We took the 7 am flight on Tuesday morning and arrived in New Orleans about 9am. We were able to check into our room and then we headed to our brunch reservation at Brennan's. It is a bright pink building and the inside is very elaborate with bright pink and green walls. Michael's favorite dessert is banana's foster, so when I saw that banana's foster was invented at Brennan's, I knew we had to try it out. They do the banana's foster tableside and tell you about the history of the dessert. It was a great brunch and we thoroughly enjoyed indulging in banana's foster at 10am :)
Michael booked a couple's massage at our hotel, Hotel Roosevelt, after brunch. I was a little surprised when he booked the massage because I do not think he has ever had a positive experience. I had a great massage, but I kept hearing Michael sound like he was in pain the whole time. He had a large lady doing his massage and I think her idea of a relaxation massage was quite different than Michael's. She just kept saying breathe, breathe, breathe over and over again. Michael was so sore the next day he could barely move....poor guy! We relaxed and enjoyed champagne in the relaxation room. It was pretty heavenly for me, but Michael was downing some champagne to try and dull the pain of the massage.
After the massage we went up to the rooftop pool and relaxed some more by the pool. It was a gorgeous day.
Michael's not one to order a sweet drink, so I was a little surprised that he loved their very fruity rooftap bar specialty. It was even too sweet for me!
After the pool, we headed to an early dinner at GW Fins. I think this might have been my favorite meal of the vacation. They have a biscuit man that just walks around the restaurant with hot, buttery, cheese biscuits. He gets a fresh batch every few minutes and they are divine. I am not a fan of fish, so I went with one of the non-fish choices. I ordered the pork with balsamic strawberries and a bourbon cane glaze, it was seriously amazing! Michael ordered the Scalibut, which is one of their originals.
Whenever we go on vacation, I try and research a few unique things to do in the city. Everyone knows that New Orleans is known for its food and drink, but we wanted something a little different to do. One of the top rated activities was a ghost tour. I was seriously skeptical of taking a ghost tour. But, I started reading all of the reviews and they were all awesome. We decided to give it a try and were so glad we did. We will definitely not forget the experience. We took the 5 in 1 Voodoo Bone Lady Tour. It covers voodoo, vampires, ghosts, witchcraft and pirates. We took the tour from 8-10pm at night and our guide was really great. We did not go in a cemetery and I think I would definitely try that out next time. Although, that does sound extremely creepy! Now, I'm not sure I believe the stories, but they were interesting and it was a very entertaining couple of hours.
Our guide also threw in a couple of "lagniappe's" about New Orleans. He told us the story of Touchdown Jesus of the statue in St. Anthony's garden that reflects of off St. Louis Cathedral at night. Pope John Paul blessed the statue in 1987, immediately before the Saints had their first winning season. Now people lovingly refer to it as "Touchdown Jesus."
We stopped at the haunted Lafitte's Blacksmith shop for a break during the middle of the haunted tour. We got the purple voodoo drink, which tasted like purple cough syrup. I would not recommend ever trying this drink. It was much too strong for me, but Michael managed to choke it down.
I must mention that Michael was a great sport during the tour. The Predators playoff game was during the middle of the tour. I did not know about the game when we booked the tour. Poor Michael was following the game on twitter while on the ghost tour. Luckily, they won, so Michael was ready to go out and have a little more fun! We both love dueling pianos, so we headed to Pat O Brien's to listen to some dueling pianos. We were front row and center. It was a wonderful end to a fun day!!
We slept in a little the next day and then we headed to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. I stuffed myself silly. It was delicious.
After Cafe du Monde we walked around Washington Artillery Park, the moonwalk and Jackson Square. It was a gorgeous day.
We also toured St. Louis Cathedral. It is gorgeous and so ornate.
We had originally planned to try a swamp boat tour or take a gondola ride through city park, but with only 48 hours in the city and a work event for Michael that night, we just didn't have enough time this trip. One of the other items on our bucket list was the Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone. The bar spins very slowly and there are only 25 seats. I knew it was tough to get a seat at the bar at night, so we planned to go when it opened around 11am. It was such a fun bar and we spent about 2 hours just talking and trying their signature drinks. It was really fun!
We really enjoyed one of the Carousel Bar's specials called the Pim Cup. It was delicious!
After the Carousel Bar we headed to the Gumbo shop for some delicious gumbo. I had a tough time deciding which one to order, so the waitress brought me the trio so I could try them all. Even after trying them all I could not decide which one I liked best. They were all delicious. My dad also adores the Gumbo Shop, so Michael snapped this quick picture to send to him.
After the Gumbo shop we planned to tour the WWII museum, but after so much eating and drinking we were exhausted! Since we rarely get a nap at home, we decided that napping was the best use of our time. We will definitely have to make time for the museum on our next trip! After our glorious nap, we had about an hour before we needed to get ready for the work dinner. We headed back up to the pool bar and soaked in the sunshine. It was perfect weather!
We headed to Antoine's, one of the oldest restaurants in New Orleans, for Michale's work dinner. There was a large group of us, so I didn't embarrass Michael and take any pictures. I am pretty sure we ordered everything on the menu to share and it was all delicious. The hit of dinner was the after dinner drink called Cafe Brulot Diabolique. The server makes this drink tableside and actually throws fire on the wooden table. I have no idea how they are so confident that this will not set the entire place on fire, but somehow it works!
It was on our list to listen to some live Jazz in New Orleans so after dinner we headed to Fritzel's Jazz Club. It is definitely a hole in the wall, but so fun. We were seated in the first row, so we were right up there with the band. It was a great way to end our trip to New Orleans.
And one last picture to wrap up a fun trip!
A big thanks to Nana for watching the boys and to Allie and Big for watching the dogs. And just for fun, here's a little picture of Michael and I's first trip to New Orleans in 2007. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton for a wedding. We sure do look like babies!
It's important to communicate with the massage therapist, and tell them how much pressure you can handle. I use one massage therapist regularly, and she is careful not to apply too much pressure, because she knows my back is very sensitive. I enjoy massages while traveling, but I make sure to tell the therapist not to apply too much pressure.
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