New Orleans

Matt and I didn't have to think long before choosing New Orleans as our destination to celebrate our 10 (well, actually almost 11!) years together! I had never been there, and Matt had only been there once for a conference. Plus, it's only about a 5-hour drive from here! We got many, many wonderful recommendations of places to see while we were there from friends and family who had recently been to New Orleans.

We decided to stay at Place d'Armes, a historic hotel that used to be a school! A older gentleman that I talked to in a LONG line at Kohl's recommended it. We'd certainly recommend it, too. It was just two blocks away from Jackson Square and a block off of Bourbon Street.

Since we had mentioned in our reservation that we were making the trip to celebrate our 10-year anniversary, the staff placed a bottle of champagne and congratulations note in our (upgraded!) room. What a thoughtful gesture!

It was a quaint hotel with a beautiful courtyard between the rooms.

We were so excited to have the chance to SLEEP IN on our first morning. I think we slept until 10:30 or something equally crazy. It had been ages since we've awakened that rested & refreshed! We ate breakfast/lunch at Cafe Du Monde,

where we enjoyed beignets and orange juice (since we're not big coffee fans).  The beignets were delicious and kind of reminded us of sopaipillas!

Then, we walked around a little bit around Jackson Square.

Then, we met up for our mid-afternoon Culinary Tasting Tour of the French Quarter. This was SO much fun. A cute retired school teacher from the area leads these tours in her retirement. She was a spunky wealth of knowledge. There was just a small group of us in the tour -- 3 other teachers from New York and the two of us. We got to tour six restaurants in the French Quarter, sample a restaurant specialty, and hear some really interesting history on our three-hour tour. Our first stop was at Antoine's, where we ate some yummy gumbo.

This once-secret door connected the bathroom to the kitchen, which provided access to alcohol during the time of prohibition.

We heard about some the Mardi Gras "royalty"

and saw some of their relics on display in one of the eating areas in Antoine's.

Then, we got to walk through their kitchen.

Our next stop was Remolaude, where we sampled their famous Remolaude sauce on shrimp cocktail. I think this was both of our favorite food sample on the tour.

Next door was the more upscale Arnaud's where U.S. presidents and royalty are often taken when they visit New Orleans.

Upstairs there was a museum of sorts that displayed the ornate costumes worn by one of the restaurant owners for Mardi Gras. The mannequin (created to look like the owner) even sported the same hairstyle she wore each year.

We sampled turtle soup at the Desire restaurant along Bourbon Street and then walked through R'Evolution, a new restaurant that displayed their cuts of meat

and even had a "purse stand" for their customers.

Matt gave a big fish a kiss,

we listened to this street band,

we saw by the "charm gate" in the Court of Two Sisters

and we saw this amazing "statue" (a street performer who was frozen in time) while we were on our way to the next restaurant.

Our next stop was a cute Italian eatery called La Divina. The muffletta sample (pictured below) and the gelato tasted fantastic!

Our next stop was Tejague's, where we sampled some yummy beef brisket and saw the collection of liquors that the restaurant owner had collected.

Finally, we stopped at Creole Delicacies, where we ate some red beans and rice and learned how to make a roux. What a fun tour!

We had printed off a self-guided walking tour of the French Quarter on the internet and enjoyed reading about each of the stops, including the ornate metalwork on this building.

Even after the walking tour, we were still hungry for a late dinner ... so we continued eating our way through NOLA. Some of our small group friends had had their rehearsal dinner at Mother's Restaurant, so we knew we wanted to try it out.

We enjoyed po' boys, crawfish etouffee, and bread pudding. Yum!

The next morning, we went on a swamp tour!

We boarded a boat driven by a really funny tour guide named Captain Joey.

We saw lots and lots of crocodiles (maybe 30?) of various sizes throughout our two-hour swamp tour. We saw this medium-sized one up close before our boat even left the dock.

There was lots of vegetation on each side of the bayou, and our boat was full of tourists.

We also saw some birds

and turtles on our tour.

It's hard to tell the size of this alligator, but it was one of the tiniest ones we saw -- likely a year old or less.

The tour guide passed around a crocodile head/jaw for us to feel.

This was one of our favorite crocodiles to see. Its mouth was open since that's how it stays cool.

Another highlight of the tour was when they passed around this 2-year-old "baby" alligator (whose mouth was secured shut). 

After our swamp tour, we head to Central Grocery where Matt and I split a HUGE muffletta sandwich. Yum!

We then walked along the Mississippi River on our way to catch the St. Charles Streetcar. Some friends had suggested riding this street car to the end of the line and seeing all of the beautiful houses, schools, and sites (including the city zoo) along the way.

The street car wasn't air conditioned, but everyone's windows were open and we caught a nice breeze while we were in motion.

The houses we saw were just beautiful. We had fun consulting Zillow along the way to see how much some of these were worth!

The streetcar track was being repaired in a short section, so we had to board a city bus and then reload the streetcar once we were past the construction site.

We headed to Cafe Oceana that evening for dinner and then to Fritzel's on Bourbon Street. They had an amazing jazz band! It was fun to hear them improvise with NO music!

The next morning, it was already time to start heading back home. We stopped by the Laura Plantation on our way back. We had a guided tour of the plantation house

and heard some neat stories about the owners, including the amazing businesswoman "Laura" after whom the plantation was named.

We saw the grounds where the garden was and where the sugarcane was grown.

Finally, we toured the slave quarters. It was a very interesting tour. We learned a lot!

What an amazing gift Amy and Jason gave us to watch our boys so that we could spend 3 1/2 days together, just the two of us ... What a wonderfully relaxing trip of sightseeing, uninterrupted conversation, sleep, and quality time! Thanks for a wonderful 10 (11!) years, Babe! I love you so much and thank God for the amazing blessing that you are to me! Here's to at least 60 more years! :)