NOLA Girls Weekend

The first weekend in October I had three nights away for a girls trip to New Orleans.  Thanks to Jud for watching the boys by himself for four days - you are such an amazing dad).  My college girlfriends and I try to get together every year and this is the first time since college that all eight of us (me, Maggie, Erin, Taylor, Lindsay, Sarah, Cherie and Kelly) have been able to be there.  We stayed at Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter. It is the perfect location and has a nice rooftop pool and turning carousel bar.  Here we are all stuffed in the small elevator after we arrived.  I took the picture using my go-go-gadget arms.  It's blurry, the color is horrible and I cut Lindsay out, but I love the picture.

The first night we went to a nice dinner at Restaurant August.  It was good, a nice atmosphere and expensive.  I would recommend it, but it's not my favorite.  We took a great picture of all of us but it came out blurry.

On Saturday morning some of us headed to Cafe Du Monde for breakfast.  I'm pretty sure I can't go to New Orleans without going there and getting beignets - so good!

That afternoon we took a culinary bike tour through the city.  It was so much fun especially since we had such great weather.  

We stopped at four different hole-in-the-wall restaurants.  The first was an African place (New Orleans was originally settled by Africans) where we had amazing spinach.

We then headed to have some amazing shrimp and sausage gumbo.

 Parkway Bakery and Tavern was our next stop for the most amazing Roast Beef Poor Boys.  It may have been the best sandwich I've ever had.  It's a must if you are looking for a good NOLA Poor Boy.

 For dessert we went to a great little Italian bakery/gelato place.  Those cannoli's - yum!

That night we were all stuffed from the bike tour so we headed to Frenchman Street and had some apps at a casual hole-in-the-wall place.  We then walked around a little bit and went to this fun outdoor night craft market.  They had some interesting stuff and I loved how it was lit by the draping lights.

Of course we walked back by way of Bourbon Street to get a frozen daiquiri.  I've never seen Bourbon street so busy.  You had to push your way through the crowd just to get anywhere.  We all pretty much decided we were too old for that craziness.

 Sunday we all had appointments at the spa (four in the morning and four in the afternoon).  Kelly, Lindsay, Sarah and I were in the afternoon so we we to brunch a Brennan's.  So good.  Yep, that's our banana's foster in flames.

 Erin, Taylor and Cherie left on Sunday night so we made a quick stop for a send off glass of wine.  It was a pub atmosphere inside, but a quaint little courtyard outside in the back.

 Sunday night, Lindsay, Kelly, Sarah, Maggie and I went to Restaurant R'evolution.  This place was so good, I want to go back to NOLA just take Jud there.  Everything we got was amazing!  From the gumbo and crab beignets to the unbelievable boneless braised short ribs everything was to die for.  I got a trio of ice cream for dessert (red velvet, toasted marshmellow and crunchy peanut butter) that was a perfect ending.  The wine list was top notch and on an iPad and the dessert menu lit up when opened.  If you are going to New Orleans and want to go to a nice dinner, don't go anywhere else but R'evolution!

We had an amazing trip!  We mainly ate and drank our way through the city, but isn't that what you are supposed to do in NOLA?  It was so good to see my girls.  We don't get to see each other enough.  Until next year....