Saturday, May 19, 2012

New Orleans Day 1

Hello from warm & sunny New Orleans!

The weather has been beautiful here since the moment we stepped off the plane yesterday afternoon. The temp has hovered around 85 degrees with no humidity, which makes for perfect walking around weather. Our group arrived at various times throughout the day, so we all ended up splitting up into little groups to hop around the city for the afternoon. Our hotel, the Astor Crown Plaza, is right on the corner of Bourbon and Canal, so it's a great location to walk everywhere. No taxis needed! The hotel is beautiful, the staff is welcoming and the location is perfect, I highly recommend it if you're planning a trip to the Big Easy.

First things, first - pina coladas. :)


Bourbon St. has tons of little colada/daiquiri kisoks where you can grab a drink and take it with you down the street. Does anything sound more perfect? After sipping on drinks and walking around for a little while, I went to lunch with the bride and her family, while the group of girls staying in my hotel room stayed behind to decorate for the weekend.

We decided to eat at a little open-air cafe on Bourbon St. called Le Bayou. I want to eat as much local food as possible while I'm here, so I went with a NOLA classic - a Big Easy po'boy. The sandwich had blackened shrimp, fried green tomatoes, pickles, lettuce and a cajun remoulade on French bread. It was spicy, crunchy and amazing.



After lunch, the whole gang (all 18 of us!) met up by the hotel pool for some afternoon sunshine. From left to right, that's Nicole, Cathleen and then me.


After a while, some of the group went shopping while Nicole, Cathleen, my friend Abby and I wandered down Bourbon St. checking out the various happy hours, outdoor bars and live music. Talk about a great afternoon. 



And finally, after what seemed like a really long day, we still had an evening of festivities ahead of us! Tonight is actually the "big night out" for Lindsay, so last night we decided to do bar hop our way down Bourbon St., starting with Blue Moon for some of the best live music around. None of us were very hungry since we had a big lunch, but we knew we needed to get some food in our bellies, so we settled on a quick slice of pizza for dinner before getting any drinks.



Plenty of fruity drinks were enjoyed throughout our night of music and dancing. And masks!



We even got Lindsay onstage a few times throughout the evening. A fantastic first day/night to be sure!


It's another gorgeous day here so we're off to soak up the sun. Hope you're having a great weekend!

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