my love affair with new orleans | may 2016
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
A little history about my history with New Orleans. I always wanted to go there. The stories, the architecture, the underbelly...the entire thought of it appealed to me.
The very first trip the Man Friend and I took together was to New Orleans. It's the first place I had traveled to and thought, "I could see myself happily living here." It's where we fell in love. It's where we got married (almost exactly 4 years later). It's the place that has managed to wedge itself into my heart and get deep into my bones. It's my soul city.
Every time we travel there, it's a different experience. There's always a new restaurant or bar, a recently formed band getting their start on Royal Street, an interesting adventure down a rabbit hole. Despite all of the legitimate history, things are always progressing in New Orleans...even if it's at its own pace.
This past May, we were able to meet two of the Man Friend's best friends (and their lovely ladies) for an amazing weekend in New Orleans. It was especially fun, considering neither of the girls had ever been. And what an experience it was!
For the first day, we did a lot of the touristy stuff...Pat O'Brien's, a walk through Jackson Square, lunch at Felix's. That night we attended the Fleur de Tease burlesque show at One Eyed Jack...it's just another one of those amazingly New Orleans-esque things.
The following day, we ventured into the Garden District for a walk through the cemetery and bar hopping in a more local setting. The Man Friend and I even got to have a drink at hotel we stayed in during our first trip. We also enjoyed "parking lot beers" at the Courtyard Brewery.
However, the final day was the best. After several little adventures, our friends finally got to experience the "real" New Orleans. Dive bars, weird restaurants, quirky locals, smart ass bartenders...it was like New Orleans had held out on our friends until the last moment.
We restaurant-hopped. We were introduced to Al, the ex-hotel employee, who spends his retirement camped out at the Chart Room, chatting up tourists and locals alike (we all fell in love with him). We dealt with a powdered sugar explosion with late-night beignets.
While most of my travel blogs won't be in this format, I couldn't help but talk about my ongoing love affair with New Orleans. It just won't ever go away. The moment I'm leaving, I start planning my new trip.
““If I could put my finger on it, I’d bottle it and sell it. I came down here originally in 1972 with some drunken fraternity guys and had never seen anything like it — the climate, the smells. It’s the cradle of music; it just flipped me. Someone suggested that there’s an incomplete part of our chromosomes that gets repaired or found when we hit New Orleans. Some of us just belong here.””
I wish for all of you to get flipped. I wish for ALL of you to find your soul city. The place that calls you home.
