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

New York Getaway

After we left Baltimore, we drove to Cherry Hill which took maybe 3 hours or so. We were only stopping by our place because we were then on our way to New York City. Once we were ready we drove to Hamilton train station and caught the New Jersey Transit train. It only costs $15 each way and you don't have to worry about traffic and parking and all the rest. We made the most of the opportunity for resting and slept most of the way. We knew it was going to be a big weekend.

When we arrived we walked from Penn station to Chelsea which is Downtown. We stopped at a great little cafe called Koffecake Corner where I had the best Almond Croissant ever. In case you were wondering, previously the honour of that title was held in my opinion by the tiny coffee stand in Sydney's Central station near the Elizabeth Street exit. 

Then being refuelled and ready to go we arrived at our hosts' house and were welcomed with a glass of wine that was pretty much kept constantly refilled for the duration of our stay.

That night we went to dinner at Uncle Boons, a kitsch little Thai eatery which was absolutely lovely. We ordered the Laab Neuh Gae or Spicy chopped Lamb salad with mint, pickled onion, cucumber, chillies, & toasted rice powder. This is the spiciest dish on the menu. It came with a severe warning / disclaimer from the waiter and everything. I honestly would rate the spice level as mild, but according to our hosts there is not much a very high spice level in NY. From my experience things are not so spicy throughout the East Coast either. But I digress... The larb went beautifully with the sticky rice. Something I never pair together usually but I enjoyed very much. 

Laab Neuh Gae

We also had the Kao Pat Pu or Traditional crab fried rice with egg, cilantro and lime. The crab meat in this salad was so juicy and all the dishes were generous portions. We also got the Pet Palo or crispy duck leg in soy anise broth with caramelised tangerine, Chinese broccoli and duck egg - because I can never say no to duck, as my dad says "once you try duck, you can never go back to chicken".

Uncle Boons

We also ordered the Massaman Neuh or boneless beef ribs with Massaman curry, potato, red onion, peanut, and green peppercorn. Who doesn't love a good Massaman? No one, that's who! Lovingly marinated and slow cooked meat that melts in your mouth, with the little peanut cruch... mmmmm... I love it! Oh and don't forget to order a side of Roti bread to mop up all that beautiful sauce. Go on, get in there ;-)

Besides all the amazing food they also have a varied and quirky drink list. The boys were kept happy with the Beer Slushies (yes really!) while I opted for the Singapore Sling. Even this classic cocktail got the Bangkok treatment as you can see below.

Singapore Sling

In the end what made Uncle Boon's such a great little experience besides amazing food and drink options (which should not be underrated), was the overwhelming care that went into ensuring that you get the full Thai experience of being welcomed into the family. The restaurant feels like an embodiment of a Thai family them and their quirky spirit. 

At this point we were well fed and watered, our host suggested we walk over to a sweet little bar that he knew which was a few blocks away. This was New York speak for about a 20 minute walk, but I love walking so I was not complaining. Also, after all that Thai food, it was really nice to walk it off :-)

We eventually made it to The Eddy where we all sat down at a cosy little table together. Our male host and myself ordered the mulled wine which was beautiful, though the fact that it was served in a fine china teacup and saucer was a source of ire for our poor host. I thought it was perfect. Our lady host ordered the Crazy 88 which came complete with a fan and parasol! Tim ordered Frances the Mute which is like a fizzy eggnog I think, but they serve it without a straw so it was hilarious to watch him try to guzzle it down without one, surprisingly it was quite the challenge. We were actually having so much fun at our table talking, laughing and playing with the drink props provided that the table next to us got a little jealous and decided to order a round of the Crazy 88 and the Frances the Mute to join in the fun :-) I really loved this place and would recommend it to anyone. We left when they were closing and decided that maybe that would do for our first night. It was 3am when we were leaving so we didn't do too bad.

