Happy Anniversary!

So Edwin and I went to New Orleans this past weekend to celebrate our one year anniversary. Can you believe it? It's already been a year. Time flies when you're having fun. To reflect on the past 365 days, we spent 24 days in Australia on our honeymoon, we have spent about 40 days in our new home, and we have both started new jobs within this year. (Technically, I have started 2 jobs within this one year of marriage!) Lots of changes!

New Orleans was fun. Though we only went for an extended weekend (Thur-Sun) it was just enough time to feel like we went on a vacation and the location was different enough that we felt like we were in a new place to explore. We arrived on Thursday around 2PM. We checked into the Sheraton where they put us in a room on the 47th floor. We didn't even tell them that we were celebrating our anniversary. I was surprised also because I got the reservation through a package on Orbitz and thought for sure that they would give us a room on the second floor next to the elevator. I don't know how high up you have to be to be invited to the executive club, but they informed us that we were at the club level and could use the amenities on the executive floor. Back in our consulting days, we used to get these things, but it has been a long time since we had any kind of status, so it was nice to get a free breakfast and afternoon snack. I think that they must have mistaken us for some kind of road warrior.

When we arrived on Thursday, it was raining and humid. Even through the inclement weather, we managed to have a good time and get some fun touristy activities checked off our list. We had lunch at Orleans Cafe based on the recommendation from the concierge. I was a bit skeptical at first because the concierge called ahead to inform the restaurant that we were coming. This generally means that it requires reservations and is going to cost a lot. However, the restaurant was really reasonably priced ($7-$12 for lunch) and it had the best jambalaya and red beans and rice we had during the entire trip. We also got some crab cakes for $5. I don't think that I have ever paid $5 for 2 crab cakes. They were good, but no match for Kian's gigantic and tasty crab cakes! (I have no problem admitting that I am mentioning his crab cakes in hopes for another invitation to eat them! You would too if you had tried them!) Anyway, after lunch we walked around the French Quarter to acclimate ourselves and wandered over towards Cafe du Monde, one of the most popular places to eat beignets. I think that anyone who has ever been to New Orleans knows what a beignet is, but for the 2 people out there who don't, it's basically fried dough squares covered in powdered sugar. Somewhat similar to a donut, but not round and elephant ears, but not in a waffle shape. As it rained outside, we enjoyed our beignets while listening to a live band (the first of many we would hear in New Orleans) perform and sipping our beverages (cafe au lait for Edwin and chocolate milk for me) during a lazy, rainy afternoon. I could get used to this! After our afternoon snack, we meandered back to the hotel to take a nice nap because we had woken up at 4:30AM to catch the 6AM flight.

When we awoke from our nap, it was already time for dinner. Yes, we are foodies at heart. A local saying that I may soon adopt for myself regarding NOLA (New Orleans, LA) "There are two times of day in Louisiana- mealtime and in between." To me, that is the sign of a good vacation- you eat and then plan your next meal while you are eating. (This also happened a lot while we were in Hong Kong.) Anyway, we went to the Acme Oyster Seafood House for dinner. We had a 1/2 and 1/2 po-boy (1/2 fried oysters and 1/2 fried shrimp), a dozen raw oysters, and a medley of jambalaya, red beans and rice, and gumbo. The fried stuff wasn't greasy or heavy and it was good, but I would say that it was not the best we had of anything while we were there. This restaurant is also well-known and was recommended by our tour book. After dinner, we went to see some live jazz at Donna's Bar & Grill . It's a well-known spot, but it was very casual and it seemed that most people were locals (one guy we met lived around the corner from it.) We were definitely one of the youngest people there (many of the patrons had grey hair or no hair!) The trio that played had a clarinet, piano, and sousaphone/doublebass. During one of the songs, the clarinet player kept removing sections of his clarinet until he only had the mouthpiece to play. It was very entertaining and I would definitely recommend going there if you get a chance even though we're not the biggest jazz fans.

