Friday:
1:30 AM wake-up call. Yep. The story of the “non-rev” life: aiming for the first flight of the day, and if not, having all day to make hopeful attempts for any and all subsequent flights. This would be my friend Heather’s first time traveling standby, and first time to New Orleans! So, not even the dreadfully early hour could get us down :).
Well, we knew well enough not to bank on making it to the Big Easy, and we were happy to know that if we ended up somewhere completely different, we would be just as happy and make the most of it. Our other options ranged from Nassau, Bahamas to Austin, Texas, to Phoenix, Arizona. As a standby passenger, you hope to make it to your first choice destination, but you have to be flexible to go where the seats allow you to. Hehe.
So, in typical non-rev fashion, we missed the first two flights to Atlanta and decided to test our luck on the direct flight from Boston to New Orleans, which was only looking slightly better. Score! We made it on and got a row to ourselves! Nice!
We made it on the flight! 🤗🥰
3 hours later, we were landing in New Orleans, and we were ready to hit the ground running, despite operating on just a couple hours of sleep. We grabbed a cab and got dropped off on the outskirts of the French Quarter, as many of the streets were closed to traffic due to the French Quarter Festival that was happening that weekend. We walked several blocks to our beautiful little hotel, the French Market Inn on Decatur Street. We were so extremely pleased with this place; a beautiful historic building, perfect location, and very friendly staff. My favorite part was how slanted everything was, from the floors to the window sills, and yes, even the toilet, it seemed. Haha. It was almost like an attraction at a carnival or fun house, hehe. No room for OCD when hanging the curtains over a crooked window frame here, hehe. After exploring our new home, we quickly changed our clothes, regrouped, and began our NOLA adventures.
Can you spot Heather? 👀
First up: food! I knew a great spot for a local sandwich called a Muffaleta. Essentially, it is an Italian sandwich, but with a delicious olive spread. The sandwiches are huge, so Heather and I shared a half, and we walked across the street to the river walk to enjoy our lunch with a view. As we devoured the Muffaletas, we listened to the rushing muddy brown waters of the Mississippi and observed the festival crowds, complete with wild festival clothing, strutting their stuff on the catwalk-like sidewalk in front of us.
Feeling rejuvenated, we decided to tackle tourist destination #1: Bourbon Street. What insanity! If you’ve been, you know, haha. It’s bar after bar, and each has loud booming music, whether it’s a DJ, live music, or just thumping music coming from the speakers. It’s almost hard to walk and talk because of how loud it is. Almost every locale is serving some sort of adult beverage to-go, the infamous slushies, in a multitude of flavors, or the iconic “hand grenade.” I opted for a mango slushee, as I had never tried one of these “staples” before. I can say it was tasty and boozy, but not worth the $15 I paid for it, haha.
A beautiful little alleyway. 😍
We strolled around a bit more through the delightful streets of the French Quarter, oogling at the iron filigree balconies on nearly every building. We eventually make our way past a restaurant that literally stopped us in our tracks with how good it smelled. We immediately did a double take to make sure we knew where that delicious and inviting scent was coming from. We didn’t even need to check with each other before we decided to eat there for the evening. This would turn out to be our favorite restaurant and favorite food from our weekend in New Orleans.
We ordered charbroiled oysters, my absolute favorite! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on those babies, haha. I’ve never had raw oysters, and honestly, after experiencing the delectable charred flavors embedded in the herb and Parmesan cheese aioli that graced the tops of these oysters, I’m not sure I need to, haha. We also ordered the “Swamp Platter,” and let’s just take a quick moment to appreciate the name. :). This came with three different dishes: shrimp creole, which was my favorite of the three, and will be trying to make it at home, blackened alligator, which I never had before, and despite sounding cliche, it did taste like chicken, hehe, and maque choux, the least favorite of the three. But overall, we were so completely enamored by this meal and the delicious smells permeating the restaurant. A perfect end to a long day! 🙂
Amazing food! 😍🤩😋
Saturday:
The next morning, we woke up and had a quick snack for breakfast in our hotel room before heading to a cemetery tour. Most of the cemeteries require a guide to get in, so this was definitely the right choice. We walked a ways to the meeting point and met our guide across the street from the St. Louis Cemetary #1.
