NOLA for XMas!

12/21 – I was excited for my first visit to New Orleans so I was up early and on the road for the 4.5 hour drive to New Orleans. I had chosen to just grind it out on the I-10 Interstate since the weather was still not great and I had seen enough stop signs and small towns in Florida to last me for a good long while.

On this route leaving the Florida panhandle you pass through both Alabama and Mississippi before getting to Louisiana. So 4 states in one day.

And yes I did sing the M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I song once I saw the sign! 😜

Rolling in to St Bernard state park just outside of town, I was soon settled in to my spot and I fired up the Blackstone for supper. I’ve really enjoyed this little griddle, it is great for smash burgers and of course breakfast is a breeze too.

The next day I headed into town to find my very first taste of NOLA food. I had heard from many that I just had to try the famous french pastry called the beignet when I visit. I yelped it and found that Cafe Beignet was right on the way to my next stop, so I dove into the semi long line and secured my order along with a cup of chicory coffee blend. This little treat did not disappoint! Powdered sugar everyone…

My next stop was a visit to the WWII museum. Such and impressive and large museum! There are separate buildings or halls for the different theaters of the war and the displays are all so well put together, mostly in detailed diorama style. There is so much information to absorb here. I spent the entire afternoon and still did not take it all in. In my opinion this is the best museum I’ve ever visited, topping even the ones in D.C. A must visit if you enjoy a good museum.

Wanting to get as much in as I could I booked a walking tour of the French Quarter with Lucky Bean Tours. It was SO informative, having an experienced tour guide fill you in on the local history and sites is really a great way to jump start your exploration if you don’t know an area. There is so much history to learn about this area! We started right across from Jackson park square and walked several blocks around the square.

After the tour was over I stayed in the area and explored some more on my own. I had been wanting to find a good seafood boil and managed to find some crawfish for dinner!

Although one smart one did manage to escape.

One of the things that the tour guide mentioned was the tradition of music in the park at Armstrong park and Congo square on Sundays. So I headed back to the French Quarter to explore some more and check it out. Unfortunately due to the holidays there was nothing happening this Sunday, but I did enjoy the park almost all to myself. There is some great public art pieces here and a really cool Empire(?) period public auditorium which has some great architecture.

What better way to spend Christmas morning on the road than in a cemetery, right? And NOLA has some really cool ones! I was surprised to see tour buses running, but I did see two stop in during my visit to St. Louis Cemetery.

On my final full day in NOLA I wanted to sample those delightful beignets again especially after learning on the walking tour that the original Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter had been serving them since 1862!

The line is ridiculous! Inside tip that I learned thanks to Sarah the tour guide, if you go around to the back there is a take out window. Bingo! Only about 20 people in line and I swooped in and took my order to the walking path overlooking the Mississippi river to brunch al fresco!

BTW, they claim that the French Quarter market was the originator of the concept of “brunch” since in the 1800’s the food stalls and butcher shops all closed around 11am and folks were hungry and needed a bite to hold them over until they returned home. I haven’t completed my fact checking yet, and I think much more “research” is in order to verify this claim. 😜

I really enjoyed my visit to NOLA and feel that I’ve just scratched the surface on my week long visit. One complaint, New Orleans… what is with your roads?! I know you have hurricanes and floods and I’m trying to cut you some slack, but the roads in town are dreadful! The only one winning here is the front end alignment shop.

Next up is a quick overnight stop in Northern Louisiana and then into Texas.