Ireland!

Everyone thought I was joking when I said I was taking a big, fat vacation when my co-worker returned from her 6 month long maternity leave that I was covering.  But...they were wrong.  Ireland was booked and nothing was stopping me.

My friend Jen recently got married and decided she wanted to share the first part of her honeymoon with her friends in Ireland for New Years.  Before we knew it, eight people were on board for this crazy adventure.  Going into the trip, this was our itinerary (which we pretty much stuck to):

Dec. 27- Arrive in Dublin
Dec. 29- Dublin
Dec. 30-Dublin (day trip to Kilkenny)
Dec. 31-Travel to Galway/New Year's Eve
Jan. 1-Galway
Jan.2- Galway (day trip to the Cliffs of Moher/ the Burren)
Jan. 3- Ashford Castle (County Mayo)
Jan 4- Travel to Dublin
Jan. 5- tbd 
Jan. 6- fly home

We probably would have been able to travel to other areas of Ireland if NYE didn't fall right in the middle of our trip.  With such a large group, we mostly traveled by train and tour bus.  With a smaller group we could have rented a car to see more of the country, but we still had plenty to do and see where we were.

New Orleans! Days 3 & 4

Just logged on to start thinking about some posts about Ireland, and noticed I never finished posting about New Orleans.  Well, here are the notes I made.  Not very interesting/useful now.  Must get better at this or it's not worth doing... 

Sunday, March 24, 2013

St. Charles Streetcar
Audubon Park
Magazine Street- pizza
Back through park
Tulane/Loyola
Domenica
Fritzels
Tropical Isle- Kris/fireballs

Monday, March 25, 2013

Lunch- Between the Bread
Garden District tour
Lunch on Magazine
nap
Emerils
Fritzels

All I remember for sure is that Fritzels is AMAZING!  Intimate little live music place that I couldn't get enough of.  The Garden District Tour was also pretty cool....lots of history and famous people's houses.

New Orleans! Day 2

Saturday, March 23, 2013

We didn't have much of a plan for Saturday.  By the time we were up and running it was already lunch time, so we relied on yelp for a lunch option near the hotel.  We went to Red Gravy, and it fit the bill.  I'm sure we could have found someplace a little better, but it was 1) close, 2) no wait, and 3) both breakfast and lunch on the menu.

After brunch, we made our way over to the Riverwalk.  It runs along the Mississippi River.  There is an open plaza area, the Steamboat ports, and a shopping center.  Maybe we missed something, but unless you are taking one of the steamboat cruises, I see no reason to check out the Riverwalk.  We walked around for awhile, but we not very entertained.

Steamboat

We had read about a food festival going on near the French Market, so we thought we would check that out.  Big regret not waiting to eat lunch until we got to the food festival.  There were a bunch of vendors with 2 to 3 items on their menus, mostly all local cuisine.

With the lack of a real plan, and not much else to see in the area, we decided some day-drinking was in order.  We stopped in a few antique shops along Royal Street on route to Tropical Isle.  We had been waiting for the right opportunity to try a Hand Grenade drink, which they are known for and claim to be "New Orleans most powerful drink".  They are a bright green, melon flavored drink served in a small yard-style cup with plenty of alcohol.  A little too sweet for my liking, but still a must-do while in New Orleans.  While there, we got involved in another bet-- being able to shoot the small plastic grenade that comes into your drink into a net they have hanging from the ceiling.  Danielle easily made the shot and won us both beers! yay!  A much needed change in flavor after the Hand Grenade.

We were having a great time day-drinking, but we had to go back to the hotel to get ready for some night-drinking on Frenchmen Street.  Danielle's college friend Bree was picking us up to show us the more local scene, since she's been living in New Orleans for a few years.

First she took us to The Bulldog, in Uptown/Garden District.  It was a great bar with a huge beer selection and a great patio.  I was able to watch some of the Duck game (NCAA tournament second round game verse St. Louis) while we were there.  By half time we were ready for dinner.

We headed off for a traditional New Orleans meal Uptown, but the wait was too long and we opted for the new BBQ place next door, Squeal.  Bree had heard from some friends that it was good, and it did not disappoint.  I was excited to try some southern bbq!

With our bellies full we were ready to check out the much-anticipated Frenchmen Street.  I had heard that it was more of a locals scene where every bar had live music.  And it was amazing!  Every bar had a calendar outside listing all their musical entertainment.  We bar hopped down the street and heard a wide variety of music.  It was one of the highlights of the trip!

Debauche- very unique music

Huge calendars of entertainment outside every bar

Enjoying some crazy music

The night came to a close with a late-night visit to Cafe du Monde, because beingets really should be eaten daily (at least on vacation).

