Going to La Fete Friday night...Ursuline's big fundraiser. Fete means party in French. The event was really nice, and once again, the food was amazing. It was catered by several different restaurants. I tried turtle soup (not bad but probably won't eat that again), all sorts of yummy shrimp dishes, carrot souffle (would LOVE to eat this again), spinach and artichoke pasta, etc. They had oysters on the half shell which Matt loves, and I just can't do. So, he enjoyed those.
After La Fete at midnight we went to Cafe Du Monde. It's the original French Market coffee stand. They have coffee with steamed milk and beignets. They are hot square doughnuts fried and piled with powdered sugar (as you can see). We were SO not hungry when we went here...but they were good! And...to top it off...we were served by Wednesday from The Addams Family! :-)
Saturday we walked and walked all over the French Quarter. We saw the beautiful St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest continuously active cathedral in the U.S. and walked the Riverwalk to see the Mississippi River and the River Boats and barges. We ate at the Napoleon House but unfortunately as you can see we were tucked into a corner instead of seated in the beautiful courtyard they had. The wall was covered with graffiti...we should have added our name. :-)
They do have city fountains and park areas throughout the city...Here is a fountain area that was dedicated by a past Mayor of New Orleans who we met at La Fete Friday night.
There are cable cars that run along the streets. They don't run on a set schedule but have several stops that people just wait at. It costs $1.25 to ride as far as you want.
These are the views from our hotel room of the Mississippi River. It was fun to watch the different kinds of boats.
Saturday night we had reservations at The Bistro at Maison de Ville. The President at Ursuline Academy is personal friends with the chef so called in a favor to get us a reservation. It was probably one of the best if not the best meal I've ever eaten. And..the chef gave us free desserts...scrumptious!
Here we are with Chef Greg...what a nice man.
After dinner we walked around. I took this picture because there are these lanterns hanging everywhere. Matt and I love them...they even had a standing one on the auction at La Fete. They have a gas flame that continuously flickers...cool.
Here is the famous Bourbon Street. The party-goers LOVE this place. There is no open container law there, so you can walk around the street any time of day with a beer or any type of alcoholic drink in your hand...that was a little weird at first to see. I personally found it very dirty. People watching was quite interesting though!
On Sunday we did the very touristy thing and took a swamp tour. We didn't see any gators, but we did learn some very interesting facts. I had a very stereotypical idea of the swamp...mossy, stinky, gross. I was very wrong. It really was very clean and beautiful...and not stinky at all. :-) The white bird is an egret. The blue one...a blue heron. The birds in the trees are killed and their meat sold on the black market for $13/lb. I can't remember what they're called. The mossy stuff hanging from the trees (you can just see a little in the tree with the birds) used to be harvested by our tour guide's grandfather who contracted with Henry Ford and put it in the seats of the cars. The cotton that they used to use would not dry out, and this would dry out and spring right back into shape.
Being in the swamp was very serene. It was beautiful. And, it was a place I probably won't be again, so even though we didn't see a gator, I'm glad we went.
The nicest part was completing conversations with my husband, going to bed early and sleeping in, having complete (HOT) meals (and LOTS of them...I think all we did was eat!), reading a book on the plane and at the airport, and just generally enjoying Matt's company.
1 comment:
It sounds and looks like you two had a wonderful time! I am jealous that you got to have a full conversation with your husband! =)
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