The next morning we woke up at about 11 am. Not wanting to disturb our lovely hosts who were still asleep, we set off to explore a little on our own. First Tim took me to Blue Bottle coffee shop. This is a lovely boutique style coffee shop. You can see in the picture below how they developed their own drip coffee cup filter which is really cute. As I prefer espresso coffee, I decided to skip this house speciality and get a latte. The barista made a perfect coffee for me but sadly I did not enjoy the spicy twist in their blend. Tim did order the house speciality of course (he loves suggestions!) which was the drip coffee and he LOVED it. He is the biggest coffee snob out of the two of us too. He used to work in coffee so he always brings the coffee-speak to the table and it has rubbed off on me over time hehe.

Blue Bottle Coffee

Next up was Chelsea Market which is literally across the road from Blue bottle coffee. We headed over with our takeaway coffee and had some Tuck Shop which was amazing. After a night out nothing beats a good Aussie Pie and a coffee for breakfast! The funny thing was that our host did the same thing some 2 hours later when he finally woke up without our even knowing. I had a delicious Guinness Steak and Mushroom pie, yummy! Tim had a special pulled pork.

Tuck Shop

Visitors should be warned that there is very limited seating in Chelsea Market. We couldn't find a seat but managed to squeeze into a corner of some stairs without blocking the thoroughfare which was a major score - the weekends are SUPER busy. We walked through a little and there are so many cute little shops and even an actual Etsy market. As in the website, my mind was a little blown. They also have an Anthropology store that we browsed a little and were given free water bottles in. I love that shop but currently I'm on a budget so it was browsing only *sigh*

Chelsea Market

When we finally left the market we went to explore the High Line which was ok, but I find it is an exaggeration to call it a tourist attraction. It's a walkway for goodness sakes.... The day we were there was a sunny winter's day. We have been here in winter for what feels like an eternity so it was good to be getting some Vitamin D. The thing is it was so busy you kind of had to walk single file pressed up against people, like marching in the Korean People's Army. That is not so pleasant in my mind. I can't even imagine in the warmer weather or peak tourist season how ridiculously crowded it must get.

So we walked to the end and slowly made our way towards Midtown. This was not Tim's first time in NYC but he had avoided this part of town to explore it with me. It started off nice enough, though very cold of course. I had on my snow jacket thank goodness or I don't know how I would have survived it.

It was at about this point in the city near the Macy's that we saw a girl dressed in all brown with reindeer antlers that jingled. Tim and I both said at the same time "she really loves Christmas" and then had a bit of a giggle. But not long after we saw a group of girls dressed like elves, we commented that they were all probably going to the same Christmas party. Then we saw a group of guys dressed like Santa, but we didn't think too much of it. It was December in New York, it didn't seem too far fetched. But as we got closer to Times Square we started seeing more and more people dressed like this. We could no longer dismiss it. Also it was quickly going from kinda cute to scary. All the people that were dressed up were quite young and they walked around in packs. I am sure that that area is the busiest at any time of year but with all these hundreds of 'Santas' there was not even room on the side walk and people were spilling onto the busy road. But the part that made them scary was that most of them were intoxicated - at about midday mind you, so I can't imagine what a mess they would be by the night. Also, they were not dressed like jolly happy Santa, but sleazy, dirty versions and skanky elves. It was all very disturbing. We just wanted to get away from those horrible pushing Santas at this point and we realised that we were in the WORST part of the city if you are looking for somewhere to eat. Every single place was packed out. So we turned around and headed downtown again.

Along the way we found a hole in the wall place with Thai and Sushi. Normally I would not eat in a mixed up lot place like this but we were getting desperate by this time, not just to eat but to find a place away from the crowd. This place was had lots of empty tables which for once was a godsend. The food was incredibly cheap and almost impossibly pretty ok. 

It was just nice to get warm again. While we were there we decided to finally Google why there were so many damn Santas around. It turns out it is a thing called Santacon, which is like a Santa piss up really, so exactly what I suspected from the start. If you Google it, they claim to be a charity but, none of those individuals is doing it for charity.... They even have to make a rule that Santa's should be nice to children and not make them cry... Like I said, Santacon is horrible! So it was funny that being so out of it by this point from being up so late the night before and tired from walking around in Baltimore for the last two days, I had not noticed a whole table of Santa's was behind me! Tim was laughing when I saw them, he already calls me Grinch because I hate Christmas songs and my distaste for these Santas just really set him off.