New Orleans! Day 1

Friday, March 22, 2013

There was so much to do and see that we really didn't know where to start.  With food on the brain, we headed off to Jackson Square, where there were a few restaurants that were recommended to us.

We walked along St. Peter Street, which was lined with shops and eateries.  Behind St. Peter Street was the Mississippi River.  We got to Jackson Square and it was beautiful.  There are some stairs you can walk up with a great view of the square.  Horse drawn carriages and street artists lined the street, Cafe du Monde sat on the corner, and beautiful St. Louis Cathedral was visible from anywhere on the square.  Now it felt like we were in New Orleans!

The restaurants coming with recommendations had long waits, and we were starving.  We walked around forever and finally towards the French Market in a search for lunch.  We sat outside at a cafe that overlooked the market.  Sadly, the cafe did not live up to all the great things we had heard about the food in New Orleans.  Granted this was a random cafe in a touristy area, but it was kind of gross.

New Orleans food at the French Market

Next we explored the French Market.  The back side is lined with food stands, serving mostly New Orleans-style food, including Gator Po Boys and Jambalaya.  The rest of the market is filled with vendors selling mostly the same souvenir junk over and over.  I came across a local artist though, and bought a print of one of his drawings.

French Market

We decided to go back to Jackson Square since we didn't see much of it, as food was our first priority.  We noticed there was no line at Cafe du Monde, so we decided it was time for our first beignet experience.  I was worried there was too much hype around these and thought I might be disappointed.  Nope.  They are all the rage because they are that amazing.  Warm fried goodness drenched in powdered sugar.  We sat at a small table soaking in the yumminess and listening to a street band place some jazz.

Beingets!

We took a long walk down Royal Street popping into shops here and there.  We ended up back on Bourbon, and decided to stay in the area since we had a Cocktail Tour lined up a little later.  The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament was in the first round, so we took a rest (the first of many visits) at Tropical Isle, to watch some of the games and have a beer.  They had two people singing some covers which was fun.

Balconies & Horsies

Jackson Square

Scandalous Cocktail Tour

What's not to love about this concept?  A little bit of history and exploring the city AND drinks!  I mean, it sounded perfect.  We chose the Scandalous Cocktail Tour ($25 and starts at Pat O'Briens). (Danielle did another cocktail tour with her co-workers, so I will have to find out which she thought was better.)  Rebecca was our tour guide and she was really knowledgeable about some of the scandalous past of New Orleans.  We visited six locations on our 2.5 hour tour, four of which were bars where Rebecca recommended a cocktail and told us some history about it.  Here is where we went and what we drank:

1) Hotel Monteleone- Carousel Bar
This historic hotel is owned by a Sicilian family (who still lives in the penthouse of the hotel), who had ties to the Mafia and Lee Harvey Oswald.  They are famous for their carousel bar, which is made from a real carousel and slowly spins.
Cocktail: Sazerak

2) Royal Sonesta Hotel- Irvin Mayfield Jazz Club
Irvin Mayfield is a grammy-winning jazz artist and owns a jazz club in the Royal Sonesta Hotel.  Free live jazz every night, but sadly we never made it back.
Cocktail: Gin Fizz

3) May Bailey's
May Bailey's is a former brothel.  We learned some interesting information on the role of prostitution in the history of New Orleans.
Cocktail: Pimms Cup

4) Omni Royal Hotel
Rebecca told us a tragic (and more recent) story of a man who killed his girlfriend, cooked her, and then committed suicide by jumping from the hotel's balcony bar.  There is a book about the story called Shake the Devil Off.
No cocktail at this stop

5) Pirate's Alley Cafe and Absinthe House
We learned all about Absinthe and how to prepare it.  Then we went inside where we got to watch the bartender make the drinks.  It is an interesting process involving absinthe, sugar, and cold water.  Too bad it tastes like black licorice.
Cocktail: Absinthe

6) Fritzel's
All I can say is THANK YOU to Rebecca for bringing us to this place, as it became one of our favorite places to visit throughout our trip!  It's a small hole-in-the-wall type place with live jazz every night.  More on Fritzel's later though.
No cocktail on this stop

Overall, we really enjoyed the tour!  We tried three of the four drinks (we skipped the Pimms Cup) and learned a lot of scandalous info!  I would recommend this tour (but I noticed the other guide had lots of negative reviews--be sure to go in Rebecca's group, not Glenn's).

After all these drinks, we were ready for some dinner.  We had walked past a restaurant that was giving out free samples of yummy sausage, so we decided to go back there for dinner.  We got a cute table outside at Cafe Soule on St. Louis St.  The kitchen seemed to have some issues, which put a damper on our meal.  My sausage po' boy was pretty good (although missing the sauce when it came out), Danielle's fried oyster crepe had some issues (weird crepe consistency), and our crab cakes never came (apparently they ran out and didn't tell our server).  Pretty disappointing, but this place could have some potential if the kitchen could get it together.

