New Orleans!

Early in January, Erik and I were fed up with the incessant snow and sub-freezing temperatures. So when I spotted a cheap fare (less than $300 each!) to New Orleans, we impulsively booked a long weekend on the spot. Such a good decision. We had the best time, and it was such a fun break from the dreary winter.


Man, what a cool city. It has such colorful architecture and gorgeous wrought iron. I joked that everyone we met came straight from central casting, with either a genteel James Carville-like drawl ("'scuse me, pah-dner") or down-home clip. Everywhere you turned, there was someone playing music, dancing, or doing a magic trick. That's partly because we stayed smack dab in the French Quarter, at the lovely and centrally located Omni Hotel. There was a rooftop heated pool, and one morning I did laps while the city was waking up. It was blissful to soak up the sunshine and views!


We didn't have an agenda or itinerary, which was refreshing. Mostly, we ate and drank. Of course, we went to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets, which pretty much taste like State Fair fried dough to me. (Yum!) We had shrimp and oyster po boys at Johnny's and Mother's, as well as fried alligator and turtle soup. One memorable meal was at Nola, one of Emeril's restaurants, where Erik had the shrimp and grits and I had lots of wine and gumbo.


But perhaps our favorite bite of the trip was the muffuletta at Central Grocery. It's an Italian sandwich topped with olive salad on a thick round bread in exactly the right proportions of meat to salty to soft. Erik was so obsessed that we had it three times in as many days! He also made up a song about the muffuletta that we sang all weekend.


When we weren't eating, we pretty much explored. One day, we rented bikes and cruised all over town, heading up to the Garden District to look at the stately homes and crumbling cemetery. Of course, Erik also insisted on going to a bunch of men's clothing stores to do research for work; I paid him back by making him pose for lots of pictures and dragging him to street fairs. Hands down, my favorite part of the trip was shaking off the winter grumpiness and laughing my head off with my favorite guy.


In conclusion, dear reader, New Orleans makes for the perfect wintertime getaway. It's quite affordable, and there's plenty to do, see, and eat in three days!