Wow, for some reason it really took me a long time to finish this. I think because I was kind of traumatized by my rental car getting totaled while my sister and I were at the rest stop in Pearlington, Mississippi. But here is my post, which I started working on a month and a half ago! By the time I write this, my sister has already been back to New Orleans. Haha
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A few weeks ago I went to New Orleans with my sister. I had originally planned to do a road trip in the south to end in New Orleans, but it just wasn’t possible so we tried to do a shorter version and take a one day trip to Alabama. We stayed at Maison Dupuy in the French Quarter, which was so pretty, but also loud, filled with people in town for weddings and partying, even being on the very outskirts of the quarter, with Bourbon Street.
One of my favorite places that we visited was Erin Rose & Killer Po’Boy. It didn’t feel like we were right off of Bourbon Street, it felt more like we were in Seattle or Austin. We also went to Cafe Beignet and Cafe Du Monde of course! Of the two my favorite was Cafe Beignet, and that was because they were a bit lighter than the ones at Cafe Du Monde. Also, the wait was not nearly as long. Although when we did go to Cafe Du Monde, we went at 10pm on a Wednesday night, so there was no wait at all. The coffee was to die for though, with the smoked chicory. The Old Coffee Pot was also really great for southern cooking in the French Quarter, and the Callas Cakes were the thing to try.
We had also decided we were going to go on a swamp tour, which was so much fun. We went with Cajun Encounters and did a swamp tour of Honey Island. We got to see a lot of alligators, and a wild boar and learned a lot of history about the swamp. Also that morning we did a food tour of the French Quarter by Free Tours By Foot. Which was pretty impressive, went over the history of New Orleans cooking, and places to not miss in and around the French Quarter. I would highly recommend it.
We also walked around the Ninth Ward, went to the Garden District and got a tour of a haunted mansion, drove to Alabama and ate at Wintzells Oyster House. Famous for their oysters, so we had those of course! I really loved going to Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi as well, it was gorgeous there. And the town of Bay Saint Louis was super cute, after we finally got there, and had to die for Po’Boys. We had about a 4 hour delay after the rental car was smashed, until we got a new rental car, for our road trip, so what we had originally planned was cut short that day. What happened was that while we were at the rest stop in Mississippi, a giant Expedition speed in reverse into 3 cars at full speed. It actually pushed our car into the car next to it. But after getting that taken care of, we did enjoy the rest of our trip.
Another place I would recommend that we went to was Bachannal Wine in the Ninth Ward, which had a beautiful outdoor patio and live music, and a wonderful variety of cheese. I would definitely go back to New Orleans, but maybe next time I would stay in the Garden District of the CBD, and definitely go somewhere to try crawfish, and maybe try to stay in Alabama next time, for longer exploring, since it was only a 2 hour drive or so. I would also try to make reservations for Commander’s Palace. Hope you enjoyed the photos!