It had been a long day, so we wandered back to our hotel and called it a night.

New Orleans! Arrival

I just returned from a fantastic trip to New Orleans!  It has been on the top of my list of US destinations for quite some time now, and a great opportunity to make it happen came up.  My cousin Danielle was heading out that way for a work meeting, and we decided to go out early to explore the city. 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

We flew out on Thursday morning, and arrived in New Orleans just in time for dinner and drinks.  We stayed in the W in the Central Business District (CBD).  If I did it again, I would probably stay in the French Quarter (off Bourbon), but we got the room at a great rate and made it work.  It was probably a 15-20 minute walk to Bourbon Street, that we got quite familiar with. 

So we ventured to Bourbon Street after getting settled at the hotel, not knowing if our visions of it would live up to our expectations.  Bourbon was alive and well.  We walked in awe down the long, narrow street peaking into different bars and getting pelted by beads being thrown from balconies up above.

Bourbon Street

We got our first drink at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, an old, quaint bar.  It was a cool place, but with an open-container law at our fingertips, we poured our beers into a "to-go" cup and kept wandering.

Our next official stop was Pat O'Briens.  It was recommended to us by just about everyone who had a recommendation to give.  We found our way to the dueling piano room, and it was bustling with people.  Somehow we got two stools at the bar, and parked it there for a lot of the night.  We met a nice group of guys in town for business, when we somehow got involved their bet of how quickly they could take down a hurricane drink.  Ryan won at 5.8 seconds.  Wow.

Dueling Pianos at Pat O's

Although we kept the night fairly mellow, the whole trip is a little blurry and I can't remember if we went anywhere else this night.  I do, however, remember that we realized we never ate dinner and wanted to grab a snack for our walk home.  We had, what I think we agreed, was the grossest peice of pizza ever.  I guess they think drunk people don't know the difference.

After a stop at CVS to pick up some hotel room essentials (water and goldfish), we called it a night, so we could start really exploring the next day.

Our Nation's Capital: Day 1

On May 8th I flew out for my first visit to our nation's capital-- Washington, DC!  A good friend, Jenny (aka "G"), was getting married over the weekend, but I thought I would take the opportunity to explore DC for a few days.

I arrived on Tuesday night, and Tom (a friend I made traveling in Thailand) picked me up from DCA, which is right near downtown DC.  He wanted to show me a bit of DC at night, so we went to Old Ebbitt Grill, which was a cool, old restaurant.  While we waited a short while for our table, we walked a few blocks down to see the White House and the Old Executive Building lit up at night.

White House at Night

Old Exectutive Building

On Wednesday, we headed out for a long day of DC site seeing!  We took the metro from Arlington, where Tom lives.  The first stop on our tour was the Washington Monument.  I was impressed with how tall it actually is!  From there, we started a big loop, which included (hopefully in order): the WWII Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the George Mason Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the MLK Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and finally the White House.  My favorite was the FDR Memorial!  This took us all morning and we were more than ready for some lucnh!

Washington Memorial

WWII Memorial

On Our Walk to the Jefferson Memorial

George Mason Memorial-- just begging for an imitation photo (I took another with his actual pose)

One of many poses with statues during the day

Artistic Photo of the Day- Viet Nam Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Interior of the Old Post Office

Tom took me to the Old Post Office, which was a really impressive building.  They have a food court on the bottom floor, so we grabbed a quick bite before continuing the tour.  Next stop was the tower of the Old Post Office.  It was free to ride to the top and there was a great view from up there.  You could spot most of the monuments and memorials.

Next up on the tour was the Air and Space Smithsonian Museum.  I knew I would only have time for about two Smithsonians, and this was my first choice.  Seeing all the planes, rockets, and space shuttles was really cool!



First Airplane



Air & Spance Museum

The day didn't end there though.  I wanted to see the Georgetown area, since a few different people recommended it to me.  We decided it would be a good place to meet up with Kelly and Pablo who had flown in from Spain for the wedding.  We got apps and beers at a local bar, and Kelly shared some VERY exciting news with me (let's just say she wasn't drinking beer with us at the bar).  It was so great to see her and I nearly cried (happy tears) when I heard the news :)  Kelly and Pablo were jet lagged and Tom had made some plans with his friends to watch the playoff hockey game at a bar near his house.  So we parted ways with Kelly and Pabs, and headed back to Arlington to finish the night.  Wow, what a day!

Final Days in Bali

Coming soon...