On Friday, we had brunch at Cafe Amelie which we just found as we were walking around the French Quarter. The food was very good, but we unfortunately were seated next to a really loud crowd instead of in the nice outdoor courtyard. I had the gumbo and BLT while Edwin had the pulled pork sandwich. I had originally ordered the muffaletta, but alas, they had run out, so I ended up with the BLT. Everything was very tasty. After brunch, we went on a tour of a house in the French Quarter called the Hermann-Grima House. It was a house owned by some affluent familes pre-Civil War that they have restored. We thought it was well worth the $5 admission for an hour long tour. They happened to have a "mourning" exhibit where they displayed items related to a funeral where they would cover mirrors with black cloth and clothes that they would where for the 4-6 months of mourning. There was a similar house tour of another home (Gallier House) for a middle-class family that we tried to get to on Sunday only to discover that they only do tours on weekdays. After the tour, we went to the Garden District to explore another section of town. It had some cute stores and was a lively neighborhood. We then went back to the hotel for another nap before heading to dinner. Naps are good. For dinner, we had reservations at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen which is a contemporary New Orleans-style restaurant. This was supposed to be in contrast to the dinner we were having at the Commander's Palace the next night which is old school New Orleans cuisine. It was not bad, but we definitely enjoyed our experience at Commander's Palace more. At KP's, we shared an oyster appetizer, munched of 4 types of bread, Edwin had the beef medallions while I ordered the fish with scallops and shrimp in a cream sauce. At CP, Edwin ordered the 3 course meal (turtle soup, softshell crab entree, and bread pudding souffle) while I had the gumbo (yes, again!) and pecan crusted fish with crab in a cream sauce. Edwin's favorite was the turtle soup which I liked, but was too spicy for me. His softshell crab was probably one of the best dishes we had and it did make me regret ordering the fish since I was attracted to the softshell crab as well. My fish was good, but the sauce was a bit heavy even though it was tasty.

On Saturday, we went on 2 tours. The first was a free tour offered by the National Park Service. It was by far the best value and very informative. (Can you really beat free?) Our tour guide was entertaining and seemed to really like his job. The 90-minute tour is only offered once a day at 9:30 on a first come-first served basis. We highly recommend it. You know I wouldn't get out of bed that early for something that wasn't good! We had muffulettas at Central Grocery Company for lunch. We then took the Cemetary/VooDoo tour for $15. The cemetary tour would have been good if we hadn't already had the National Park Service tour in the morning. A lot of the historical information was the same, though more interesting the first time you hear it and the cemetary information was more about who the people were who were buried there. The VooDoo portion was a joke. I was expecting information about the culture and history like where it originated or why it seems so popular there. However, they took us to this "temple" which was basically a room in this voodoo priestess's house that had a lot of dolls and incense. We had to listen to this woman for 15-20 minutes talk stream of consciousness- she wasn't even talking about voodoo. There were about 10 people from CA in the crowd and she proceeded to lecture us on how we were too liberal. I find that truly ironic given that she is the voodoo priestess- you would think that she would be liberal or at least open-minded, but I guess maybe her "southern" side makes her more of a conservative. She kept talking in circles and asking the 25 of us if she was making sense- not really! It really was bizarre. Our tour guide wouldn't even go in with us and warned us about the 20 minute lecture we would have to endure. I would not recommend this tour given that you can get a better tour for free! (Did I mention it was FREE?) The best part of this tour is that it started at Cafe Beignet which meant that we got to try out the beignets here. These were Edwin's favorites, but I liked the ones at Cafe du Monde better because they were less doughy.

On our last day, we had breakfast at Coffee Pot Restaurant where Edwin had the Cala Cakes with grits and I had the gumbo (what can I say- I love gumbo!) Cala Cakes are deep-fried goodness made of long grain rice and herbs. The waitstaff broke into a capellla song during the middle of our meal, so it was nice to be serenaded. (They weren't singing to us, but near us.) After breakfast, we headed back to the Garden District for a self-guided walking tour to look at the big, fancy houses. These houses were huge. Or maybe they just seem huge to us since a million dollars in the Bay Area buys you a 3 bedroom 1700 square foot house if you are lucky! We headed back to Vioux Carre (another name for the French Quarter) and had lunch at Napoleon House Bar & Cafe where Edwin had the jambalaya (dry) and I had the red beans and rice. (Not bad, but I preferred the ones from Orleans Cafe.) We headed to the French Market for a little shopping and then took the streetcar to Riverwalk (a mall.) The streetcar was fun, but since I used to take one to work everyday, the novelty just wasn't there for me. No need to go to the French Market unless you want to buy souvenirs. (We don't really buy that many souvenirs anymore because it just ends up as clutter for us.) The good thing about Riverwalk is that we got one last chance to have some beignets at another Cafe du Monde before heading to the airport.

Pros for New Orleans- food (gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, etouffee, cala cakes, beignets) and a different culture even though it's US
Cons for New Orleans- smoking (it's unavoidable) and no Asian food (we saw mostly sushi places, one Chinese , one Thai, no Korean, and no Vietnamese)

We would definitely go back and next time we would like to do a plantation tour and have more po-boys. It was fun and relaxing. I also was happy that I was able to finish reading a book called "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I haven't read a book since our honeymoon- "In a Sunburnt Country." Funny how I like to read travel books while I am travelling. I guess it kind of gets me in the mood. I would like to at least read another book before our next anniversary. Such a sad little goal, but I guess that's what happens when you are time-starved. Pictures will be posted when I get around to it.