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Ah, “The Big Easy.”  What a blast.  Sorry we have been a bit burnt out with the blog – but we’re back…and just in time for the work week to start (blog hits double during the working hours – slackers!).

Our trip to NO was a long one – over 9 hours if we can remember correctly.  We booked our hotel through Hotwire.com.  It was a 4.5 star hotel a block from the French Quarter called Le Pavillon.  It was incredibly nice…too nice, actually.  We arrived after dark and promptly checked in so we could lay down for a bit before dinner.  After a quick nap, we got all dressed up and ate dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.  Kathleen had a steak and Will ordered the meatloaf.  It was a nice (and expensive) meal but worth it since it was good food and incredibly convenient.  Then we were able to get some much needed sleep to prepare for our big day walking around the French Quarter.

We woke up, grabbed our bag, and hit the streets to explore everything the French Quarter has to offer.  We began our journey by having breakfast at the Cafe du Monde.  There we had their famous Cafe au Laut and Beignets.  We didn’t care for the coffee (though we aren’t big coffee drinkers) and the beignets were tasty even though we thought they were just oddly-shaped funnel cakes.  From breakfast we spent the remainder of the morning exploring Decatur Street.  We started by walking around Jackson Square.  Here, artists lined the street selling their beautiful paintings – a bit pricey for our budget unfortunately.  From Jackson Square we ventured into the various shops and stopped by the Moonwalk (it looks like a set of stairs descending into the Mississippi River).  We also walked through the French Market and bought a couple of a retired Marine’s pencil drawing prints.  Lunch quickly snuck up on us so we backtracked to the Central Grocery.  Here, we ordered a Muffuleta and a Root Beer to go and we carried it up to the water for a great view while we shared this very olivey sandwich.  After a quick bite to eat, it was back to the streets.

We continued walking – this time down Bourbon Street and on each of the connecting streets between Bourbon and Decatur.  Along the way we stopped inside a Voodoo “museum” where we paid a steep price of $10 to look at two small rooms filled with dolls and other voodoo artifacts.  We also stopped in Pat O’Brien’s, the local Irish pub, for a drink.  We looked at their famous “Fire & Ice” fountain but were less than impressed.  After walking back to our hotel, we informed Kathleen’s sister we didn’t love the fountain and we were ordered to return after dark…

After walking all day, we laid down and took great naps.  We awoke to darkness and knew it was time to venture out and find some authentic New Orleans cuisine.  The concierge recommended a place called “Mother’s.”  Here we ate a combination plate of Jambalaya, seafood gumbo, white beans & rice, potato salad, and greens (the beans & rice were our favorite).  From here we walked to Bourbon Street to see how it was different at night.  Once at the mouth of the beast, it quickly became evident that it was the place to go.  People were crowding the sidewalks, neon lights line the street, and to-go beers were seen everywhere (legal in the French Quarter=awesome!).  We visited a few places, mainly Pat O’Brien’s.  Here, the fountain lived up to its reputation.  A fairly large fire shoots from the top of the fountain and the water is lit by different colored lights – mesmerizing!  On our way back to our hotel, we stopped and picked up some “Huge Ass Beers” to-go.  We chose the locally brewed Abita and it came in a 32-oz cup – more than enough for our mile walk to the hotel.  Once at the hotel we thought the staff would question us about who we were and if we were legit guests of the hotel – we didn’t exactly fit in with our giant beers!  The hotel has a tradition of putting out PB&J sandwiches nightly and these were a great compliment to our beers!  After quickly snagging a few sandwiches, we went up to our room (unquestioned we might add) where we quickly fell asleep.  All-in-all, we walked more than 10 miles and saw enough to make New Orleans one of our favorite stops of the trip.

After NO we drove to Florida where we have been until today (12/13/2009).  We are currently in the town of Richmond Hill, GA (not far from Savannah) and will lump FL and GA into one post once we return home on Tuesday.  Once we get settled back in and relaxed we will put up a few follow-up posts about our trip (if anyone has anything they would like us to write regarding our experience, please let us know!).