We flew out of Atlanta and landed in New Orleans at 8am. We had the most accommodating hosts who let us check in early, so we dropped off our bags and walked to a local breakfast joint called Toast. This restaurant was highly recommended, and now I know why. I had a savory crepe with a side of fruit and Connor had a huge breakfast platter. This was also the only place where we ate that served sweet tea. You read that right, there is no sweet tea in New Orleans. After filing our bellies, we walked back to the house to take a nap.
Leaving Greenville while the rest of the world slept meant beating Atlanta traffic, but it also meant that we were exhausted and needed to recharge before we started exploring. By lunchtime we were ready to wander out into the Louisiana heat. After researching local activities, we decided to walk to the City Park. We found the streetcar line there, as well as Morning Call Coffee Stand and the New Orleans Museum of Art. After we ate our beignets we spent a couple of hours walking through the museum. It had a variety of exhibits, from ancient artifacts to modern photography, and I loved how they offered free admission to Louisiana residents every Wednesday. We enjoyed both the art and the air conditioning!
After walking through the sculpture gardens, we made the 30 minute walk back to house to get cleaned up for dinner. One of my favorite things about this whole trip was the fact that none of it was planned, and we spontaneously picked restaurants and activities each day. We read through the local guides our hosts left for us and the journal from previous guests. Several of them recommended a local dive just a couple blacks away for some authentic cajun cuisine. We made our way over to Liuzza's By The Track and stuffed ourselves with po'boys. They were huge and delicious! We stopped by the neighborhood grocery store, Canseco's, for some dessert on the way home and called it a night.
We had just enough time to see all of the animals before we were chased out by the rain. Again, we were so thankful for the zoo shuttle which drove us back to the streetcar in the pouring rain and arrived just in time for us to hop on! Since our clothes were wet we decided to ride it all the way back to City Park and then walk home to change. We had every intention of going back out for dinner, but by 7 o'clock we were both so worn out we decided to just have a pizza delivered. Dominos and chocolate cupcakes were all we could have wanted!
After stopping in a lot of shops, and dodging rain for most of the morning, the sun finally came out and we were able to ride the St Charles streetcar down to the Lower Garden District (not as far down as the zoo). We walked to Magazine St to visit a store I had seen online before our trip called Century Girl Vintage. This boutique was everything my 10 year old self could have imagined. They had beautiful vintage gowns and jewelry displayed, and I could have stayed there all day!
We popped into De Ville Coffee House and Creperie for something cold to sip on while we stepped in a few more shops.
After we had cleaned up and changed into our fancy clothes, we walked to Nonna Mia's Italian cafe to officially celebrate our anniversary with a delicious dinner. We splurged on scratch made pasta and dessert and stayed out late before walking back in the dark thinking it was our last outing in New Orleans.
Thankfully, our Airbnb hosts extended our check out time to noon, so we were able to pack up and catch an Uber back to the airport around 1pm and only had to wait about 3 hours to board. It could have been a lot worse since our original flight was scheduled for 10 am. I'm just glad the airline let us know ahead of time so we could squeeze in a few more activities!