I had the pleasure of spending the end of 2018 in New Orleans with Justin, Phil, Rob, Gino and Christina but never officially posted about it, so here it is six month overdue...
Thursday, December 27th
Once we were checked into our rooms we decided to go explore Bourbon Street and get something to eat before it was time to go on our first tour of the city.
We ended up going to
Felix's Restaurant & Oyster Bar (One of my sister's recommendations) for various po-boys. And then we hit up a couple of bars including
The Old Absinthe Bar because it started pouring before we had to walk over to
City Segway Tours for our two hour tour of the city (Which Christina decided to bow out of because she wasn't into the idea of Segwaying).
After a very informative private tour (Apparently myself, Justin and Gino were the only people who wanted to Segway in the rain that day) of the city, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner at
Carrollton Market (Can I tell you, the dinner we had at
Carrollton Market was fantastic. Of all of the places we ate at while in NOLA, this was mine and Justin's favorite).
When we were done with dinner (Which ended up being much earlier than I had planned) we head over to
Le Bon Temps Roule for some drinks and to see the brass band
The Soul Rebels.
Unfortunately they didn't go on when they were scheduled and as much as we wanted to see them perform, it was just getting too late and was way too crowded in the room they were supposed to play in. So we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel.
Friday, December 28th
We started off our day by going to the
Ruby Slipper and having a ridiculously good and very filling breakfast.
After we were done eating we hopped in a Lift towards the meeting spot for the
Two Chicks Walking Tour of the
Garden District and Lafayette Cemetery #1.
While on the tour we saw author Anne Rice's old home, one of the two homes the IRS took away from Nicolas Cage back in 2009, Buckner Mansion aka Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies from American Horror Story (2011 - Present) Coven and Apocalypse, as well as a number of other beautiful homes and graves.
Once the tour was over we hopped on one of the streetcars and head to Magazine Street to check our
Ashley Longshore's art gallery and just walk around some more before taking a mid-afternoon break.
A couple of hours later the four of us headed over to the
French Market to get dinner, but we didn't realize what time it was and the majority of the vendors had already started to close up, so walked towards Bourbon Street trying to find somewhere that would seat the four of us relatively quickly because we had a ghost tour to go on.
Eventually we found a restaurant and ate. Then Gino and I decided to get ourselves Hand Grenades (Because we were told we HAD to try them) to take with us on our tour. And then we just waited for Phil and Rob (Who flew in that afternoon) to show up and for
Lord Chaz's Vampire Street Theatre: The Original Ghost and Vampire Tour start.
On the tour, Lord Chaz and Master Thomas told us spooky tales and legends that are rumored to have taken place in various places around the French Quarter. We heard the stories about Madame Delphine LaLaurie, tales of young men and their unfortunate encounters with Romeo Spikes/Catchers and many others.
When we were done getting our spooky on, we decided to get our beignet on and head over to
Café du Monde for a late night snack before heading in for the night.
Saturday, December 29th
We started off our day with a quick breakfast inside the hotel before meeting up with Phil and Rob to go the
Haunted History New Orleans Cemetery History Tour so that we could go into St. Louis Cemetery # 1 (Which you aren't allowed in without a guide) to see Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau's grave.
When we were done with the tour we headed over to the
French Market to get lunch and then we did a little bit of shopping before going back to the hotel for our mid-afternoon break (We're getting old).
Later on in the evening we headed over to
Brennan's Restaurant for Justin's birthday dinner. Unfortunately Christina wasn't feeling well so she didn't join us, so it was me and the boys for the night. We drank some cocktails and beers. We ate a lot of food, including their famed Bananas Foster. And we just BSed.
When we were done at
Brennan's we headed over to
Preservation Hall to wait in line in hopes of getting in to see the 10:00PM performance, which we thankfully did.
After an awesome show, our old selves went back to our hotels because we all needed to wake up early for the excursions we had planned for the next day.
Sunday, December 30th
We woke up early and got ready to be picked up by the
Louisiana Tour Company to go on their combination
airboat swamp and plantation tour.
We started off the day with a private airboat tour of the swamp with the incredibly funny Captain Brad. While on the tour we saw a couple of alligators, which we were surprised to see because according to Captain Brad they are normally in hibernation at this time, and lots of nature.
After we were done on the airboat we headed to the
Oak Alley Plantation to walk the grounds and have lunch. Unfortunately when we got there we were informed that there was an hour and a half wait to get into the main house, so we decided to spend our time walking around elsewhere on the property.
Once we were done at the plantation we headed back into New Orleans, took a breather and met back up for dinner at Seaworthy.
Despite coming highly recommended by many of my friends, I had the worse dinning experience of 2018 there. The service was abhorrent, the food was mediocre and not served properly, etc. It was so bad I had to give the manager a piece of my mind.
Thankfully the evening was salvaged by an amazing performance by
The New Soul Finders feat. Marilyn Barbarin, Wild Bill Daniel, Jordan Anderson and The Naughty Professor Horns at the
Ace Hotel, which we enjoyed before calling it a night.
Monday, December 31st
Since it was New Year's Eve we made sure not to plan anything but a ride on the
Steamboat Natchez during the day because we knew we'd be staying up late.
After cruising on the Mississippi River for two hours we got back to shore to see that the
Allstate Sugar Bowl Parade was still going on, so we watched a bit of it before heading to
Muriel's Jackson Square for lunch.
When we were done with lunch we all headed back to our hotels to nap (We're old) before getting ready for the New Year's Eve festivities.
Once we regrouped after our naps we popped into the
Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone to check it out. It was packed, so we just kept walking until we found a bar we could get to-go drinks at and we wandered around Jackson Square until it was time for our dinner reservations at
Tableau.
After dinner and dessert, we headed down to the river to watch the fireworks at midnight.
Before the fireworks even ended we started heading back towards our hotels because we knew it was about to get crazy on the streets and our old selves weren't up for whatever was going to happen.
Tuesday, January 1st
New Year's Day we woke up, had a quick breakfast at our hotel and headed to the airport to fly home. Originally we were scheduled to leave later in the evening, but we all got sick and decided to fly out earlier in the day.
Overall, it was a great trip. It wasn't the wild booze filled vacation people think about when they hear one is going to New Orleans, but it was perfect for us.
