I’ve been working on this post for a month now. Seeing that today is Fat Tuesday I think it’s only fitting to finally finish it! I’m really wishing we could be back down there to enjoy the Mardi Gras festivities, especially the costumes and parades, but one thing we learned is EVERY day in New Orleans is a party.
- Winner, winner!
Now that I got that out-of-the-way, time to share our trip to New Orleans back in the beginning of January. We absolutely LOVED it down there! That city is dirty and smelly but that doesn’t seem to slow anyone down. It lives up to its party town reputation.
Beignet heaven!
The food was amazing! Besides Bourbon St., jazz, and hurricane Katrina, the food is what NOLA is known for and we sampled everything on our “must try” list. Gumbo, jambalaya, red beans & rice, muffaletta, beignets (delicious!), and Po’boys. We were not disappointed. In fact, I think I found a second favorite food type. Nothing will ever top Italian food for me and I can’t wait until we experience authentic Italian food in Italy. But I move on. I took pictures of almost everything we tried but I won’t bore you with a ton of food. Just know it’s all worth a try.
Beignets at Cafe Du Monde
The muffaletta was probably my favorite. It’s basically an italian sandwich on steroids. I only ordered a half sandwich and didn’t finish it. We didn’t go to any expensive, fancy restaurants like NOLA by Emeril. We found that the dives had just as good if not better food. If you haven’t gotten it yet, I’ll say it another way. Eat your heart out in this City.
My favorite - Muffaletta
The day we arrived in NOLA it was a gorgeous 70 degrees but we didn’t see that temperature again until the day we left. In fact, the night of the game was down right cold. This did not stop us from having a great time down on Bourbon Street.
While drinking and partying happens all over town, Bourbon Street was its own beast. We may of had too much fun, if that’s possible. We had the biggest beers EVER! They had to have been a gallon each and yes, I’m proud to say I almost finished mine.
Us, Huge Ass Beers and some random
I can’t remember why this guy thought it was cool to wear an NC State hoodie in the middle of VT Tech and Michigan fans but his wife was wearing UM gear so I let it go. The picture below gives a little better perspective on the actual size of our beers.
Even though the Sugar Bowl is what brought us to New Orleans, it was my least favorite part.
The SuperDome is nothing special. We had seats in the upper level. The seats and stairs were extremely steep. It made me a little uncomfortable and we stuck with pop and popcorn for the night. The game was kind of boring. There were way too many commercial timeouts so it was hard to get into the game. Neither team played very well. I was a little let down but the rest of the vacation was so much fun I’d actually forgotten about the game until now.
G sitting with all the UM fans
I think the coolest part about Michigan playing Virginia Tech was that New Orleans was packed full of people from Michigan and Virginia. It was like I was back in both of my former homes. It was so easy to strike up conversations with random people.
We did get some sober sightseeing in the day before we left. It warmed up a little for us so we just wandered the streets. It’s easy to forget which way is north and which way is south in NOLA. I actually read before we got there that they don’t even use those for directions. Instead they say river side or lake side. Once you’re there, it’s pretty obvious why they do that.
River boat out on the Mighty Mississippi
- St. Louis Cathedral and gorgeous garden area downtown
So much to see, eat, and drink in New Orleans. Hopefully out next trip there will be for Mardi Gras! Happy Paczki Day everyone!
At a dueling piano bar we found on Bourbon
Tags: Bourbon Street, bowl games, College football, food, NOLA, travel
