48 hours in New Orleans, Louisiana

For awhile now I had been feeling the urge to revisit the Crescent City. It is one of my favorite places in the U.S and I hadn't been back since 2011. So I planned a 4 day weekend and we drove to New Orleans for the weekend!




We left early on Thursday and drove the lovely 7.5 hours to New Orleans from Dallas. We hit a bit of traffic at the state line but after that we flew down the highway. I drove the entire way the first day because Jason is not fond of long drives. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Westbank in Gretna, we just ate at the restaurant downstairs. It didn't have the best food but I did not want to be in the car anymore.

Day two was way more eventful. We made our way to the French Quarter and had some lovely shenanigans.

Top Right: Balcony of Witches
Top Left: Jason Punching Things
Middle Right: Our last photo as a couple*
Bottom Right: Jason trying to "sneak" into a church - doors were open farther down the block.
Bottom Left: More witches gathering for brunch!

There was quite a bit going on. As it was the weekend before Halloween there must have been a witches convention because in very large groups I would see scores of women dressed in stereotypical "witch wear" as pictured. Sometimes it was harder to tell if they were actual witches or just playing dress up. It was still awesome to see. One day a year it's okay to be a witch!

We also stopped and watched some street performers and gave them money. It was a group made mostly of Hispanic or African Americans who were telling jokes, teaching the crowd members how to do these weird dances and at the end they gave two kids who helped with the show $20 a piece and made comments on how people should be positive and stay in school, be drug free. It was entertaining, unique and had a really positive message and I loved it.

Mask's from Mask de Lis
628 Toulose St, NOLA
NolaMask.com

One of the coolest shops we went into was this mask shop. New Orleans is famous for it's Mardi Gras and masquerade balls so the fact that we stumbled onto a shop that handcrafts masks from leather isn't a surprise. The shop owner, Darius, learned leather crafting from his father and took over the business. He creates these beautiful masks that he graciously allowed me to photograph and they honestly don't do the magnificence of these masks justice. Truly breathtaking pieces like the Phoenix. He had every animal you could imagine (octopus, foxes, bears, dragonfly, owl, crow, etc) and of course lovely horned masks like pictured. He also had more traditional masks too. The one I purchased is softer, fits around my eyes and is my favorite color of teal with black ribbon to secure it in the back.

I've been a long time reader of Kaylah from The Dainty Squid and I remembered one of her posts on her trip to New Orleans that she found an old Apothecary museum. So I too set out to find it and it was the main gem of our trip. I won't write too much about it because the photographs speak for themselves but if you're in town stop in. It's $5 per person (definitely one of the less expensive things to see) and they give you a booklet so you can do your own self guided tour, as well as take your time really examining everything. It's two floors and does not have handicap access that I could see. It does have a very beautiful courtyard where they have weddings in the evening AND clean bathrooms.

PRO-TIP: I recommend NOT doing the 1 pm tour. Especially if crowds give you anxiety like me  - it is so crowded you can't move. We had just finished looking at everything as it was starting and we had a hard time getting through the crowd to get out of the museum.

We also went and walked through the New Orleans History Museum (you cannot take pictures there but it is free to the public). I noticed only light skinned people walking through, but that much of NOLA's history involved slavery. I even became extremely emotional when I saw an old flyer about what slaves would be up for purchase. It listed their age, if they had children and their skills (like good foreman, can sew, can cook, works hard, etc) and what brought me to tears was that this was all the value someone had put on a person - what they could offer in terms of labor. As if they had no soul or value other than to make someone else money. It was horrifying and I know some of my ancestors might have been involved in that but it is still despicable to me.

Unfortunately, I became ill and our second day Jason quarantined me to the hotel room. I had planned the Voodoo History Museum, going to a cemetery there and another night out with my friend who lives there. I did get to meet up with that friend on Friday who took us to get some quality po boi's. I had turkey, Jason had Alligator and said it wasn't bad. I'm not that adventurous and I've had it before - not for me. I did not get any Beignet's and I'm so mad. We drove back Sunday, but not before asking Jason to drive up and down St. Charles to look at the beautiful houses (I shared and that was our trip.

*Jason broke up with me the following weekend.

Have you ever been to New Orleans?

What is the one thing you have to do when you travel somewhere new?