while we listened to the music. Our dinner arrived, and I've got to say that the red beans and rice was the best meal I had in the city! It was so creamy and flavorful, plus I'm a sucker for both beans and rice... so this was right up my alley. :) KC's po' boy was also very very good! He let me try a bite... what a nice guy! :) Yum. 

The beignets our first night were not a fluke! They were just as AMAZING the second time! Yes, still better than Cafe Du Monde! 

I've got to say, I really loved both the park and this restaurant. Everyone was so friendly, the said 'Welcome back, guys!' when we walked up to the counter and were always really nice. Plus the music and atmosphere were so pleasant. It's sort of like a little night time haven in the middle of Bourbon Street. It's really really nice for people who aren't so into the party scene. Don't get me wrong we still spent some time out on the street walking around, watching live music and dancing and drinking our hurricanes, but this place was much more suited to our lifestyle. :) 

After that, we walked around ( I saw someone who lived in my scholarship hall! ) and made it back to our hotel. We decided after a bit of rest to head out to Harrah's just for fun. (Gambling isn't our 'thing' either... but it was a neat casino!). We each got a player's card and gambled on just $20 each, we are never willing to lose more! :) We had fun, the casino was huge and the New Orleans-y design was pretty impressive! It was made to look like the French Quarter inside. Another area was pirate themed. Just fun to look at. Kyle ended up turning his $20 into $45, and I turned my $20 into about $0.20! Haha, but it was something different to do and we even made $5! Gotta look on the positive side. :)

After that we hit the hay (pretty late, for us) and tried to rest up for our last full day in the city.

Holy cow my feet hurt! I even switched back and forth between wearing my three most comfortable pairs of flats and sandals. Yikes! (but worth it!)

Read about Days 1 & 2 here.

For more travel posts (including Maritime Canada, New Mexico, Arizona, Boston, Texas, Minneapolis, and many more!) click on the links or the passport tab above!

Want to see the rest of this trip? Read about Days 1 & 2, and Day 4.

Thank You for Reading! 

Alexandra