About to explore the cemetary! 👻
We learned how the above ground burials were a Spanish influence, when the city was under Spanish colonial rule, and NOT because the bodies buried in the ground would float up to the top due to such low elevation. The French worked around this by burying people and placing bricks on top of the graves. The rich were buried in the cemetery proper, and there could be one family mausoleum with up to 3 different tombs, or more, but that didn’t mean only 3 family members could be buried there. In the heat of the summer, the remains would essentially break down to nothing inside the cement tombs, making room for more family bodies to be added. One 3-tomb site could hold up to 80 family members’ remains! Wow! If there wasn’t enough space yet for a new body to be added, you could be buried in a tomb in the wall of the cemetery, as a holding position, before you could be placed in your familial tomb.
The richest of the rich would have marble tombs or name plates. At the time the cemetery was constructed, there were no marble mines in the US, so the marble would’ve been imported from Europe, so you can imagine just how expensive that might’ve been. The poorest of the poor were buried in the largest tombs in the cemetery; communal tombs paid for by societies. These organizations did charity work for the communities and gave the poor a place to be buried.
Some families pay for perpetual care, and the hefty sum allows caretakers to expertly maintain the tombs; some we saw were in nearly immaculate condition. The others were left to the owners to upkeep, and were little more than a pile of bricks.
Two notable tombs found in this cemetary were the Madam Laveau tomb and a pyramid tomb belonging to none other than Nicholas Cage. Yup, you read that correctly, haha. Before I get to good ‘ole Cage, lets chat about Madam Laveau. She was one of the most infamous voodoo queens of New Orleans. She played a vital role in treating people naturally during a yellow fever epidemic, and dedicated her life to helping anyone who walked thorugh her doors. Hollywood has made quite a spectacle of Voodoo, but all is not as it seems. Later that day we visited the Voodoo Museum and learned much more than either of us knew about it. More on this later, and back to a quick Nicholas Cage fun fact. He is from New Orleans and wanted to purchase a slot in this cemetary and what better shape to build than that of the iconic pyramid? And apparently at one point or another he got involved with the Madoff Ponzi schemes, and the IRS took the two mansions Cage owned in New Orleans as a result of the failed scheme…which are also known as…….. can you name it? Yep, pyramid schemes, haha. And guess what asset the IRS let Cage keep? Right again! The pyramid tomb. Haha. I hope this was one IRS agent’s idea of the ultimate play on words.
Tomb of Marie Laveau.
Nicholas Cage’s pyramid tomb.
I never expected to a) see a pyramid tomb in the historic cemeteries of New Orleans, and b) never imagined it would belong to Nicholas Cage. Makes me think immediately of National Treasure…hehe.
After our trivia packed cemetery tour, we made our way to a highly recommended brunch spot called Toast. They are known for their delicious and specialty French toast. On our way, we stumbled across this amazing jazz group. Check out the video below! For brunch, Heather and I opted to share meals, so we ordered a coconut cream filled French toast and a savory crepe, along with some perfectly made grits. Of course, we had to treat ourselves to a Bloody Mary and a Mimosa, because why not! Hehe. We were delighted with the food and savored every last morsel. As we were finishing up, we realized how dark it was becoming. Uh-oh. The rain is moving in. Hehe. We knew it would rain in the afternoon, and now it was almost upon us.
In love with the jazz! Such raw talent! 😍🤩
We were right across the street from the French Market, so we decided to walk through. There were so many food stalls! Too bad we just ate, because we really could’ve done some damage trying all the different dishes, but we were very satisfied with our brunch and just enjoyed reading all the menus. There were artisan vendor stalls as well, and we enjoyed exploring all that was for sale. All of a sudden, a huge burst of wind blew in some of the siding of the market, and we poked our heads out, and instantly, the rain began pouring down. Some people were stuck out in it, and once they found shelter in the market, they were 100% drenched! Heather and I were lucky to have found ourselves inside at the onset of the storm.
