Category Archives: Family Portrait

I’m back home, safe and sound after 5 days in the Big Easy. It was one of the most memorable trips I’ve taken to-date. NOLA is by far the friendliest city I’ve ever visited. All the locals give genuine greetings while passing in the street. Strangers at a bar stop to ask how you’re doing. Bartenders, servers, taxi drivers, and street performers are eager to tell you their life stories. It was so refreshing. It’s also one of the most charming cities I’ve ever visited. The streets of the French Quarter have a European/San Franciscan/Southern vibe that’s one-of-a-kind and the shopping down Magazine Street is uniquely New Orleans with local boutiques, coffee shops, and restaurants.

I won’t bore you all with a full on travel monologue but here are my top 10 highlights:

1) Having breakfast the morning of my Dad’s 60th birthday at The Camellia Grill and having one of the most awesome diner experiences EVAH. We sat just a few seats down from the presiding judge over the OJ Simpson Trial, Judge Ito. The staff announced him and everyone clapped and said hello. Then the server announced to the entire restaurant it was my dad’s birthday, everyone sang to him and then comped all of our meals! It also didn’t hurt that the food was delicious and greasy and hit-the-spot, perfection.

2) Getting out of my comfort zone and sampling the local goods. I tried Alligator, Turtle and Red Fish for the first time! The Alligator tasted like chicken and the Turtle blended in with the soup. They were good, though. Quite delicious, I must say.

3) Eating fresh beignets and cafe au’ laits from the famous, Cafe du Monde. The line went for what seemed like miles but the wait was worth it to sample the goods.

4) Strolling through the Garden District, checking out some of their gorgeous mansions, and touring the Lafayette Cemetery. Some of the houses in this neck of New Orleans are absolutely stunning and have that deep south charm.

5) Touring the French Market with all of it’s cute little souvenirs, baubles, crafts, fresh food, and accessories. I found a couple of adorable Smooshy finds that I just couldn’t resist.

6) Shopping up and down Magazine Street’s unique and adorable boutiques. I found an awesome thrift shop that donates all of its proceeds to dog charities (I plan on doing a separate post about them in the near future) and many, many other great finds, some of which I’ll be getting as gifts for my upcoming birthday.

7) Reading the book, You Had Me at Woof by Julie Klam. It was touching, funny, sad, inspiring, and all-around entertaining. One great thing about travel is that I can focus on reading and reading alone for hours on end when en route. I highly recommend this one, for all you dog lovers out there.

8) Eating at Arnaud’s and having the server make us bananas foster. What an amazing meal and experience. You know that’s when you’ve had a good meal, when the food AND experience were amazing.

9) Getting to witness the vibrant and debaucherous Bourbon Street scene over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Wow. Just…WOW.

10) Last but certainly not least, spending time with some of our East coast family. It was such a treat to have them there and I know it meant a lot to my dad.

I have a ton of iPhone photos that captured more of the small details of the trip: food, drink, pooches, and hotel. I’ll do a wrap-up of those too! I have a day to get everything together and then I’m heading to Long Beach on Thursday… so I have another mini vaca just around the corner. Yay!