Keeping up with the Zelmans: Who Dat Nation...our visit to NOLA

Have I mentioned I don't do well on planes? Obviously if I am starting off asking that question then I have a good little gem of a story to share...and I do. We left for the Big Easy on Sunday August 29th. If that date doesn't ring any bells right off for you then it will shortly. Our flight out of IAD was quite pleasant. Then we hit a little "patch" of turbulence and it went all down hill. I ate all the food that we had packed so I had at this point started to feel not so hot. Matt could tell looking out the window that we should be landing at any point. Cue airplane pilot, sorry folks but Louis Armstrong (that's the airport) has temporarily shut down due to this little storm so we'll circle around (IN THE STORM) until it opens again. AWESOME! Food is gone, electronics still have to remain off so nothing to distract me and then someone behind me reminds me of the importance of the date: August 29th today is the 5th year anniversary of Katrina. OMG!!! Slight panic attack then the next thing you know we have landed and all is right with the world again. :) We got in at a decent hour on Sunday to get settled and set up to work from the hotel the rest of the week and grab some food. Hello popcorn shrimp! :) Please and thank you! :) Matt had some shrimp gumbo :)

Monday we worked from the hotel for the day and I finished getting ready for the training I would be conducting for the remainder of the week. We had lunch at this little dive around the corner from the hotel...popcorn shrimp I love you! Thank you NOLA for all your AUH-MAZING seafood! :)

We headed over to the French Quarter for supper at the Court of Two Sisters.

I think we killed ourselves eating. I had this AUH-MAZING crab imperial (can we say cheese and thank you!??!) with a sweet potato puree...YUMMY! Matt and I critic our food now like we are judges on top chef so it's a pretty entertaining time. He had the roast duck. We followed it up with double dessert: Banana's Fosters and Cherries Jubilee. I think we got drunk off our dessert! They were made right in front of us:

We then headed over to Pat O's for Matt to experience their famous hurricanes. I must say they were not as I remembered...probably because I was sober drinking mine this time where as last visit I was bombed before we got to Pat O's. Never the less we had to experience the famous hurricanes of New Orleans. We walked around Bourbon a little so Matt could see it in all of its seedy glory.

We are nerds and in true dork fashion we took a Haunted History Tour with this AMAZING group. It was pretty neat. We started off at this church and I couldn't resist I kept saying to Matt "Look it's Jesus!"

It was a two hour walking tour around the French Quarter giving the history of hauntings in certain areas. Pretty neat stuff. So I'll share a few of my favorite stories.
The Andrew Jackson Hotel:

Before the hotel was built here there used to be an orphanage that burned in the second fire of New Orleans. Since the hotel is so old they never allow children, but they receive complaints frequently from guests of children playing or being unattended by an adult in the hotel (yikes!). There was a couple that stayed for their honeymoon at the hotel. They came back after a long night on Bourbon with film left in their camera and proceeded to pass out. The next morning when they woke up the film was used up and they just figured they were too drunk from the night before to realize how many pictures they had actually taken. When they developed the film there were pictures of the two of them sleeping in bed that night (OMG!) and from an angle that could not have been taken from any where other than directly over the bed! After this story is told Matt goes let's stay there for our next visit...NO THANK YOU! :p

This house had a really creepy story behind it. An affluent family lived here and the husband, a doctor, was doing all kinds of creepy medical experiments on the servants. CREEPY! Matt googled this one later and he found out that Nick Cage bought this house just so he could say he owned the most haunted house in New Orleans only to have it repo'ed by the IRS. Hahaha sucker!

For those of you that don't know I love the Civil War so this last one was my favorite by far. The Yanks had commandeered what is now another hotel (tons of haunted hotels in NOLA)in the french quarter and were attending to injured soldiers. As you may know during this time almost all wounds ended up in an amputation because it was the quickest way to stop the bleeding and infection. One Mardi Gras some fraternity brothers stayed at the hotel and woke up in the middle of the night to see a civil war doctor in their room cleaning blood off a saw. The doctor turned toward one boy and said "Boy that leg's gonna have to come off." I would have pissed my pants if that had been me. Apparently they ran out in nothing but boxers all the way to Slidell!

Tuesday night we headed back to the French Quarter to get goodies for the family as well as some more delicious food! :) We hit up Bourbon House (on Bourbon) owned by one of the Brennans. Matt got to try some gator:

I had some more delicious shrimp! :)

Wednesday night we headed over to the NOMA :)

I love Degas and this little gem has by far been my most favorite ever! A green ballerina!!!

Oh Jackson how you make my heart smile! :)

Bear gazing at Warhol

We had supper at Cafe Degas this fun little french place near the museum. Degas actually spent some time in New Orleans and lived in the area near the cafe and museum.

Thursday we headed back over to the French Quarter just to go to Cafe Du Monde! :) BEIGNETS!!!!! And yes they were even better than I remembered!!! :) We also had coffe (Matt) and hot chocolate (me)!