Wednesday, July 18, 2007

New Orleans Style

Hello from the Big Easy!

This is my third day of work and the earliest I've been back to my hotel room yet - so I decided I had to post my latest adventures - yeah!!

I arrived Sunday night and I've been working hard - but luckily I have also been able to do quite a bit of sightseeing. Monday after a VERY long day at work - we ate dinner at Emerils restaurant.


The food was just amazing - I had paella that was just full of HUGE portions of scallops, shrimp, mussels, sausage and chicken. The scallops were three inches in diameter!! Yum!!

After work on Tuesday we headed to Riverwalk - a mall along the banks of the Mississippi River. We then strolled through the French Quarter and had a great dinner and ($1 Margaritas which I so needed after another long day!!) at Cafe Maspero. I had some tasty Jambalaya. After dinner - we had to get some of those famous beignets at the world famous Cafe due Monde

Cafe du Monde

The powdered sugar on these things was at least an inch thick!!

Cafe du Monde

Cafe du Monde is at the corner of Jackson Square - this square is at the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans. I love all the wrought iron balconies with vines and flowers hanging down on sides of the square.

Jackson Square

At one end sits Saint Louis Cathedral.

Jackson Square

We were lucky enough to be there at sunset.

Jackson Square

Here's my co-worker LaSonya and I in front of the cathedral.
Jackson Square

Wandering further through the French Quarter - we of course had to go Bourbon Street. It was surprisingly tame - but then again it was a Tuesday night. We did see some interesting sights, crazy T-shirts, lots of beer, daquairies, hurricanes, and even clowns on stilts! Here are some of the views:


sites from new orleans
New Orleans sites

We even saw the trolley speed by on the walk back to our hotel.
Trolley


Today - we took a drive through the lower 9th Ward - the part of New Orleans that experienced some of the worse devastation from Hurrican Katrina almost two years ago. It was extremely sad and sobering to see how much damage is still there and how much is still left to do. Most of the homes in this area - were completely swept away by the surge from the levy break. There were just concrete slabs on many lots, sometimes the front steps remained - sometimes nothing remained. It was amazing how much pride some of the owners still took in their empty lots. Many were mowed and manicured - while others like this one... were even more thoughtfully decorated.

Hope

I thought this lot where someone planted a field of sunflowers was such a powerful representation of the hope, rebirth and renewal that is going on in New Orleans. It really made my day to see this gorgeous site.

Hope

After this lovely site - we had dinner at a local "greasy spoon" called Praline Connection. We had alligator sausage as our appetizer...

Alligator sausage

followed by some great Cajun homecooking. I had stuffed peppers with collard greens, macaroni and cheese and a side of hot corn bread.... it was so delicious!

I also got to walk around part of the French Quarter after we ate and I snapped a few pictures of the gorgeous homes and architectural details that are everywhere down here.

New Orleans home

New Orleans Architecture

I look forward to the rest of the week - I hope the work side goes ok so we can continue our nightly forays into the New Orleans culture!

Have a great week everyone!!

17 comments:

Jinann said...

Fabulous pictures! Now I really want to visit New Orleans...I love the architecture and the food sounds wonderful! I'm so jealous!

chacha / Jen said...

Looks like you're having a wonderful time... I'm trying hard not to drool too much over the beignets. :)

Anonymous said...

AWESOME PICTURE OVERLOAD!!
I really love the sunflowers.

I love Emerils. (I went when I was in NOLA too.)
Sounds like you are having so much fun.
Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Anonymous said...

You MUST go eat at Felix's while you're there! It's on Bourbon near the St. Peter intersection, I think. God i miss it there.

Lolly said...

It really is such a cool place! we were there the fall before the hurricane, and it was amazing. I would love to see it again.

Anonymous said...

Looks like you are having a great time, wish I was there...sigh...

Anonymous said...

Looks like fun! Miss you
Jolene

Anonymous said...

It looks like you are having fun and seeing lots of neat things. I love New Orleans too. The food is great isn't it! Your "reports" are lacking one thing though - did you see any yarn shops??? Inquiring minds want to know! Kathleen

Stacey said...

that looks like fun! the food - amazing!!!!!

Wendy said...

Jody -- try to have dinner at Commander's Palace if you can. It's fabulous. Can't wait to hear about your trip at the next spinner's group!

Amy said...

Wonderful pictures! Great that you're also have a wonderful time on your time off.

Giantsknitter said...

Hope you bring home a beignet for me!! :-)

Diane said...

What a wonderful trip. I love the field of sunflowers.

Mister John said...

:(
Come back home!

Diane Doran said...

You're so lucky to have eaten at Emeril's! I think the best meal of my life was at Nola's, and I've eaten at several of the other New Orleans hot spots. Remind me sometime to tell you a funny (but a little yucky) beignet story. I hope your poison ivy is history.

Anonymous said...

Wow!!! Thanks for sharing! I've wanted to go to New Orleans since I was a teen...

Bonnie said...

...after we ate and I snapped a few pictures of the

Good Grief. YOU never just snap a few pictures. Makes it sound like you've got an instamatic with a flash cube and have no sense of composition. Sniff!

Thank you for taking me somewhere I've never been.