Once we walked through as much as we could, we decided it was time to brave the wild rain, thunder, and lightning and cross over to the other side of the market. We put on our raincoats, tried to get our backpacks inside the coats, and we made a run for it. What we didn’t expect was the street to be flooded! We not only were concerned about the sideways rain pelting us, now we were wondering how to wade across the pond that sat between us and our destination, hehe. Heather had on plastic sandals and just walked through. I brought my waterproof sneakers and thought I was a genius for doing so, but I quickly realized they are no match for a New Orleans storm, haha. The puddles were well above the top of the sneaker, so once the water gets in, their lovely waterproof quality becomes just a tad less functional, hehe. We were all laughs, enjoying the raging storm, and we witnessed just how quickly the streets could flood. We imagined for a moment what it looked like when Katrina barreled through. It is impossible to imagine, especially being from a place that doesn’t get hit by hurricanes. This particular storm was a simple thunderstorm, nothing more, and water was rushing down the steps in the park, and the puddles were deeper than the tops of my sneakers! Wild!
So what better way to wait out a storm than to buy a drink? So we did just that and walked around this section of the market, sipping our fruity cocktails in plastic cups and listening to some music playing. We continued walking a bit and found a street band performing awesome jazz music. Everyone was gathered around, sheltering from the storm in the best possible way. All huddled around the band, rocking out some upbeat and catchy jazz tunes. I’m always amazed at the musicians who can play so freely and easily, with no music in front of them, everything memorized or improvised. Such a beautiful gift, and such a wonderful one to share with others. Thank you!
Best way to enjoy a storm! 🥰
Splashing around in the rain because, why not? Hehe 🌧
Once they finished playing and the rain calmed down, we walked over to the Voodoo Museum. It was quite a small space, and there were quite a few people trying to get in. No surprise, given the weather conditions outside….it was the perfect time to go inside and warm up while learning something new.
Great way to wait out the heaviest of the rain. 🤗
We learned that Voodoo was brought to New Orleans by West African Slaves, and was hybridized with the most popular religion at the time, Catholicism. Loas are spirits in inanimate things that practitioners would pray to for favors of good fortune or protection. Voodoo dolls were mainly used for inflicting positive things on the person in question; improved health, success, etc. We also learned about Gris-gris bags and how they can be created specially for your personal needs and what you are trying to bring into your life.
We learned a bit more about Madam Laveau, who helped a lot of people during a yellow fever epidemic, adopted kids, and did a lot of charity work for the community. She was born a free person and helped anyone who came to her, despite social differences outside of her home. Voodoo Queens were the top dog in voodoo, followed by male priests. I love how the women are the powerful here. 🙂
After the museum visit, we rushed back to the hotel because we had to pee so badly, hehe. We spent some time regrouping there and, once again, headed back out to walk around and enjoy the scenery of the French Quarter. We stopped in a voodoo shop, as Heather was after a personalized Gris-Gris bag. She ended up not getting one but bought me a beautiful little voodoo doll that is for safe travels. My heart was so warmed with this thoughtful gift. I will be finding a home for it in my suitcase, and will take it with me wherever I go. 🙂 Thank you, Heather! We walked past the location where Marie Laveau’s house once stood and to Congo Park, where the slaves would gather on the weekends for a market and to play music and dance. The music was a huge influence on the birth of New Orleans Jazz. We continued our self-guided tour with a trip to Canal Street, which is a big contrast to the French Quarter. Lined with modern high rises, filled with traffic, and the best part: a cute street car that goes right down the middle.
We attempted to get beignets, but the store was closing. Bummer! We continued walking towards the Sazerac Distillery. We had briefly discovered Sazerac when looking at the cocktail menu for the carousel bar…a whopping $90 for the cocktail! Haha. Naturally, we had to know why this was such a delicacy. As it turns out, Sazerac is a rye whiskey with a nearly 400-year history in New Orleans. The original Sazerac was made with a cognac, and this $90 cocktail is made with just that. Okay, okay, I guesssss that makes sense. But I won’t be trying this anytime soon, hehe. Back to the distillery, it’s free to take the tour, and we decided to go for it since we were there. During the tour, we got to sample 4 tiny cocktails, and by the time we walked out of there, we felt it, haha. We are not whiskey/bourbon people, that’s for sure. Haha.
