NOLA

It's been a great week or two, but I've also been sick with a cold/bronchitis stuff, so I've fallen behind!

We've had a movie filming here the past few weeks about James Brown and I was lucky enough to get them to film on campus, so it was fun to be a part of the movie filming. The actors have been great to the city, with concerts at local restaurants/bars and Dan Akroyd even signing his vodka at a local spirits shop in town!

 Last weekend, since it was a long holiday one for us, we took a trip to New Orleans to celebrate Paul's birthday that had been on the 13th.

NOLA is one of the last close Southern big cities that we hadn't gone to together, so it was fun to show each other our favorite places.

I had to take him to Maspero's in the French Quarter. So good!

 View from our hotel room. A little scary being 30 stories up!

Walking around the French Quarter, we found these street performers across from Jackson Square. By the time they started their performance, there were easily 1,000 people standing around!

 The next morning we took a peek at the river before our cooking class.

 The New Orleans School of Cooking is one of my favorite things in New Orleans. (Past story here) It's demonstration style and the "chef" tells you stories and the history of NOLA food while they cook. Probably the highlight of the trip! We had gumbo, jambalaya, bread pudding, and pralines.

 Later that day, we took the street car down St. Charles and stopped into District Donuts Sliders and Brews. Coffee was great and their donuts were interested. We tried chocolate glazed, cookies and cream, and maple bacon. Bacon one was by far my favorite.

 That night, we went down to Freret Street to check it out. The guys that helped revive the street and started a bar down their called Cure (which is nationally recognized) helped our friends here at Brent's create Apothecary. We met them while they were here and they loved our neighborhood because it reminded them of Freret and where they wanted it to go. So, we had to make a trip down there. We heard rave reviews about Company Burger and decided to try it out.

This place was phenomenal. I'm not a big beef burger person, but OH man was it good. They have a condiment bar with 8 handmade mayos to try from. I had the garlic mayo, which was great.

They also offer Cathead Vodka as their house (a friend of our's vodka that's made right outside of Jackson), so we had to try their drinks. Really great place.

 We also went to the sculpture garden at City Park. Such a pretty day to be at the park!

As you can see, we had a great time. (Look at that beard!)

 On the way home, we went through Baton Rouge so we could go to World Market and Trader Joe's. We say this exit sign on the way back. That's a new one...

 Have a great week!