In the end of February, we took our first (of hopefully many) Johnson Family Travel Vacation to New Orleans!
Our trip started very out very early and very rainy! But it was all worth it to get to NOLA and the sunny 55 degree weather! We headed straight out to the French Quarter, and into the Marigny to find our first meal of the day.
One struggle we encounter this trip was how meat oriented many of the restaurants in New Orleans. The last time we were in the city, my husband and I ate fish, and we found eating out much easier. This trip, each time we looked for a restaurant we had to pass up one or two before we found one that had enough vegetarian or vegan options. This can be frustrating, but we actually had really awesome luck and stumbled on some amazing restaurants!
After delicious vegetarian lunch at Sukho Thai, we headed back thru the quarter and checked into the hotel. We had no idea that the preliminary Mardi Gras festivities would be going on, but we had fun checking out all the tourists and locals enjoying the New Orleans fun. We saw a ton of dogs all dressed up and later learned that we missed the puppy parade by mere minutes!
It was a beautiful day and we relaxed, went in the hotel pool, walked around, spent time with family, people watched, and ended up in Uptown to find dinner later in the evening. Another thing that had changed quite a bit since the first time I was in NOLA, was that we saw far less cabs and far more ubers/lifts. Since neither my husband or I use those services, we spent a lot of time hoping for a cab but instead walking a great distance. It worked in our favor bc we discovered some great places we may not have. We stumbled upon and ate at an amazing hole-in-the-wall Ethiopian place that we will definitely revisit on another trip!
Our hotel was very fancy and accommodating, and we were happy to retire there at the end of the first long and adventurous day.
Day two started with a touristly trip around the city on a double decker bus. It was rainy and cold which was pretty perfect to get toured around and see an overview of the city. After the tour with the family, we split up to explore some things we saw, or had on our lists.
A tip I would have for visiting New Orleans is to remember that a lot of things are closed on Mondays. This is the second trip that I have spent a Monday in NO, and it’s a bit of a challenge to plan things that we wanted to see around the fact that Mondays are kind of a dead day there. It all worked out since we love to just want around and see different neighborhoods which is exactly what we ended up doing.
One of my favorite things about walking around neighborhood in New Orleans (and everywhere!) is seeing cats and other animals. We were not disappointed this trip and even saw this dog talking to two local cats!
After two days we had walked around 7 neighborhoods; Central Business District, The French Quarter, The Marginy, Uptown, The Garden District, East Carrollton, and we ended the second day by walking through the 9th Ward to get drinks with a friend and see live music.
For our final day we headed back to East Carrollton and ate at one of our favorite restaurants in NOLA. Most of our family was able to come and it was nice to have a big meal together before the end of the trip. Then we went to the New Orleans Museum of Art. None of us had ever been to the museum before, so it was nice to see everything together. I’ll talk more about the museum in another post!
Our final stop before traveling to the airport was to go to Cafe Du Monde for beignets! A must do for every visit to New Orleans!
We left the city with a long lists of places and things we want to see next time we are in town!
Have you been to NOLA? If so, what are you go-to spots?