This stuff was no joke, haha 😅🥃
On our way back towards the French Quarter, Heather spots a funky clothing store with the style of dress I’ve been looking at, and I realize this shop is one I’ve been wanting to go to, since I first walked past it on a layover a while back. Naturally, we had to go in, and long story short, I walked out with a gorgeous flapper dress! I’m so excited, and I don’t really have a place to wear it, but I’m gonna wear it whenever I want, because it’s beautiful and I love it! Hehe. After our fast-paced city tour and shopping spree, we decided it was time for dinner. We wanted to go back to the same place as last night, but agreed we should try something new.
We stumbled upon Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar and Fish House, which had rave reviews, and we made our way there. We had to wait outside quite a while before securing a seat inside….it has to be good with people waiting to get in, right? Wrong. We were so disappointed by the food here. I guess nothing compares to the meal we had last night. Not one of the dishes we tried even came close to the flavors and quality of the French Market Restuarant. Disappointed, but happy we tried something new; we walked back to the hotel. We have another long day tomorrow! 🙂
Sunday:
Sunday is Swamp Day! Woohoo! Heather and I both really wanted to do this, and we couldn’t wait to get started! It would be a long tour, so we decided to fuel up with a good breakfast at Fleur de Lis. We ordered salmon Benedict, an avocado, goat cheese crepe, and indulged in a Bloody Mary and a Bellini. Yum! We were seated on the second floor, and this cute place had an adorable balcony seating area. I went outside to check that out, of course! Of all the times I’ve been to NOLA, I’ve never sat on a balcony…guess I’ll just have to keep coming back, hehe!
How cute is this?! 🤗😍
After breakfast, we strolled over to the pickup point for the tour, where we would meet a large group of swamp goers, excited and hopeful to spot some alligators. We hopped on a big tour bus, and we drove 40 minutes to a town called Slidel, where the Honey Island Swamp is located.
Before we knew it, we were being called to a small boat that fits about 20 people and meeting our boat captain and guide, Zander. He grew up in that area and kept us entertained for the 2 hour boat tour. The Pearl River was a muddy and, at times, brackish water. It seems all the bodies of water we’ve seen are muddy and brown.
Headed out to explore the swamp! 🤩🤗
Zander took us around to several spots, and by the end of the tour we had seen a total of 7 gators, one named Elvis, and he was the largest we saw; about 12 feet in length! We were hoping to see AN alligator, I didn’t expect to see 7! Hehe It was awesome! We also were lucky enough to see a ton of turtles, drying themselves on floating logs, 1 snake hiding in the branches of a bush, an owl that flew right across he river, a heron, a nutria rat, and about 6 raccoons! The raccoons were quite feisty and territorial over some food Zander gave them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a raccoon up close and personal. On our way back to the starting point, we passed by some local fisherman, and they showed us a catfish and another fish that people eat. That was a fun show and tell, and those fish did not like being on display, and caused some splashing that reached the edges of our boat, hehe. I have to say, I don’t think I’d appreciate that either, and would probably put up a fuss.
We saw so many animals! 🤗😁
We learned that Tupelo Honey comes from this swamp, and it is the only honey that doesn’t crystallize. I had no idea! There was a restaurant in Asheville, near where I went to college with that name, and I knew it was a southern honey, but I never knew where it came from. I love learning new trivia facts and piecing different experiences together. 🙂
We also learned the difference between a swamp and a bayou: A swamp has flowing, moving water, and a bayou has stagnant water. When the river water encroaches the swamp area, that is called backwater, and that is where most of the crawfish are caught. We learned that Spanish moss was named for the long grey beards the Spanish colonizers had, as the native populations didn’t have much facial hair.
One we were back at the Cajun Encounters headquarters, we were given the opportunity to hold a baby gator! This little guy’s name was Mojo-Jojo or Jojo-Mojo…I can’t remember exactly, hehe.
