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Big 40 in the Big Easy

This is a several weeks belated post, but better late than never!  A few weeks ago, I traveled to New Orleans for my birthday and was joined by 4 sweet friends who left their families for the weekend to help me celebrate.  Even though everyone already had their flights booked, I still wanted to send an invitation with some information...



I was so thankful that they were such good friends they would leave their kids and husbands, spend money to fly to New Orleans, and celebrate me for a weekend, I wanted them to have welcome bags upon arrival.
In addition to the itinerary, I provided some snacks (moon pie, Zapps Voo-doo chips, and some pistachios), a bottle of water and special made Koozie for the occasion, hand sanitizer (it is NOLA), a monogrammed jewelry bowl, and beads of course!
On the way to lunch we stopped at Jackson Square.  We were still waiting on our 5th to arrive.
We didn't take a ton of pics, but for lunch we went to Emeril's NOLA.  Then for dinner we took an Uber to Magaine Street.
Which is just the cutest little neighborhood...
Dinner was at Cavan
I had never been there before, but it was on all the lists of "must eat spots of 2016", so I wanted to give it a try.
It's in this old mansion, so that alone is fun...

These girls are just the best:

Jenn came from Florida and left her 2 kids, husband, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and a guinea pig for the weekend;
Abby came from College Station, left 4 kids, husband, and dog to come.  Plus she still felt yucky from her summer of chemo and radiation.  Oh and she had pneumonia the week before!;
Suzanna left her 2 kids, husband, and dog to come all the way from Midland;
and Lisa came with me from McKinney and left 1 kiddo and her husband for the weekend.
I had the scallops of course.  If scallops are on the menu, they are almost always what I'm going to order.  These were spicy and topped with crab and corn and served on a bed of jalapeño cheesy grits.  Good grief they were wonderful!
We skipped dessert at Cavan and went back to the Quarter to Sucré
They have lots of yummy looking treats, but at least what I got looked better than it tasted.  
Since we had all been up since wee hours in the morning, we called it a night.
The next morning (my actual b-day), we took an Uber to Bywater to have breakfast at Elizabeth's.
Banana's Foster Stuffed French Toast.
Angels sing when you take a bite of this!
After breakfast, we went to the World War II museum because only Abby & I had been before.   It was crazy crowded and as such took lots of time.  Abby and I were surprised how much it had changed in the last 4 or 5 years.  It's really expanded and quite different.  It still seems to be in a transition, but if you have been, but not in a while, it might be worth a visit again.
The plan was to walk a couple of blocks to Cochon Butcher for lunch, but it was like 2-3 p.m. by the time we were done at the museum, and the Butcher had a LONG line, so we went to the regular restaurant and shared some small plates.

We went back to the quarter and walked around and shopped some.  Then Abby broke apart from us because "she needed to go to Walgreens", but she really was doing this...

She had planned a whole hotel room party for me!
Y'all!  Abby special ordered my favorite cupcakes in the whole wide world and had them overnighted from Washington D.C.  I could have cried!  She got my two favorite flavors from Georgetown (red velvet and chocolate with white icing). She is just the best.  She knew I loved these cupcakes, but I don't think she realized just how much!

So it turns out that there was a big parade scheduled!  How awesome is that?
It's called the Krewe of Boo Parade.  It is the only parade that they let large floats into the Quarter.  They come down Decatur and then up Canal, make a U, and then go back down Canal to Tchoupitoulas.  Our hotel was right there on Canal, so it was perfect!


As soon as we finished watching the parade, it was time to go to dinner.  I had reservations at K-Paul's which is my favorite spot in NOLA.  Normally I do the pork chop, but went a little different and got the surf and turf.
Sweet Potato Pecan Pie
We had big plans to go to Frenchman Street.  But we are kinda lame, so we went to bed early than we planned.  The next morning we had Sunday brunch at Commander's Palace.  It's always a splurge, but an experience, and this bread pudding soufflé is one of my favorite desserts ever.
After brunch, we walked around the garden district.  Didn't take one photo though.  Then we lost a couple of folks.  Suz had an earlier flight and Jenn had to drive to Florida.  Abby, Lisa, and I walked around the quarter, shopped, etc.  Then we had our "last meal" in NOLA at Acme Oyster House.
Po-boy and Gumbo!
It was suppose to be our last meal, but our 7:30 flight got pushed to 9:45, so a Lucky Dog at the airport was really our last NOLA meal.  And speaking of lucky, I feel so lucky to have such great friends!  It was a fun weekend and a not so painful way to greet the Big Four-Oh!

Comments

Unknown said…
So fun! Glad I was able to come and celebrate with you!

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