Spending a Few Days in New Orleans
There are a few places that I’ve always wanted to visit and New Orleans was one of them. As I’ve mentioned, my mom is my favorite travel buddy and I like to take her away for her birthday so I thought she would really enjoy seeing New Orleans. I know some people recommend going during Mardi Gras but for a pair of introverts like my mother and me, that is a resounding “NOOOOO!!!”. I found a really good deal on a hotel and train tickets so we wound up going in May even though that’s not her birthday month. Now I know what you’re thinking. “Taking the train from NYC to New Orleans?!” The other thing that my mom and I always thought would be fun would be to take a sleeper car somewhere. Because my process in booking a trip always involves obsessively checking prices (multiple times a day) I was able to get a good deal on a roomette that was $200 cheaper than it had been for months.
When you book a ticket for a roomette (or a first class ticket on trains that have first class seating), part of the ticket (at least from Moynihan in NYC) includes lounge access. My mother and I had never been in the lounge. The most expensive ticket we’ve ever bought is a business class ticket and that doesn’t include lounge access. The first time I rode business class was last year when I went to Salem, MA in December. I didn’t plan on booking business class but the times I needed to take the train each way had only business class seats left and now I can’t deal with coach. There’s not a difference in comfort of the seats but the ability to choose the quiet car and pick your own seats is a convenience for which I am willing to pay extra. When seats are just a free for all it winds up being like that scene in Seinfeld when Kramer couldn’t get a seat on the train because everyone rushed on like it was a race. I wish I had been able to take pictures when we were in the lounge but too many people were around and I didn’t want to disturb anyone. Snacks, food, and (non-alcoholic) drinks were free so my mom split some food and grabbed a few snacks for the trip. We would have gotten our own meal but they were going to serve food on the train and we didn’t want to fill up at the lounge.
The sleeper car was really nice. Yes, it’s tiny but we didn’t mind. We did see a few deer at the beginning of the trip. I loved sleeping on a moving train. I didn’t like being in the top bunk. I kept worrying I’d roll out even with that tiny bit of netting that only covered to near my elbows, but I wasn’t going to make my mother climb into the top bunk. A lot of people complain about not being able to get any sleep because of the rocking of the train, but that actually helped me to sleep. It’s well known that if I’m not the one driving I will fall asleep in any moving vehicle.
Our train arrived in New Orleans at around 11pm at night. I like getting to a place at night so I can clean the room, put my stuff away and relax and that way I can start fresh in the morning after getting a good night’s sleep. We stayed at Homewood Suites by Hiltons New Orleans French Quarter. Not a fancy hotel but for the most part clean and comfortable in a convenient location. After my mom and I had breakfast we headed out to walk around and see what looked interesting in the area. I know about beads being given during Mardi Gras but what do they mean after Mardi Gras is over. I looked online and didn’t really get a clear answer.
I loved the colorful umbrellas and the architecture and just the vibe in general. The weather was really nice as it wasn’t too hot when we went although it could get overly warm at times. I honestly am not sure if these pictures are in the correct order but I did take this trip in May. Work can just get so busy at times that at the end of the day I have zero energy to edit pictures or make blog posts or do anything except eat dinner and then fall asleep on the couch watching tv.
I thought this sign was really funny and I can sympathize. Living and working in NYC it is a freaking supreme test of my patience trying to get anywhere without a butt ton of tourists walking slower than snails (taking up the whole sidewalk), stopping dead with no thought as to who is behind them in the street or even on escalators! I’m sure it must be annoying for this person to constantly have tourists on their property. I don’t even want to imagine what they deal with during Mardi Gras.
Our first stop was Jackson Square. We had planned to go to Cafe du Monde first but Cafe du Monde is always crazy crowded and we were going on a Saturday so there was a long line out the door. We decided to save Cafe du Monde for another day and just walk around Jackson Park instead. We took some pictures of St. Louis Cathedral and even went inside (you can’t take pictures in there). As I’ve mentioned in past posts, when my mom is with me I always have to find a nearby Catholic church for her. We were going to go to this one for mass (or I should say she was) but there was one a block or so away from our hotel so she went to that one instead. When I’m on vacation of course I have to pay for overpriced souvenirs, so I got some really cool pictures and paintings from a nearby gift shop that I’ve already framed and just need to decide where to hang them in the apartment.
We were in another gift shop on our way back to the hotel when we heard street musicians so we went outside to listen for a bit. I prefer to shoot things in color but black and white is considered more “arty”. I can’t decide though whether I prefer the color shots or the black and white shots.
At some point in the trip (everything is kind of a blur since we were only there for three full days) we went to Louis Armstrong Park. I really like the new “remove people” feature (or whatever it’s called) in Lightroom. There were a few people in the original picture and rather than waste time trying to draw and trace them out, you just click a button and it detects people and boom! People removed from your picture. It works really well for the most part but it obviously isn’t perfect. (What is?)
I tried to limit walking while we were there because my mom gets tired because she doesn’t like to walk a lot. She’s strong (she still assembles furniture that I order off Amazon like our dining set, my standing desk, my printer cabinet, and most recently a bookcase - thanks Mom!!) but walking tires her out, especially in warm weather. We still managed to do 10k steps a day so I guess we were both too busy sightseeing. She was feeling tired at this point so I found a bench for her to sit while I snapped a few more shots of the park. I wanted to come back at night and get some pictures of things lit up but I knew she would worry and honestly, living in NYC it’s common sense to stay out of parks at night.
Our last day in New Orleans and we decided to go to Ruby Slipper for breakfast. There was a bit of a wait but nothing unreasonable. I’d say 20-30 minutes. I had only had grits twice in my life and both times they were awful, but the meal came with it so I decided to give it one more try and let’s just say Ruby Slipper has made me a fan. The grits were really good and had a lot of flavor. The wait staff were all really nice and attentive, and the food was delicious. We left the restaurant full, happy, and ready to do a little more sightseeing. We wound up at the Riverwalk Outlets and we walked around inside and looked out at the water.
When we passed James’ stand at the mall I’m sure he clocked me as a tourist right away since I had my camera with me, but let’s be real. Tourists always have a certain look. People can always tell who the tourists are, and I don’t even mean tourists from other countries. I mean tourists from other states. He had a pretty good sales pitch and he was engaging and the shirts were nice and seemed of good quality but the budget was stretched thin at this point. As Bobby Boucher’s father wrote in The Waterboy, “New Orleans is an expensive city. Expensive but fun”.
Mom and I finally made it to Cafe du Monde and had the famous beignets and coffee. The lighting wasn’t the best but the wait wasn’t too long and we got our food fairly quickly (cash only). I’m glad we went but the beignets and coffee weren’t worth waiting in lines out the door like on the first day we were there. The coffee was a bit strong for my liking and the beignets were just meh. We had way better beignets when we went to Savannah, GA a few years ago.
So that wraps up our trip to New Orleans. It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. I’m still working on the post for Seattle but I was in Seattle for a week so there are a lot more pictures to sort through. My goal is to get caught up with blog posts for this year and maybe even have a system where I break each post up into days so I can go more in depth on places I visited and still remember things clearly instead of doing blog posts months later.
