Birthday NOLA!

 One of the worst things about a birthday just after New Years is that everbody is partied out. Not only that but if you are born in the Great White North during January the weather is usually not conducive to having a great outdoor party (although snow parties can be fun).

With that in mind, and given the lack of travel fun since Covid began, it was time to do something different for Lisa's birthday in 2024 and it turned out that something different was New Orleans, or NOLA as it is known!

We arrived on Friday night around 9ish and checked into our cute hotel, The Peter and Paul, enjoying a stiff Sazerac before we bounded out into the night and Frenchmen Street. 

What a blast! Our first stop was the Spotted Cat where the band was bangin' and the room was jumpin'. 

A couple stiff drinks later it was down the street to some place with a DJ that had yet to get going before we popped into Bamboula's (no cover!) for some good grooves and dancing times. 

We popped back into the Spotted Cat after for another few tunes before heading to Dat Dog for a late night alligator sausage hot dog! 

Finally as we wandered along Frenchmen, heading vaguely towards our hotel, we stopped to listen to a truck based street corner rapper lay down some sweet rhymes during which mentioned his Toronto Crew (that would be us!)

What an evening and how we paid for it the next day.

Saturday was a day of big plans and smaller realities. While Christos awoke with a mild hangover, apparently its greater cousin was Lisa's for the day. A breakfast of lovely pastries and strong coffee from the Ayu Bakehouse helped to restore somewhat but not enough for Lisa to make it out. 

So Christos had a day alone to explore with a visit to the New Orleans Music Factory for vinyl purchase as well as a tour of the smallest jazz museum and lunch at Lil' Dizzy's (both in Treme, the first neighbourhood in America where free black people owned property). 

It turned out that it was the first day of Carnival so there was much buzz in Treme as well as the rest of the city. Many fancy outfits were observed! Christos passed on an invite to a party as it was time to check in on Lisa. Unfortunately she was still rough in the mid afternoon so Christos did the pre-booked Sazerac House tour by himself.

After the Sazera House tour and the walk back to the hotel, Christos was also tired out so we opted for dinner at a local hole in the wall called Coop's Place. Simple food but good and hearty, the gumbo was awesome! Just what we needed to get over the last of the hangover and go out Saturday night for more music on Frenchmen Street! 

So it was once more off to Bamboula's for the night and more great entertainment from a Joplinesque performer who engaged with the audience and had a few special guests pop by. Another night of too much fun but we took it a bit easier.

Sunday started with Christos grabbing coffee from Ayu bakehouse before we hopped in an Uber to take us to the Commander's Palace for Jazz Brunch (our slot 10:30AM). 

Brunch was wonderful but huge and as we had not walked over (our original plan but kiboshed by all the late night revelry) we were unable to finish it; truly sad. The live jazz trio during brunch was wonderful but the highlight was Christos' dessert, bread pudding souffle with whiskey cream sauce! 

Filled with a hearty brunch and now being in the Garden/Central district it was time for a wonderful Sunday afternoon meandering stroll. Our perambulation took us past old mansions (some gated and guarded by fell beasts) and gardens and into quaint boutiques along the way (Christos bought another record along the way).

It was a long walk, well over two hours with much meandering. We passed by the WWII museum (Lisa knows who won WWII so we skipped it) as well as the restaurant we had a reservation at (Peche) for Lisa's birthday dinner that night; it passed inspection so we kept the reservation! 

We made it back to the hotel with enough time to take a much needed break with a little downtime before we Ubered to our 8PM reservation at Peche. Dinner was a delight of seafood with tuna tartare, ceviche, oysters, fish sticks and more. While it was all quite yummy we both agreed that our East Coast Canada oysters are superior and that upon our return home a case should be ordered post haste!

After dinner it was time for a stroll back to the hotel with the obligatory stop on Frenchmen Street. 

Being exhausted, we decided that just a quick pop in at Bamboula's for a song or two and one drink was all we could do ... of course it turned out differently as Bamboula's was hosting a wonderful Blues trio and we ended up staying for the entire set and the end of music for the evening.

We finally made it back to the hotel just before midnite for some serious sleep!

The next day we had a late flight scheduled and it was a rainy Monday ... Christos went out to get baked goods and coffee int he morning and got caught in a downpour so we spent most of the day chilling at the hotel watching old episodes of Below Deck and recuperating from a weekend of excess. Our flight was delayed a bit and we finally got home at around 3AM Tuesday morning to pass out into our own bed!