New Orleans Birthday Trip 05.17.18

Birthdays are the best day of the year. It's an excuse to make everyone you love do everything you want to do. This year that meant that starting May 1st we would be drinking as many drinks by the beach/pool as possible and, when we got reasonably close to the 17th, road-tripping to New Orleans .

We decided to cut the nine hour drive in half, stopping in Tallahassee to eat a place that Nikki always raved to me about. The Bark is an all vegetarian/vegan food cafe, that doubles as a bar and triples as a venue for bands.

Between three of us we had a bahn mi sandwich, a buffalo tofu sandwich (your girl cannot resist anything with buffalo on it), and a beet burger. TBH the beet burger was nothing to be excited about, but the other two sandwiches I will crave and dream about eating again for a long long time to come. Can I UberEats from Tallahassee to Daytona? Willing to tip hefty for this.

We arrived in New Orleans earlier than expected, since we forgot about the 1 hour time difference and checked-in to our cute shotgun style Airbnb on Dauphine Street. We roamed around the neighborhood and per usual I said "look at how cuuuute" to every building, cafe, bar, and restaurant we passed. I could hear myself say it every time and I know it's overkill, but I couldn't help it! Everything was so damn cute!

We found a Thai place called Sukho Thai and a super new super shy waiter took our order. After dinner, I picked Greg up from the airport and we met everyone else at Marigny Brasserie, a bar they had wandered into for it's live music. No open container laws in New Orleans means that whenever you feel like leaving a bar, your drink can go with you. Just across the street, there was an open-air market set up that we had to explore. Funky handmade jewelry, crafts, furniture, paintings, photographs, vintage items, and light fixtures galore. Next, we made our way to Bourbon Street where we really started to act like it was my birthday-eve. With so many bars bumping music and promising great drink deals (that aren't actually deals) it's hard to pick where to start, but low and behold, we managed. A thai vermicelli salad isn't really known for it's ability to hold you over, so it wasn't long before I NEEDED a slice of pizza. Pizza and tequila to ring in midnight on my day of birth? Yes, please!

Obviously, when we awoke on Thursday it was time to really kick things into gear, because, HELLOOO the actual day I was born onto this earth had arriiiiiived! What better way to kick it off than with some rosé while we all got ready. We have Greg to thank for finding basically all the food spots for the trip. Café Rose had big ole mimosas and lots of vegetarian food, so off we went to start the day. After eating, we grabbed some roady mimosas and got into the streets. We strolled in and out of voodoo and witchcraft shops and I made sure to take some notes on their spells 'cause I'm tryna be like Hermione for sure.

It didn't take long to find another bar with live music and we were sweating from the heat and now mimosa-less, so it was a great time to take a break. After this, we were right next to the iconic Café Du Monde and it was time to get covered in powdered sugar while trying to stuff beignets into our mouths.

I mean, does this look like something you can eat without making a mess?

After regrouping from this sugar rush/crash at the Airbnb, we went bowling at Rock'n'Bowl, a bowling alley with a dance floor and bar that gets it poppin' on Thursday nights. Nothing makes me hungrier than five tequila shots, so our next spot was the St. Roch Market. I freakin love these big open market spaces that have multiple food vendors inside.

The first one I ever encountered was San Miguel in Madrid, Spain and have since seen them become more and more popular in US cities. Inside St. Roch, La Mezcla Mexicana had THEE BEST burrito I've ever tasted. And it wasn't just a post-tequila thing because I went back the next day to confirm this to be true.

Friday morning, we tried to go to a breakfast spot called Satsuma, but stopped a block short at Paloma. We ordered biti biti bon bon bowls, which sounded exotic but was just a bowl of rice, beans, cilantro, pickled onions, and avocado (not complaining) and sweet potato tacos.

From here we drove (because it was hot out and definitely not because we were hungover...) back into French Quarter to see a voodoo museum and the 1850 house. Honestly, I was very amused by both, but probably was the only one. 9/10 would still go again.

I'm fascinated by witchcraft and unfortunately didn't have any offerings to leave in the shrines to Marie Laveau, the original voodoo Queen.

Here's a pic of me in the 1850's house courtyard that shows you nothing of the 1850's house

The rest of this day was so stormy the streets were flooding, Nola was getting emergency flood warnings, and we even drove through some hail. By the time it passed, we were ready to head to Gumbo Shop for veggie gumbo and crawfish étoufeé, because I'm not sure how we hadn't eaten any creole food yet. YUM.

Finally, a day later we made it to Satsuma for breakfast and loved it so much we ate there again on Sunday morning, before making the drive back to Florida. We drove through the garden district to gawk at all the gorgeous houses, met the best dog ever, walked through an old cemetery, drove downtown to get macrons, went to Harrah's casino, lost 85$ and then won back $105. Do you feel like you're on a rollercoaster yet? Let's look at some pics.

After this, there was only one thing left to do... eat more creole food. Back to Bourbon Street we went, in search of oysters, gumbo, and po' boys. We found just what we were looking for at Oceana, and I came to realize that no matter where you eat in New Orleans, you'll never have a bad meal and no matter where you go in New Orleans, you'll never had a bad time.

A sleep, a pack, and a breezy nine-hour drive (which goes by a lot quicker when 1. you're not the one driving and 2. you have a hundred pictures to edit) later, and we were back home. Another birthday for the books.

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