Want to know an awesome place to have a work conference???

You guessed it (maybe).

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana. 

New Orleans is easily one of my favorite cities - there's something incredibly special about it. Jimbo and I went there for the first time as part of our big road trip, and I fell in love. There's a hum about the city that's truly magical. It's so warm. So colorful. So eclectic. And how could you not love a city where everywhere you turn, you find live music? 

It was a terrible weekend for picture taking because I was primarily there for a work conference and couldn't bring along my nice camera, but we did manage to get a lot of good sights, sounds and eats into our long weekend.  Here's where I spent my time:

Eats

Marigny Brasserie :: the best part about this place is it's location in the Frenchmen Street section of the city, which is an adorable little neighborhood right outside the French Quarter where you can get all of the music, food and fun that you'd find on Bourbon Street but without the dirt and the crowds. We also saw a really cute music performance here while eating a tasty crab cake.

Buffa's :: a true local recommended it, so we had to try - and it didn't disappoint! Fun local join for easy, greasy New Orleans food and local live music.

Eat New Orleans :: YUM. Perfect pricing, yummy options, cozy atmosphere, and BYOB encouraged. Done and done. I got a delicious blackened catfish sandwich. 

August :: I was lucky enough to dine at this fancy place, courtesy of the conference I was at. French noms with a southern, cajun twist. My mouth waters just thinking about the flavors. If you can swing it, I can't recommend this place enough. 

Coffee

Petite Amelie :: oh so cute. Yummy coffee, green juices, and even king cake - which is worth a bite :). 

Spitfire Coffee :: fully recommended for an AMAZING cappuccino. Seriously, the best. 

Cafe Du Monde :: for the famous, delicious beignets. So good with a glass of cold milk. 

Drinks

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop :: a piece of history! Built before 1772, this is supposedly the oldest continually occupied bar in the U.S. I liked the dark, ancient vibe and the outdoor bar. 

Bourbon Cowboy :: I'm happy to say that I can now cross 'throwing mardi gras beads off a Bourbon Street balcony' off my list of things to do :).

Balcony Music Club :: I love the vibe and music line up here - somehow I keep finding my way back!

Sights/Strolls/Shops

French Market :: fun place to check out local crafts and yummy foods.

Frenchmen Art Market :: we had so much fun here one night! it's in the Frenchman Street area and was open at night - great place to walk around and shop with a drink in hand ;)

Royal Street :: walk all the way from one side to the other - so many adorable shops and galleries, and a live band at every corner!

Bevolo Gas & Electric Lamps :: worth peeking in the window of this beautiful store filled with the gas lamps the French Quarter is famous for.

I'll be back, New Orleans!

Lizards and Lagniappe (NOLA Part 2) + Goodbye for Now

By now, this long overdue post is mostly just for ourselves...but hopefully there are still some of you out there keeping in touch! I think there are a few reasons it's taken so long to post it: 1) insanely busy schedules here in Boston 2) there's a kind of sad ending to it (more on that later), and 3) it should technically be our last post, so I kept putting it off to keep the blogging thing going!

All that said, I'm pretty excited to get our final pictures from the cross country trip out there. Here are our pics from the last 24 hours in New Orleans.

More plantations and HOT HOT weather in Vacherie, LA...

Then we journeyed down to the swamp, to check out Zam's Swamp Tours in Thibodeaux, LA!

Roar.

This place was hilarious. The animals were crazy, and the owners & tour guides were completely legit (you couldn't understand half of what our guy was saying, but it was totally worth it to listen to his awesome accent for 2 hours). We saw huge snakes & spiders, goats, geese, bugs, and all sorts of lizards. Even the junk gift shop provided 20 minutes of entertainment. Everyone should go to Zam's!


We then headed back to the city to clean off the sweat & alligator juice and fill ourselves with some jumbalaya and gumbo at Coop's Place, and then head out on the town for more music and beignets (we can't get enough of either of these).

The 12 man Lagniappe Band was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. So much energy & incredible musical talent. The bar was dead, which was great for us because we had the place to ourselves (more room for dancing!), but it was kind of pissing off the band. They started off with like 15 guys and slowing but surely dwindled down to about 8, so we decided to buy them a round of beers to cheer them up! They kept it going for us and the other 8 or so people in the bar, we danced & drank, Jim decided to start a brass band of his own, and our crush on New Orleans deepened.


We finally left, and grabbed some more beignets, because we're addicted.

After some sleep,we woke up, took a couple of pics of the hotel, then headed out of New Orleans. With a quick stop at d.b.a. bar first to grab Jim's forgotten debit card. And we may or may not have stopped for a beignet breakfast on the way out of town...

And now for the sad story you've been waiting for.......that picture above is the LAST PICTURE OF THE TRIP. Allie's brand new camera was stolen (along with other stuff) from her apartment just a week after we returned to Boston, with the rest of our pictures in it. No good!

But, on a positive note, we didn't have all that many good pics from AL through MA anyways, and google images can help pick of the slack! This is what we saw and experienced on the last leg of our trip:

Hiking in the Smokies

Deep Gap back-country shelter

Pigeon Forge, TN - where every awful stereotype of American's is displayed right in front of your eyes!

We ate at Golden Corral, $12 grease buffet! We were immediately sick and immediately ashamed.

We visited Al's bff SJM in D.C. - reuniting for the 1st time with important things like Papa John's and Jersey Shore

Ate delicious Pizza by Elizabeths in DE with Big Jim

Relaxed on the NJ shore with P & T

Then came HOME to Boston!

It was only 2-3 days between Louisiana and Boston, so I guess the camera didn't miss much after all!

Aaaand that concludes our American cross-country adventure. I have a feeling we'll feel the need to document our upcoming Europe travels as well...so we'll be in touch!

LOVE

A & J