A Day in the French Quarter

One of the nice parts about living in this part of Alabama is that New Orleans is an easy day trip.  

Since I had the week off for Mardi Gras, I wanted to do something other than stay at home or just roaming around town and New Orleans was just the ticket.  But...we waited until after Tuesday to go!

I've done Mardi Gras in New Orleans before and it's lots of fun - one of those things that everyone should do at least once in their life, kinda like Oktoberfest in Germany (which I fully plan to do one day).  

But once is enough.  Now I'll take the much tamer parades that are on the street right outside our house! (Clean bathrooms are right inside, as is the wine bottle).

Once Fat Tuesday had come and gone, New Orleans was back to normal.  Dad and I got up Thursday morning and headed off to spend the day.  

The weather could not have been better for February.  It was warm enough that you didn't need a coat, but cool enough that you didn't get all hot and sweaty walking around!

One of my top priorities was the H&M.  I've been suffering from withdrawal.  I got a good fill in Vienna, but it was time for more.

After shopping, we started with dessert - café au lait and beignets at Café du Monde (which I didn't photograph as powdered sugar was blowing everywhere and I didn't want to get any on my camera!). 
Then took a stroll out to Magazine Street where we had lunch at Bon Ton Café.  It was one of my grandparents' favorite restaurants in New Orleans, so we used to eat there on all of our trips when I was younger, but it had been years since we had been.  

It's a cozy, simple place with red-checked table cloths, and all of the staff wear crisp white jackets.  The menu is full of cajun classics and I think it's hard to go wrong!  It's a little bit on the pricy side, but worth it.

Completely stuffed, we went back out into the beautiful day to walk off lunch and pop into a couple other shops (Lush for some bath bombs and Sucré for much needed macarons!).
Both a bit tired of walking, we took a drive around City Park (where we want to go back to visit the New Orleans Museum of Art and just wander around the park - it's huge!) before heading to my brother's house to spend a few hours playing with my nephew.  He's such a chatter box and it cracks me up!

It was a good day, but it's back to work tomorrow...only 5 weeks till spring break (I'm not counting or anything...)

2 comments

  1. I'm so jealous that you have Mardi Gras parades right outside your house! So fun!

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    1. Hi Christine! It is fun! But it can be a bit of a pain since they close the street for most of the day so you're stuck in...you just have to be prepared with plenty of snacks and a fridge full of beer and wine :)

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