Dora, Boots & The Sista Squad take NOLA…..

It has been a long time since I have written. I was on a serious countdown for this trip….any escape from AZ is celebrated for this nomad. Trying to catch up, before I fly away again…..Here goes my recap of NOLA, a bit late.

Three full days & nights filled with love, laughter, food, sightseeing, family, and cherished memories to last a lifetime. Both, Terri & I had never been to New Orleans….Jack & Boots had been one time each. We arrived on a Friday, as our Queen B, Super Star Mommy spoiled us with this glorious trip. A mother/daughter adventure……we had taken one trip to Vegas just the 4 of us 5 years ago. Not often do just the 4 of us get to have quality time together with no one else. 

My treasured Core 4……Boots had researched and reserved all the fine dining restaurants in Nola. Dora was in charge of the tours selected, of course with the groups approval. Friday night we arrived in time for our first meal at Arnauds. This place is famous in the French Quarter, been here since 1918 with a family story filled with history. A yummy first dinner- frogs legs, fresh fish with crab meat, shared appetizers and a delicious table side creation of bananas foster & baked alaska. Get ready for serious piggies…..as in oink oink. 🐷🐷

We made our way to The Carousel Bar at The Hotel Montelone – it was packed-standing room only. We strolled down Bourbon Street, past the Hustler & Penthouse clubs…what a bizarre town. The scenery is truly out of the movies, I feel like I’m wandering through a movie set, that or the streets of Disneyland. This city is swarming with people, a perfect mix of tourists and locals.

We ended the night at Audrey’s favorite place…..Caesars Palace. If you know my mommy, you know she LOVES a casino. Jackie lost $50 pretty quickly, Terri & I don’t play…..we both are the famous chair dancers. My mom is a lucky winner on her penny slots. She screams with excitement when the spins win. It blows me away as some how her $2-$5 wins earned her $170, She is a natural winner. We continue Bee Bopping to the best Nola style music…..it’s a cross between Little Wayne, Juvenile, Jazz-Louis Armstrong, and mixed in 1980’s. The music is thumping everywhere, as in Loud- huge sound systems in lifted and lowered trucks and cars that like cruise the streets. We leave Boots in her playground and venture to more of the bars on the list we were committed to seeing as much as we can during this adventure. Knowing we had a bit of a walk and didn’t want to leave her for to long, we flagged down a biker pedalling guy. The 3 of us were pedaled down the streets of Nola by Todd, a local to New Orleans, having grown up between here and Mississippi. Jackie was on a mission to learn a true New Orleans song to add to her famous Insta reel. Well this lead to us learning all about Juvenile- “Back that Ass Up”. Omg!! This town is something I have never experienced. The south, it’s a one of a kind place in America.

At the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel we found the well known Sezarac Bar and ordered the infamous Gin Fizz….yummy! It was as good as described and the 3 of us shared one.Big party Girls! Ha  It’s a Gin cocktail mixed in with egg whites and tasted like a slice of Key Lime Pie. We stayed out late for our first night, Boots befriended the hotel management before arrival with her very special way that she had everyone’s name down. The front desk guy knew her by name. Everyone loves Audrey! ……back in the room we laughed SO hard. The 4 of us sharing a room with everyone’s habits. Boots who falls asleep out on the town constantly is the energizer bunny when it’s bedtime. WE laughed at how busy she was doing who knows what til the wee hours of the night……Finally it was bedtime, I think it was 2am.

Day 2/First full day was a food walking tour starting at 11am. Well well well…….The boutique One 11 Hotel (in the Warehouse district) is designed with the wall of the bedroom being the shower wall with frosted glass. It looks cool, but is not practical for 4 people sharing a room. Drum Roll…….at 5:30 am our room lights up like a Christmas tree when Boots turns on the bathroom light to shower. The BRIGHT fluorescent bathroom light makes us all wake up in shock……OMG- The Laurie uncontrollable laughter along with the Sister Squad…….Without writing a book, just know the next 2 mornings she showered with her cell phone flashlight on to add “some’ light. WE forbid showering to start early. LOL …A had to be there type of moment.🤣

Today was a great day. We loved the tour and tasted so many yummy dishes. My 2 favs being a Fried Bologna Sandwich at Turkey & the Wolf. And, enjoyed a pastrami sandwich from Steins Deli. We learned some interesting NOLA facts from Gordon our guide……..The Buckner Mansion sold for 7.7 million- many movies are filmed in it, and they charge $4K a night to stay with a 4 night min. We saw the house where Anne Rice wrote Interview with a Vampire books. The weather was beautiful, as we strolled Magazine Street through the Lower Garden District. Beads hung from fences from the after parties of Mardi Gras. We had a group of 3 girls on the tour from MN, they had gone to college together and were fun. And an older couple from TN. It was a lovely day.

