Weekend Getaway to the Big Easy

This is a post about the other half of our title...drinking.  There is almost zero running in it.

There are two places in this world that are no brainers when it comes to vacations for us.  New Orleans and Disney World.  Last week Ben realized he had Monday off so I worked it out in my schedule to take off Monday as well.

Ben's run on Sunday morning

That was the easy part.  Then we had to decide where to go.  Gatlinburg, Cincinnati / Perfect North, a couple other places and we finally decided on Atlanta.  I had nixed anywhere north due to the fact that I hate the cold and said we were going anywhere south.  Thanks to the Ikea there I was already shopping for what I was going to bring home.

Then Ben came home on Thursday and said he no longer wanted to go to Atlanta and he had booked us in the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans for the weekend. Awesome.  It's been almost 2 years since we've gone down there and we were LONG overdue.

Ben was not thrilled with the decor in the hotel

Friday after work we headed to Tuscaloosa.  Normally anyone with a degree from Tennessee would take as long of a bypass as necessary to avoid such a town, but since we lived there for 9 (long) months we wanted to go back and hit up our favorite spot.  Nick's Filet House - or known to locals as "Nicks in the Sticks".

 This place is in an old gas station, I think, and the sign out front blew away a long time ago and "we don't need to put up a new sign, there's a couple hour wait here every Friday night as it is".  Their signature drink?The Nicodemus.  It's hunch punch in a Styrofoam cup with a shot of 151 added and 2 straws.  Why are there two straws? "Because that's how it's always been served."

They don't even need to replace their sign, everyone who needs to know knows where it is

The drink of legends...and forgotten nights.

                                               
After drinking entirely too many Nicodemuses we headed back to the hotel, crashed and got up early to head down to New Orleans.

We arrived in New Orleans around noon and started our ritual.

Stop 1. Tropical Isle for a hand grenade.

Stop 2. Port of Call - must have hand grenade finished before going in

Stop 3. French Market

No buttons on the inside of the elevator!  Magic

We've always stayed in the quarter.  But this time, due to awesome free hotel points (double hooray for not having to pay for the hotel room!) we stayed right downtown, across the street from the Superdome.  We were 2 miles from Port of Call so we set our for our trek.  Luckily our first stop was en route to Port of Call.  We always stop at Tropical Isle.  You cannot go to New Orleans without getting a hand grenade.  So we picked ours up and due to the awesome open container law we continued on to Port of Call.

Stop #1 - Tropical Isle

Waiting for the table at Port of Call

We got to Port of Call and had an hour wait.  AN HOUR!  I cannot remember the last time I waited at all for a restaurant. So we sat on the curb, Ben sipped and I chugged my hand grenade and waited on a table.  We were finally sat and I went to the bathroom and came back and Ben had already ordered us 2 Neptune's Monsoons. I was first introduced to this drink after a friend suggested this place and said "1 of these drinks will put you on your ass".  Clearly he didn't know me because 1 of no drink will ever put me on my ass.  The first time we had this drink, we had to go to the hotel and take a nap.  The 2nd time we had this drink...we had to go to the hotel and take a nap.Finally after several attempts we can drink this without immediately passing out.

After eating the most glorious hamburger and baked potato, we took the rest of our drink (served in a 32 ounce cup) and headed to the French Market.  

FINALLY Sweet burgers and Neptune's Monsoons at Port of Call

The French Market is basically a New Orleans themed flea market.  You want something in the colors, purple, gold, green or with a fleur de lis or tiger striped...you go there. 

I go there for candles.  Specifically Carnival Candles.  They are awesome.  So awesome and I spent about $30 and got 7 tarts (those things that go in the warmers) and 1 jar candle. 

What is not awesome...dealing with the smell of 8 different scented candles for a weekend.  For some reason these mixed together and smelled like popcorn.  Everywhere we went we smelled popcorn...including the 10 hour drive back to Nashville.  Was it worth it though?  Come to my house to smell the amazing mango mandarin wafting through the air.

Pat O's fire and water fountain!

From there we headed to Jackson Square, meandered a bit looking at the art, then back to Bourbon and got a couple more hand grenades, went to Felix's for some oysters (First Supper) and got some hurricanes from Pat O's.  Ben found a brass band on the street that of course he had to sit in with for a little bit. I'm thankful for all the alcohol when he plays on random people's horns without bringing a mouthpiece. Gross!  Then headed to Coop's Place for second supper.  This is one of our favorite places to eat.  Unfortunately, it didn't hit the spot like it normally does.  Not to me.  It could be because I wasn't that hungry to begin with but I didn't feel the urge like I usually do to want to eat there again on that trip. 

Felix's Char-grilled Oysters

Coop's Place!

When you see it you'll..........

Highlight of his night.

Sunday morning Ben being way better than me got up to run.  He ran all through the Quarter which was nearly deserted at this hour which of course I instantly regretted not running so I could see it empty (aka stop to take pictures at Jackson Square). Then we headed out for one of my favorite restaurants in the whole wided world.  Mother's.  I promise, you will get nothing bad here.  My favorite, and what they're known for, is the Ferdi's Special. French bread, baked ham, roast beef, shredded cabbage, mayo, creole mustard, yellow mustard and the queen mother of all condiments "debris".  Debris is what falls off the roast beef when they are cooking it and they make a gravy out of it and top their sandwiches.  Mmmm cha!

Someone's feeding the kitties in Jackson Square!

We picked a BEAUTIFUL weekend to go down!  2 Weeks later a Polar Vortex hit and it snowed in Jackson Square!

Just hanging out with a Mardi Gras jester and getting restaurant suggestions

Then we headed back down to the French Market to look around again, back through Jackson Square since it was dark when we went on Saturday, ate a muffuletta at Central Grocery and some crawfish boudin and fried gator poboy and had some delicious drinks at the Organic Banana.  Yeah, I know...dirty hippy drinks.  We found my sister an awesome present and headed to the other end of the quarter to get a praline from the Southern Candy Company.  These people are so nice and recommended a place for us to go for supper.  We walked back down to Bourbon watched the end of the Broncos game at Tropical Isle while downing entirely too many hand grenades. We headed down the street to Spirits.  If you watch Bar Rescue you may have seen this bar.  It was something like Thirsty Turtle, a direct competitor of Tropical Isle.  Jon Taffer cleaned it up and gave them a signature drink, "The Resurrection"  To be in direct competition of something means you have a similar product and price...The hand grenade is $8 with a $7 refill, the Resurrection is $15 with a $9 refill!  Holy Mackerel!

We headed back to the hotel since it was getting way too cold to be in shorts and changed and had all the intentions in the world to head over to a brass band concert.  Ben hit a wall though, we headed out to the Palace Cafe, not far from our hotel, had a HUGE hunk of meat and some bananas fosters which were delicious.  Headed back to the hotel and crashed.  

The Dome was orange and white, clearly a sign of things to come.

Monday we got up, at at Mother's again where I, again, had the Ferdi Special and Ben had a delicious crawfish etouffee topped omelet and grits. We hurried back to the hotel to get out of dodge before the MLK day march went right by our hotel.  

Visiting my sisters in the Coven

One last stop before leaving, I wanted to stop by the house mansion where the filmed the exterior for American Horror Story: Coven.  We took a quick picture then headed to Hattiesburg to meet with an old friend for lunch.  

#Drewmors

After a bite to eat, we were on our way back to Tennessee where the temperature dropped about 30 degrees from the time we got in the car until we arrived at home.  Bummer.

Road Trippin

It was a wonderful weekend, especially being able to have the hotel paid for and planned 3 days before we left!  I guess I'll need to start burning all these candles so we can hurry up and head back!