He was so much softer than I thought! 🤩 Now I want a pet alligator. 😅
We made our way back to town and strolled down Bourbon Street again, hoping to grab some Beigneits at Cafe Beinget, which apparently always has live jazz music! Along the way, we saw a Darth Vader lip syncing and doing the most dramatic interpretive dance to “My Heart Will Go On,” haha. The things you see…..
Only photo I snapped of this guy, but he deserves an Oscar, Emmy, or something for his performance, hahaha. 🤣🤣
We successfully got our beignets after several previous failed attempts, and we did our best to eat them without the powdered sugar blowing around on our black clothes…..but it was no to avail, haha. The table had small holes in it, and the sugar redesigned our pants to have cute white polka dot patterns, hehe.
Hurricanes and beignets…what more could a girl ask for? 😁😋
Next up, we had to try a hurricane from Pat O’Briens, as I guess that’s the number one place to try the drink. We didn’t know it then, but the hurricane drink originated in New Orleans. It was yummy! We walked up to the bar, and they already had about 10 made, so we quickly paid and took our giant to go cups and continued our wandering. We found ourselves right in the heart of the French Quarter Festival, listening to some live jazz music, and we went inside a park area where there was a big stage set up. I love how you can take your drink and go wherever…such a fun and novel experience, lol.
We strolled past some local artists and their treasures, and Heather and I were almost convinced to purchase something, but there wasn’t a single item that truly called to us; we just LOVED the styles of the artists, so we decided to hold off until we found something we knew we had to have (like my flapper dress, hehe).
“No outside bereages,” but we waltzed straight in with our less than conspicuous hurricanes from Pat O’Briens, lol 🤣.
We found ourselves back at the hotel for a refresh, including the debut of my new, incredible flapper dress! Seemed almost silly to wear it, but I LOVE the dress, and I wanted to wear it. So on it went, uniquely paired with my Birkenstocks, haha. Fancy up top, hippie on the bottom? Party in the back, business in the front? Am I a fashion mullet?? Hahah, #fashionmullet. Hey, at least I was comfortable! Haha
Our cemetary guide from yesterday told us he was bartending at a super dive bar and that he brings fresh mint from his garden to make mojitos. Ummmm… we’re in! We thought the name of this place was something like “Antiquities,” which seemed weird, but we confirmed the name with our guide, Carlos, and he said yes! Haha.. okay, well, now it’s time to figure out just exactly where it’s located, and we can’t find it for nothing! So I just look at google maps for bars on the street we know it’s on, and I see one called “Aunt Tiki’s,” and the light bulb goes off. Haha. Apparently, we couldn’t decipher the NOLA accent and have been dead wrong about what this bar is called. Hahah.
“Antiquities,” aka, Aunt Tiki’s. Haha 🤣
We eventually made it to the bar, but our guide, Carlos, was no longer working. Bummer! His shift ended an hour earlier, but he was still there hanging out, so we went inside and were served by Corinne, who made a mean mojito. Fashion designer, and super fun. We scrolled through her Instagram, admiring her work. And we met an interesting couple, Clara and Eric, who we talked to for a while. Clara is a pinup girl, and her photos were amazing and ignited an interest in retro outfits…must be partly to blame on my newly acquired 1920’s flapper dress, hehe. Eric grew up in NOLA and was displaced by Katrina, living in Michigan for several years. While at Aunt Tiki’s, we learned why there are no locks on the bathroom doors and no mirrors in the bathrooms….drugs! Haha. We were too naive to put 2 and 2 together, but this bar is known as one of the “diviest” dive bars, and well, I guess now we know why, lol.