FYI- We had started in the morning the beignet taste test…..Terri is the movie star out of the 3 of us, if your familiar with our Haut Brion Movie making days, you know Terri LOVES to perform. Well, I filmed her being a food critic with detailed reports on the texture, taste, and sugar amount at each place reviewed. Terri’s & Jackie agreed with their 1st choice being the famous Cafe Du monde, as Dora & Boots had picked Cafe Beignet as the 1st choice, we also tried a place called Hot Benny. Please make us stop eating, oink oink. These little hot fried pockets of dough smothered in powdered sugar are SO good- DELISH!!! The funny part was how I was always the dirty daughter covered in the powder. My black outfit was dusted. An ongoing laughter at each tasting. At one place it had gotten in my hair, LOL. I guess I was channeling my dad- HA HA! Our experience at the original Cafe Du Monde in Jackson square brought serious entertainment. With this being a huge tourist attraction it was packed. They were playing the best music, Terri & I were singing & dancing in our chairs, while Jackie was so embarrassed by us. A had to be there moment. I ended up spotting a lady across from us also dancing in her chair, I befriended her and grabbed a selfie together. It was funny that Terri needed to partake in the action. We sure do know how to have fun. Its hysterical.

Another highlight was riding the Street Car. I loved the scenery of the huge mansions, while air blowing through the open-air windows, passing parts of the beautiful campus of Tulane University. Of course we chatted it up with people all over. Met a New Yorker who was a friendly guy, We toured the Jewish Museum, which had history of Jews in the south and lots of beautiful memorabilia to see. I love interactive museums with videos and live footage of human experiences. The World War 2 museum was another highlight. So much to see & learn.

My favorite highlight of the trip was our Swamp tour out in the Bayou. Our second full day was an early rise, as we had to board a bus at 8am for a 9:30 tour 1 hour away. This day my alarm caused shock to my sisters by the sound that was set for the 6am ding dong. It was so jolting with church bells. My sisters wanted to kill me, and yet it only caused my hysterical attack to happen . Laughter is contagious. Lots of coffee gets us moving.

I enjoyed the bus ride, seeing the state of Louisiana, a state I had never visited. It was a place like nowhere I had every experienced. We arrived to experience Cajun Encounters in Swamp land…..We got lucky with Zander our boat captain. Zander is a true swamp guy who LOVES living this way. OMG- WOWEE is an understatement. We saw alligators, Mrs Terri named him Clyde and created a live video to share with her classroom- She is the Queen of The Shining Stars……in the middle of a boat carrying 22 other people, she was recording a “hello Shining Stars…Ms Terri is with Clyde the alligator…and Clyde was SO close to our boat because Zander was tossing him food. This got a bit crazy. We saw a cute, yet grizzly wild boar family. They were black & white. We saw many huge birds, and a life size rat, aka a Nutria. This thing was huge and breathing. We cruised very fast down the swamp. Zander showed us his house, he was a proud Red Neck and referred to himself this way. We liked him a lot. It was quite peaceful out here, but exactly as you imagine it to be. Zander shared heartfelt stories about his childhood spent with his grandparents and how much he loves this hard, yet simple life style in the Bayou. We saw where the people who refused to leave their homes during the hurricanes and storms lived and the levels of the water during the storms. It was eye-opening and mind-blowing. I still can’t believe how many live gators we saw up close and personal. The normal alligator is 12-14 ft long and the biggest weighs 1000 lbs. We saw babies too. They had BIG scary teeth. The sounds of the Bayou were so tranquil to me. Like imagining a kids youth being spent here and never leaving….Zander fascinated me.

It was time to return to the crazy of Bourbon Street. Filling in more food details……Our other 2 dinners were at Antoines & GW Fins. All places in The French Quarter. The latter was my favorite of the 3 dinners, yet my fav fav was a total trashy delicious diner where we had a greasy lunch……The Camellia Grill. All the Tulane students were soaking up the greasy meal too. We chatted it up with 3 fraternity guys while we waited. I had a yummy omelette with grits, and we all shared a real pecan pie slice with ice cream. They take the slice of pie and poured melted butter all over it while cooking it on a griddle….. Again- oink oink!!!

The GW Fins we all agreed was the BEST meal of the trip. Seafood, these delish biscuits with honey, lobster dumplings, Crawfish fritters, and you get the drift. The southern food is not healthy besides fresh fish. We also stumbled upon a parade that was a sight to witness. Dancing ladies & gents in the craziest outfits, singing and dancing. These participants would make anyone feel confident to join in. They knew how to add happy fun free energy to the crowd. We again sang and jumped around. The night ended with a uber to Frenchman street. We had heard SO much about this street being the place to listen to Jazz. I had imagined loungy jazz clubs where we could sit and chill. That was not how it went…..This area was filled with some homeless on the streets, the smells of people partying too much, and again crowds of party-goers. After wandering into The Blue Nile & The Spotted Cat, the places we had heard were the best, apparently everyone thinks so, as they were packed. We found one place to watch a band where we could sit on stools.. The people watching here was off the charts. I think a few might have been on drugs, LOL. We had a ball. And Boots fell asleep in the middle of the loud craziness, that we called it a night. Made our way back for the hotel room for the laughter & shenanigans to begin. Always a great way to end the night laughing. I skipped around with this post, but need to wrap it up. Hope you enjoyed some fun stories and different photos than already posted on Social Media…….

As always, we love comments, likes, texts, calls, and replies. I have missed you.

Get ready for more writings to come…..Dora is on a 8 day countdown to Amsterdam. SO excited for an International trip.

Love Always,

Laurie Sue AKA Dora 🙂

XO XO