



After eating, we tried our hand at drinking beer on the street. The verdict on that is that it's very hard. You really need a straw to facilitate your path to public intoxication. And then we just wandered. We went to a lovely used bookstore, because New Orleans is dotted with oh-so-many of those treasures(per the owner, "the barbarians are taking over"), and we just strolled around enjoying the relative quiet of the French Quarter on a Thursday afternoon.

The little details of the beautiful French Quarter.





These types of signs are all over New Orleans.

It's a bit blurry, but it was DELICIOUS.





From Magazine St, we walked down to Tchoupitoulas St., so that we could go on a tour of the NOLA Brewery. People. New Orleans is insane, as at this brewery "tour" you could have as many FREE PINTS OF BEER AS YOU WANTED. At first Jarrad and I were really confused, and then we realized: holy shit. You can get as much free beer as you want! It was kind of mind blowing. The beer was good and it was a fun time, but we didn't go overboard, as we still had other eating on the agenda for the day. But seriously, check out NOLA Brewery if you can, the staff is super friendly, the beer is good and it is FREE.





From here we walked to our favorite poboy shop, Domilise's. Have I mentioned how I love how walkable New Orleans is? We got here and ordered the fully dressed oyster poboy and the fully dressed shrimp poboy. Pure food heaven.





And then we walked to Hansen's for some famous New Orleans snoballs. In most of the United States, they are known as snocones, but seriously, they are known by different names because they are worlds apart! The ice on these snoballs just melts in your mouth, they are absolutely incredible. Not to mention that the syrups don't taste violently artificial. I got cream of nectar/cream of strawberry and Jarrad got ice cream/cream of coffee; they were both topped with condensed milk. Cream of nectar is a strictly New Orleans thing, so I had to get it. It is a bright pink syrup that tastes of vanilla and almonds, and it is good. Also, the amount of care that was put into making these snoballs was astounding; that always impresses me about New Orleans. Everyone takes their time and takes their food and drink very seriously.





Then we walked a whole bunch and felt very tired, so of course we stopped in at Arnaud's 75 and had some cocktails.





On Friday, I had planned (for the second freaking time) to do a walking tour of the St. Louis Cemetery, and for the second freaking time, a huge thunderstorm hampered my plans. Because it got cancelled, we just ended up going to Cafe du Monde for some cafe au lait and beignets. Then we walked in the rain to the Oyster Festival, which was a soggy rainy mess. So we explored the covered flea market in the French Market, but there was really nothing very interesting for sale. So we decided to just say "fuck it" and we ducked into a bar and got beers and pizza and waited out the storm. Mmm, pizza.









The rest of the day consisted of more food (specifically vegan hot dogs), more drinks, and a man trying to get me into his car to go get drinks. To be honest, we were spent by Saturday night. We are old! And so much walking, eating and drinking is not really part of our life anymore. A Saturday night in Nola, and we were in bed by 10pm. In all seriousness, though, if you haven't been to New Orleans, get yourself there asap. It's a beautiful and bewitching city, and although we haven't explored the region much, I think we can safely say it's our favorite Southern city. As they like to say, Laissez les bon temps roulez!

You have to love a city with so much reading related propaganda!!

Jarrad and I often joke that the best thing about living in Houston is that the Crescent City is so close by. New Orleans has personality, charm, history, and friendly locals. Houston has none of those things, so it's no wonder we are always in search of a short term exodus, a temporary balm to the banality of the Middle-American ambitions of most Houstonians. New Orleans, in short, always lets the good times roll. We took a longer weekend and spent about three days in the Big Easy. We first visited in December, so we packed in a bunch of stuff for that short visit, including walking tours, city parks, and about 18 meals. This time, since we'd done the whole history lesson on our previous visit, we went to eat and drink. To walk around and not be afraid of becoming yet another pedestrian fatality . We started by taking a MegaBus to New Orleans, an idea that was met with revulsion by about 100% of my coworkers. But it was so great! Upon arrival in Nawlins, we left our stuff at our Airbnb rental and then went out to eat, because we were huuuuuungry.Guess what we came upon during our walk? A Banksy graffiti! Of course, this being New Orleans, the piece has been covered in plastic for its own protection.Nothing like coming across interesting items on your way to consume some beer and chargrilled oysters. This is Jarrad's face of anticipation:After a full day of drinking, we were ready to embark on Friday, with plans for more eating and drinking! This time around we stayed in the 7th Ward, because it was cheaper while still close to everything New Orleans has to offer. You can really get most places on foot and/or by public transportation. The 7th Ward is a bit grittier than the Marigny, but still felt super safe. So Friday morning we strolled on over to the Marigny, which I know is so hipster and gentrified, but I kind of love it. We went to have breakfast at Cake Cafe, but before and after we just sort of ambled along the streets. Because they are...well, just great.From our wonderful breakfast in the Marigny, we walked through the French Quarter and over to Canal St in order to catch the St. Charles Street Car to the Garden District. It was my intention to stroll along Magazine Street and maybe bump into John Goodman while stalking him outside his house. Unfortunately, there was a huge downpour and we spent a bit of time in a little cafe until the rain calmed enough. Then we did stroll Magazine St, but we didn't get to stalk Dan Conner.