New Orleans

My flight arrived early in the morning, so my first itinerary item was breakfast. To immerse myself in New Orleans culture from the get-go, I headed to Café Beignet. Beignets are deep-fried pastries usually served with powdered sugar – and in NOLA, they are quite generous with the powdered sugar. I grabbed a bag of beignets and a coffee to walk a few blocks over to the Mississippi River and eat breakfast while watching the waves roll.

Next I headed towards the French Quarter, the quintessential New Orleans neighborhood. I walked around Jackson Square, known for the St. Louis Cathedral. Next I visited the Historic New Orleans Collection, a free museum with exhibits on the city’s culture and history. While I visited, they had a wonderful display on Mardi Gras where they showed a few costumes attendees have worn in the past.

My friend’s flight landed so we met up for an early dinner at Killer PoBoys, which serves a variety of sandwiches and specializes in po’ boys, another regional specialty. Next we joined a tour of haunted New Orleans. We visited a few cemeteries, including Masonic Temple cemetery and a memorial cemetery known for supernatural sightings, where we used divination rods to communicate with the spirits. The tour also stopped at Morning Call Café, which by the end of our thorough research had the best beignets.

We began our second day with a bayou tour run by Cajun Encounters. Just a short ride from the center of Crescent City are swamplands with their own ecosystems. We rode on small boat into the swamp and explored its depths while alligators and other wildlife slid in and out of view. I had a chance to toss a food morsel to an alligator near our boat and it was thrilling to watch its jaws clamp down on its meal. Back in their giftshop, there was also a baby alligator you can hold.

We headed back to the city where we had a great lunch at Willa Jean’s. To combat the heat, we stopped by Aqua S for delicious, pastel-colored milkshakes. We wandered back to the French Quarter and through Bourbon Street, which is brimming with party spirit all day. We visited the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum, which houses artifacts of Louisiana Voodoo. Though it is a small area, it gives a comprehensive view of the religion and its importance in New Orleans’ history. Our next stop was Café du Monde for more beignet research. We headed over to the Garden District to grab dinner at a chic spot, Vintage NOLA, that had everything from truffle fries to alligator nuggets.

The third day began back at Café Beignet for breakfast., where I opted for a more solid meal of an omelet. We boarded the Steamboat Natchez and began our cruise down the Mississippi. The live band struck up jazz music while we sailed down the river. When we disembarked, we returned to the French Quarter to get lunch at the Gumbo Shop, which served traditional gumbo as well as a vegetarian version. We popped into Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar, the oldest bar in the city.

We returned to the Garden District and checked out shops in that area. We also visited the assortment of beautiful houses, including historic mansions like the Buckner Mansion known in pop culture for its appearance on American Horror Story. We stopped for a snowball, another popular regional dessert. We grabbed a quick dinner in the neighborhood.

Our last stop before our flights departed was Brennan’s, a pink restaurant famous for inventing bananas foster in the 1950s. Not only was the décor as charming as could be, but the food was also wonderful.