Louisiana - New Orleans
“There’s certain things in life that I love. One is architecture. And music, culture, food, people. New Orleans has all of that.” - Lenny Kravitz
And we were so excited to explore the city during our four day, three night trip that we had planned. In bed at 9:30PM the evening before our flight was set to take off at 6AM the following morning, I was about to fall asleep when…
“Did you just get that text??”
“Um, no, what text?”
“Hello from Southwest Airlines: This is a flight status change regarding your trip: Southwest Airlines Flight 323 has been cancelled. To rebook, go to www.southwest.com/rebook. Please do not reply to this message.”
Our fight or flight kicked in - and unfortunately we didn’t get the latter. When we tried to call the airline, it was an estimated wait time of two hours to speak to a representative. Frantically looking online, we saw that the next flight out from Baltimore to New Orleans wasn’t until Monday morning - exactly 24 hours after our originally scheduled plane was set to take off. We didn’t want to wait until midnight to speak to someone and book a new ticket, so we made a game-time decision to call our hotel to let them know we were arriving a day later, and we booked the next flight.
One day - and about a month’s worth of stress - later, we were grabbing a 5AM coffee and bagel from the airport’s Dunkin’ Donuts and flying over the blue tarp-covered roofs into Louisiana.
Lyfts were available and waiting right outside of the airport doors, so we hopped in one just before 9AM and arrived to the Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans - one of the many perks of working for the luxury hotel brand - and were able to immediately get into our room, six hours before the standard check in time.
After our stressful day before and sitting on a plane for 3 hours, we wanted nothing more than to walk around the city. And that we did.
We first went to French Truck Coffee on Poydras Street, a short five-minute walk from our hotel, and got an iced chai latte - not the optimal choice for a windy day in March in New Orleans, but it did the trick. Twenty minutes later and we were at Jackson Square, a 2.5 acre historic park and landmark centered in the heart of the French Quarter district of the city. With tons of shops and restaurants surrounding the park, we clearly chose a good location to start our self-made walking tour. Nearby, we strolled through the French Market: an indoor-outdoor building filled with unique souvenir vendors and eateries.
Our walking tour continued with us exploring the Moon Walk - a pathway stretching 3,500 feet on the riverfront of the Mississippi River - and quickly turning around and heading toward Bourbon Street because the gusts of winds were attacking us by the water. We walked some more - up and down Bourbon Street, back to Jackson Square and right into our seats at The Market Cafe for lunch because we were in desperate need of a break from walking all morning. The cafe was a cute and lively outdoor lunch spot, with a live band playing jazz music and a line by the host stand of guests waiting to get in. Although it was very slow service due to the high occupancy of the restaurant and the never-in-a-hurry atmosphere of the south, we were thrilled to be sitting down and enjoying a - massive - shrimp po’ boy sandwich.
After lunch, we had slightly more energy: enough to get tickets for a Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour of downtown New Orleans. Clearly a hot commodity, we waited for about 40 minutes for the bus to arrive and when it did, the driver announced that 86 people were getting off the bus before we could get on at the first (and last) stop: Jackson Square.
We passed Armstrong Park in the French Quarter, drove through the Garden District’s Magazine Street lined with stunning architecture shown in the houses with double iron balconies and trees covered in Mardi Gras beads, and after an hour and a half, got off at the second-to-last stop: a block away from our hotel.
Later that evening we walked from our hotel to Royal House, a fresh seafood and oyster bar, where the only option to secure a table was to walk up and put our name in with the host and stand outside listening to the local country music singer on the corner for ‘however long it takes’ - there was no estimated wait time offered - until she ultimately screamed our party’s name at the top of her lungs to the line of people waiting down the block.
Of course, we agreed to these terms - there wouldn’t be a line of people waiting if it wasn’t a great find. After a little over an hour of waiting outside, our name was shouted and we were seated inside at a table, where we devoured chicken gumbo and the most mouth-watering crawfish & crabmeat ravioli I’ve had in my life - not just because I’d been starving.
Since we had been up for 20 hours straight, we decided to head back to the hotel to go to bed for the rest of the night.
The following morning, we walked a little less than a mile to The Court of Two Sisters restaurant in the French Quarter for a creole and cajun brunch buffet. We didn’t have reservations, so while we waited for a table to become available we sat at the bar inside and ordered a mimosa to kick off day two. Ten minutes later, we were seated inside the terrace next to a floor-to-ceiling window with a view of the beautiful outdoor courtyard: occupied by floral plants, trees, a fountain and several guests seated at tables. Inside the terrace, we listened to a live jazz band while we made our rounds at the buffet, devouring the tastes of New Orleans in andouille sausage, biscuits, grits and more.
Wanting to see more of the Garden District from our bus tour the day prior, we took a Lyft to the neighborhood where we walked in and out of shops on Magazine Street and through the residential area’s beautifully intricate houses, down Orange Street and to St. Charles Avenue. We then went back to the hotel to get some R&R in the form of the outdoor pool and hot tub, for about 20 minutes until it closed for the evening.
We couldn’t go to New Orleans without experiencing Bourbon Street at night - and it was an experience: a five-piece band played in the middle of the street with a crowd of hundreds circled around. We enjoyed the show and explored the street for a while until we ultimately walked one block over to Hotel Monteleone’s Carousel Bar: the only revolving bar in the city, with 25 seats on a Merry-Go-Round in the hotel’s bar lounge.
We ended the evening at the Four Season’s Chandelier Bar in the lobby of our hotel, with a magnificently ornate chandelier hanging directly over the circular bar. At nearly 11PM, we hadn’t eaten anything since our brunch buffet that morning, so we went up to our room and ordered room service: a burger, fries and a chicken quesadilla.
Our final day in New Orleans had come quicker than we had wanted it to. We checked out of our hotel early at around 9AM, and the concierge held our luggage while we spent our last few hours exploring the city before we had to fly home. Since we hadn’t had the city’s classic beignets yet, we walked down the Riverwalk just outside of our hotel where there was a Cafe Du Monde and ate them outside with a view of the Mississippi River.
With some more time to spare, we walked back to the French Market and bought a local vendor’s art print of a charming house with an iron balcony located on the corner of Royal Street and St. Philip Street - needless to say, we went to the location of the house after this to see it in person, and it was just as stunning.
After this, we walked through Armstrong Park - just outside of the French Quarter - which we had originally spotted on our tour bus our first day. The park was quaint and peaceful; full of history with an array of greenery, fountains and sculptures. Our trip ended with one last walk through Jackson Square and lunch at Cafe Pontalba, situated in the oldest apartment building in America, designed in the 1800s.
We returned to the hotel to get our luggage and headed to the airport after a vacation full of architecture, music, culture, food and people.