Last Minute Honeymoon - Part 1

Christmas in New Orleans

Over the Christmas and New Years break, Tim and I were lucky enough to go on our honeymoon. We only planned it with two weeks notice since we had a last minute change of plan. With the help of a few intense googling sessions we quickly found the perfect trip. We booked a 7 day cruise departing from New Orleans to Mexico, Belize and Honduras. This would be our first cruise and first time travelling to New Orleans, Central America and the Caribbean!

So on Christmas morning we departed PHL airport, destination MSY. When we arrived we went straight to the Airport Shuttle desk which is the most economical service. We paid $76 for a round trip for two. The shuttle took us straight to our Hotel, the New Orleans Marriott. On they way back we arranged for collection from the cruise terminal. 

We arrived a the very fancy New Orleans Marriott, but unfortunately the customer service there is subpar. But besides from every single staff member being rude and unhelpful, the hotel is lovely, like any Marriott and was very conveniently located on the edge of the French Quarter near the cruise terminal.

That first night we wanted to explore the infamous Bourbon street. It is usually described as rather rambunctious, but being Christmas night I guess most of the usual college kids were at home with their families. Walking down the street you cannot help but be attracted to the big neon signs of Big Easy Daiquiris selling what appears to be mainly frozen cocktails and pizza. It also seems that everyone is carrying one of their Styrofoam cups thanks to the city’s open cup policy. Not wanting to miss out, we jumped in and got one. While I was happily sipping away at my lightly spiked Mango Crush, I noticed that Tim was kinda struggling. He had asked for the most popular flavour and had inadvertently ordered The Hurricane, which has white rum, dark rum and Diesel 190! Basically you’re going to get tanked if you down one of those on an empty stomach. We swapped halfway through so that we could both be on the same level. As the temperature dropped we did begin to question whether slushies had been the best decision, but after getting some headway on the drink started to warm up.

Frozen Drinks on Bourbon Street

Eventually we wandered into Spirits on Bourbon which was lots of fun. This bar has recently been on a TV show called Bar Rescue and has apparently had a complete makeover and subsequent turnaround from previous financial struggles. We started off with the $1 shot of the day, Apple Pie (Apple Schnapps topped with whipped cream), and had one or two more throughout the night.

They had a big selection of bar food available which is basically just a means to line the stomach for more drinking. We had a lovely Trio of Sliders, yummy Fried Pickles (my dad reckons they'll fry your shoe if you're not careful!), and the shrimp bignets. Unfortunately we really disliked the shrimp bignets but once our server noticed we weren't eating them he insisted on removing them from our bill, now that's good service. 

The bar also has a famous cocktail, the Resurrection that comes in a flashing skull cup. In other circumstances I would have thought it was lame, but after so much fun it seemed only fitting :-)

Another unanticipated bonus of going to Spirits was the Duelling Piano performance. The guys took requests, mainly 80's and 90's songs and most of the bar sang along. There was also a trio sitting next to us at the bar who were trying to heckle one of the pianists a little. The thing is, never heckle a bar entertainer with a microphone if you can't take a little prodding back. It made for a lot of laughs from everyone else, but might explain why they left so early. Being our first night in the city we left a little early as well, probably around midnight, since we didn't want to wear ourselves out too soon.

Spirits on Bourbon

The next morning we had a reservation for a Jazz Brunch at The Court of Two Sisters. This beautiful restaurant has a rich history dating back more than one hundred years. We sat in the lovely outdoor courtyard where you are serenaded by low-key jazz tones. The atmosphere is really gorgeous there. The Brunch is served buffet style, and is super fresh and yummy, offering beautiful N'Awlins cuisine including both Cajun and Creole fare.

The Court of Two Sisters

As a means of walking off breakfast, we decided to do a Free Tour of the French Quarter. I have previously done other cities with this company, yet by contrast our tour guide did not provide much depth. Most of the information felt like it was read straight off a plaque in the street and was barely worth the $10 we paid for the two of us. But for an hour and a half's entertainment I felt I had to give something. 

The boring tour left us a little drowsy and when we smelt the fresh aroma of espresso we followed the beautiful scent. It led us to discover the best coffee shop in the USA so far! Spitfire Coffee was the best attraction in NOLA for me. It might just be the best café in the world. We mentioned this to the owner/barrista who replied “I know, when I moved here from Portland I couldn't find good coffee anywhere so I opened this shop”. Tim later mentioned that maybe we should go to Portland for our next trip.

Spitfire Coffee Mmmmmmm

After this stop we wondered around again, stopping in at the Cat’s Meow for some public karaoke performances. We didn't quite work up the nerve to do it ourselves, but were very entertained watching the other brave souls.

Another bar hop led us into Maison Bourbon for some more live Jazz, Irish Coffee and a Hot Buttered Whiskey for Tim (as in actual hot butter in steaming hot whiskey!). Then Tim insisted on a quick stop in Popeyes for some “Louisiana Fast”. 

After this it was time to hurry over to Jackson Square where we would meet our second free tour of the day, this time a Ghost Tour. Before the tour I had no idea NOLA had so many famous ghosts. But whether you believe in ghosts or not, the tour was very fascinating. The hauntings only serve as the platform for the stories and for me it was the historical context that I found most interesting. For example visited old theatres, hospitals, convents war barracks and landmark houses all in the French Quarter. Different ghosts were from different eras and while one story covered the Spanish occupation, the next was the French, or when the Creoles lived mainly in the French Quarter and so on. 