So after lunch we meandered down towards Chelsea, stopping at a the Salvos (Salvation Army Store). I scored big time, buying a henley longsleeve shirt, a stripped tee dress, an oversized jumper and the most fabulous hat that I hardly want to ever take off now. It cost be all of $18.00 for everything *score*. So we I happily headed back to our hosts place. We were on our way to Brooklyn that night for a trimming party. What is a trimming party? Well none of us Aussies had any idea actually. Some scandalous suggestions were thrown around (what exactly would they be trimming?) but we really did not know what we were in for at all.

Rather than heading to the party we decided we should really take this opportunity to head into Crif Dogs and boy was I glad we did. I had the Jon-Jon Deragon which is a hot dog topped with sour cream, shallots and everything bagel seeds. The boys had the Chihuahua; Philly Tubesteak and chillidog hehe. So that was a great little stop :-)

We then hopped into another cab, and god are the drivers crazy there. I lived in China for six months so I thought I knew crazy drivers, but these guys were bordering on reckless. I was full on covering my eyes and sometimes even gasping in horror as we narrowly scraped by some really tight spots. I thought I had gotten into a cab not the 3D screening of Drive 3 for goodness sakes!!Whatever, we did manage to make it to the party in one piece, phew!

So we got there and there was a TWO-STOREY Christmas Tree!!!! We were having a Christmas Tree trimming party. This tree belonged in a department store. In fact the guys had asked the delivery boys if it was the biggest tree they had done, they said "We did one that was bigger, but that was for a town". As in the town tree people. I could not believe it. Also, as I mentioned eariler I do have some Grinch tendencies so I was not sure how this would go. We did have a lovely time, the guys were incredible hosts and we really loved the warm cider and the yummy hors d'oeuvres. It was all great until someone jumped on a keyboard and lyric books were passed around. Suddenly I was in the middle of a Carolling Christmas Party, ugh! I did not sign up for that. After a seemingly endless session full of enthusiasm and some Broadway worthy performances (I was a little impressed despite myself), karaoke Xmas hour was thankfully over and it was time for us to order a car to take us back to the city. 

Our host arranged an Uber which would be my first time using their service. We got into the man's car and he was incredibly a safe driver, very different to all our NYC cabs so far. Everything was great until BAM!!! We got hit from behind. It was so scary and everyone was pretty freaked out. We very quickly ascertained that we were all unharmed so that was good. Our driver walked out to speak to the idiot that hit us. Straight away the guy was trying to blame our poor driver. Lucky we were all witnesses and our host gave our driver our details if he wanted to take the guy to court and we quickly hailed a yellow cab. In the end we saved about $40 or more, so there is always a bright side.

So we had finally arrived at our 1:00 am dinner reservation at Takashi for delicious late night Ramen. Let me start by saying that before going here I did not actually like Ramen. I don't know if it was because the restaurants I had been to before were bad (they were a little shady come to think of it) or if this restaurant served incredibly good Ramen, but bottom line is we all loved it. Have a look at their cute little menu, this was actually the highlight meal for me from the trip. I was also persuaded to get the Crispy Beef Intestines which I really didn't want. They are served on the side, but as soon as I tried a little, I quickly tipped the whole bowl in. I don't even eat Intestines. You all need to try this place if you can.

Ramen Menu

The next morning was Sunday and our final day. We walked to Maysville for Brunch which is a place that ticks all the boxes. I ordered the Maysville Brunch which came with home made doughnuts, the Crispy Grits and a Bloody Mary for onlu $26. It was great and my grits were so fancy and nice. But the thing is after so many great places it was almost underwhelming. Just a little too standard Brunch if you know what I mean.

The Maysville

After the Maysville we were going head back to New Jersey but our hosts persuaded us to go to one last stop. This was Barcade and it was a whole lot of fun. Tim and I killed it on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle machine while enjoying a beer and cider respectively. We also tried the Indiana Jones, Donkey Kong and others I had never seen before. Our host being an 80s kid, was very excited by them, I was born in the late 80s so many of them went over my head. Wether you grew up playing these games or not it is a great little spot for all over 21s to enjoy.

So that concluded our trip, we then caught the train back, very exhausted but very satisfied. It was a great trip to the city and I especially liked staying with a local.