The Big Easy

Greetings from New Orleans! We arrived Monday and headed straight out to Bourbon Street for some dinner and drinks. We took the trolley from our hotel, Prytania Park Hotel, (in the Garden District), and it was a lot closer than we thought! 

We had dinner at Coop's and enjoyed duck quesadillas, rabbit and sausage jambalaya, and creole green beans. We also hit up Pat O'Brian's for a Hurricane (strong!), Tropical Isle for a hand grenade (sweet! we also got a shark attack!), and the Absinthe House for absinthe frappes (interesting). The nightlife on Bourbon Street is intense- and it was a Monday! Lights, bars, strip clubs, restaurants, and all sorts of people. Older couples, grandparents, young kids- it seemed like everyone was there.

 

Today we took it a bit easier and headed back to the French Quarter, did some shopping and eating before our ghost tour. Pretty interesting, and we even saw Nicholas Cage's old house that has a horrible past involving torture and murder in the 1800's by a woman named Delphine LaLaurie (ex. a hole was drilled into a man's head and a stick was put in and his brain was stirred). Disturbing. 

The LaLaurie House

We also got to stop at LaFitte's Balcksmith Shop (we went back later too), which has a ton of ghosts supposedly and the piano player said that he sees them all the time. Side note: LaFitte's claims that it's the oldest bar in the US, but it's not. That would be The Bell and Hand in Boston (where we visited last year!), but unlike The Bell and Hand, LaFitte's did not close during prohibition.

Jackson square is also very cool. Right in front of St. Louis Cathedral. At night groups of feral cats go there to relax and sleep (probably to get away from humans, since it's closed to people at night). And when we say groups we mean it....we saw at least 8, but people have reported seeing upwards of 20.

St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square

We also swung by Brand and Angelina's house (not too shabby!), and took stalker photos (see below).  Afterwards we had beignets (ben-yays) at Cafe du Monde, and Chunk had a Pimm's Cup at Napolean Cafe. Overall a great second day!

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house