One very interesting story was that of Madame La Laurie. Her house is said to be cursed so that all who possess it now face hardships. Even former owner Nicholas Cage found there was some truth to this legend when the house was repossessed by the I.R.S. because of tax fraud. Our tour guide also mentioned that since the house is so haunted it is not uncommon to capture a ghost on film. Naturally everyone in the tour then whipped out their cameras to give it a go. I was not expecting anything but I captured a strange blue orb in the photo below. According to our guide this is a ghost. I am not sure that I am convinced but not one else in the group got anything on film, so I was a little chuffed at that.

Did I capture a ghost?

For dinner that night I was hoping to try the famed Shrimp PoBoy, but when you really want something sometimes it's just out of reach. Even though we found NOLA POBOYS, wouldn't ya know it? They were sold out of Shrimp. Oh well, we had to make do with a Roast Beef PoBoy and after this bad boy I pretty much stopped complaining. Yum!

Roast Beef PoBoy 

The next day it was pissing down rain, but luckily we found some plastic ponchos for $1 each, which kept us dry and warm. For breakfast we tried a little place next to the hotel called Mena’s Palace. It was full of locals and the food was what I have come to expect from an American dinner / café. We had wanted to try the beignets at Cafe Du Monde that morning, but the line was a few blocks long!

After breakfast we went window shopping down the lovely Royal Street, which is full of art, vintage wares, jewellery and other such pretty things. There we happened upon a place called Café Beignet. The line looked to be maybe 10 people long out on the street, so we joined and were excited to finally try the city's most famous pasties. After about 10 minutes the line had progressed so we were inside the café. But now we realised that this was a LONG café and we still had a lot of line to get through. I was disheartened and wanted to leave and forget all about those damn beignets. But apparently I had done a good job of selling them to Tim, who doesn't usually like sweets, and he wouldn't let me leave. He suggested he would go to the ATM while I waited there and then we could go for a delicious Spitfire Coffee together. He left and was back in time for maybe half a meter's progression in line. We tagged teamed and I sat down at a table to play candy crush, wondering how these little cakes could be worth the frigging wait. 

Eventually Tim appeared triumphantly with beignet bag in hand. We each scoffed one hot little icing sugar covered cake and they were “gooooooood”. We left one in the bag to eat with the coffee, which was delicious as you know. It’s probably a good thing too that we had those ponchos because I am not kidding when I tell you that they put about 100 grams of icing sugar in the paper bag. It suddenly made sense why so many people were walking down the street with white powder all over their clothes. I guess the people don't party quite as hard as I originally deduced *hehe snort hehe*

Beignets

By this point we felt like we knew this little section of the French Quarter like the back of our hands and were prepared to explore a different part. We had heard that Frenchman Street was more of a local hangout so we headed that way with a detour via the French Market. I tend to love most markets but even I would agree that this market is a bit too much of a tourist trap. So with no purchases (and a happy Tim), we continued along our way.

The French Market

Once we reached Frenchman Street we looked for somewhere to eat, because that is pretty much what this holiday was all about. We found a place called Dat Dog, which was a lot of fun. I ordered a delicious Crawfish Sausage and Tim got Duck, which was good but too heavy in the end. Our waiter also tried to dissuade us from getting Anna’s White Trash Fries saying it might be too much. I really don’t know why we didn't listen to him, and then we wonder how we are gaining weight in the USA….Regardless it was a lovely and we enjoyed sitting on the covered balcony people watching.

Dat Dog Hot Dogs

After lunch we were trying to head back towards our hotel but got a bit lost. Then we got really lost and had to get out the phone GPS because we had no idea where we were going. Since we had left the restaurant I had needed to pee. I had silently been hoping to just pop into one of the many bar that were around everywhere. Except now we were bumbling through the suburbs and I was dying. At last we found the dingiest looking bar in town called The Golden Lantern and I ran straight in. While I was in there Tim had ordered a I-just-used-the-bathroom-so-I-need-to-buy-a-drink drink. He had ordered a rum and coke which we had typically paid $7-$8 for in the city. Here it cost $2.50! What had originally been one pity drink, turned into about 4 hours spent in there. We made friends with all the locals and the bartender / owner who were all so lovely, and we almost missed our reservation at one of the Brennan Brothers Restaurant's before we realised the time and ran over there.

The Golden Lantern

We did arrive a little late to Red Fish Grill and they had just given our table away. Luckily we found a seat at the bar so we didn't have to wait for a table. This restaurant is very special and we absolutely enjoyed everything we ate there. We ordered the BBQ Oysters which are flash fried with Crystal BBQ Sauce and house made Blue Cheese Dressing. These were to die for and it's a good thing they give you a whole, freshly made baguette to mop up the sauce. We also got the Des Allemands Catfish and Shrimp Creole with green onion rice as well as the Redfish Bisque. Everything was amazing and this restaurant is a must visit if you are in the city.

Red Fish Grill

The next morning it was time to leave the hotel and slowly make our way to the cruise terminal which also just so happens to be an Outlet Mall called Riverwalk Marketplace. We killed some time by stopping for yet another delicious breakfast this time at Poppy's Time Out Sports Bar. I had a surprisingly delicious New Orleans Breakfast which had Prawns, Crawfish, Poached Eggs with Salsa on a Biscuit (Aussies read savoury scone). It was "gooooood", and left me wondering if there is bad food anywhere in NOLA? Tim had the heart attack Honey Drizzled Chicken on Biscuits which he loved. And then it was just a matter of time before we were cruising down the Mississippi and away to our next destination.

Breakfast at Poppy's Time Out