After two mojitos, Heather and I decide to continue our night elsewhere, and it turns out, Clara and Eric had given us some places to check out near Frenchman Street, where I really wanted to go. As we were leaving, they said they were headed that way and would walk us over. How cool! Well, it was until we talked enough to learn that one of them was a coke dealer! Haha. We think they were just trying to make a sale or possibly get us to go home with them….the more they talked, the weirder things got. We very clearly said “no thanks,” to all the above, and soon they both walked out, as if they were going to smoke outside… but we figured they were ditching us, after realizing we weren’t what they were looking for, haha. Okay…..byyyyyeee! Hehe
Amen! 🫡
We continued on to Frenchmen Street…amazing!! It was almost like the difference between the Las Vegas strip and old Vegas. I loved it here! Jazz clubs and bars lined the street, and there were two small, quaint street markets going on. We tried to get into one club, but it was a $10 cover, and the jazz was a slow and calm jazz…easy listening. I wanted a boisterous, loud, horns galore, dancing jazz. So we popped into a place for some late night nourishment and enjoyed some tacos and Jamaican beef patties while listening to jazz playing in what seemed like the next room over. So naturally, after eating, we meandered in and were rewarded with 2 songs before the band was finished for the evening. I had a delicious caipirinha, essentially a Brazilian margarita, and we waited a while for the next band to start, but were too impatient, so we decided to head back to Pat O’Briens for the dueling pianos… which were amazing! With a name like “dueling pianos,” I expected there to be some competition and fighting over the songs being played, but it was much more relaxed, and the two pianists took turns playing requests from the rather large audience. There was standing room only by the time we showed up. And we kept saying we’d just stay for one more, one more, one more…..until we closed the place down around midnight, hehe. My favorite by far was Paradise By The Dashboard Lights. Gotta be one of my favorite songs of all times…I just love it! Haha. A tad risqué, but I appreciate a good word play, and the story telling is wonderful and cheeky. I’d say that was a fantastic end to the night! 🙂
Dueling pianos! 🤩😍
Go-home Day:
We decided to try for the direct flight back to Boston, which left around 2pm, I believe? This way we’d have time to go back and have one last meal at our favorite restaurant. And a meal we had both been craving to try, although I think Heather was MUCH more inspired than I was. Any guesses? Maybe the number one thing to order in New Orleans? Yep! Crawfish! Neither of had ever had them, and now that was about to change in a matter of hours, lol.
We packed up and got organized for our journey home, and had the hotel keep our bags for us while we went down to the French Market Restaurant, and we ordered all our favorites: charbroiled oysters, the Swamp Platter, with a portion of Jambalaya instead of the other dish we didn’t like, and a half boat of crawfish. OMG. They were SO FREAKING DELCIOUS! Probably has a bit to do with the seasoning on them, which was just the Zattarans Creole Seasoning….who knew? Haha. But, DANG! Seriously, delicious. And I was pleased we weren’t expected to try and suck out what minuscule amount of meat was in the claws, haha. Our waiter gave us a great demonstration right at our table. You just pull apart the body, suck out the juices from the head, and then peel off the shell on the tail and savor it all. Yummmm! Sorry for any vegetarians or non-seafood eaters…hehe.
Have you ever seen someone so happy for crawfish?!?! 🥰🤩
And one of my favorites: charbroiled oysters! Thank you, Bobby, for introducing these delicacies to me! 🤗🥰
Feelings oh so satisfied with our decisions in life, we head to the airport to see what’s good with our flight back to Boston. It’s rare to have a non-rev trip be hassle free, so I guess we were due when we realized we didn’t make the flight. Okay, so what are our options? We can try a million times for Atlanta, where non-revs go to die, OR, we could attempt going through Detroit or Minneapolis. The Minneapolis flight left first, so we tried it! Got on, okay, awesome! But…that meant we’d be spending the night there since there were no other flights out to Boston that night. 😂 Alright, so Heather was getting the FULL non-rev experience, hehe. And she was a champ! Even after a flight in the friendship seat with less-than-kind neighbors…. we rallied and found our way out of the maze that the MSP airport is and got our hotel shuttle to a rinky-dink podunk airport hotel. We were cracking up at the difference between this hotel and our lovely historic hotel in New Orleans. We had a late-night dinner at Culver’s, a new fast-food restaurant for each of us. Not ideal, but honestly, the food was great! They had warm sandwiches, so we each got a pastrami, and they had CHEESE CURDS. So I couldn’t resist, hehe.
We didn’t get much sleep, and we were back at the airport, and we made the flight back to Boston without any hassles. Overall, it was a wonderful trip to kickstart our travels together! Can’t wait to see where we go! Cheers, Heather!
I will love you forever, NOLA! 😍🤩🥰
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