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.