Months before the Dream team Team Team trip to New Orleans, I went to New Orleans for the first time, although this time it was sans a team name. This trip was inspired by the amazing recommendations I had heard from my friends. Lynn raved about the great people and the smoothies, Noah told me all about the fried chicken in NOLA, Kristy told me about New Movement Comedy, which is a wonderful improv theater, Jay told me several hotspots, and Jocko, who actually bribed me by telling me he’d be in NOLA at the same time. Plus, Kat reminded me, Maddie actually lives there. So that was that, and I booked my first trip to New Orleans.
About to touch down in NOLA!!!
I had my travel partner with me, Ben, and when we landed in NOLA we kept trying to get to the visitor’s center to find out more about the city, check out places we needed to go, you know…make sure we weren’t going to miss out on anything while in the city. But it was closed every single time. Not a very welcoming visitor’s center if you ask me. Luckily, the closed visitor’s center was not a reflection of how open and welcoming the people of New Orleans are. We quickly learned this upon meeting our Couchsurfing host, Uriah. Uriah is a legend— probably one of the coolest cats I’ve ever met. Everything was “egas” with him…What I mean is, he would attach “egas” (like Vegas) to all of his words. For example, Nola was “Nola-egas.” I guess it was pretty cool-egas. Very jazzy-egas, even. Or maybe it’s only cool when he says it. TBD.
The cool cats exploring NOLA-egas, baby!
So, while in New Orleans, Jocko took us on a tour of the parts of New Orleans that nobody wanted to see. We called it the AC D-tour (because we constantly took detours looking for AC), but while going around the city, we did see some pretty interesting things. There was a lot of art happening, which makes sense in such a soulful place. We saw someone making art out of some ruined wood from Katrina, and I saw my first ever Banksy in person
Banksy? Is that you?
Honestly, just walking around the city, we were able to see a lot of awesome stuff. The city itself has really fun architecture and just weird features all around. For example, we went to visit an above-ground cemetery. I’m sure there’s a reason for this, but basically, is it just so the ghosts have easier access to the living world? #voodoo.
Spooky, but still very cool
Awesome architecture featuring stunning flowers. This place is so full of life!
Another one of my favorite things was the swamp tour. Now, you probably read about my swamp tour during the Team Team trip, but this was a pretty different tour. We took out some kayaks and went kayaking through the Bayou. It was really neat, and although we didn’t interact with any wildlife, it was awesome to see the Spanish moss hanging low and learning about how cars get out their “bugs”; I felt like I was in a movie!
Swamp kayaking-egas.
Super low to the water, secretly praying there are no alligators.
Of course it’s important to talk about excursions when visiting a new place. What did you see? What did you do? BUT you just know that when it comes to visiting NOLA-egas, you have to talk about the incredible food and the live music (I’ll never miss an opportunity to mention the music).
There is music everywhere in the city: a ton of incredible jazz, talented street performers…I even found a new favorite band here–New Thousand. The music is just so ever-present that we had countless dance parties in the streets. It was incredible.
Some of the many musicians we encountered during the trip.
And now… THE FOOD. Here’s the thing about the food in NOLA: it definitely lives up to the hype. We had so many delicious meals– don’t worry, they’re pictured below. Overall, I was very happy with my food experience in New Orleans. I feel like a lot of time, people will build something up just because it’s what the place is “known” for. But New Orleans is absolutely a city that lives up to its hype.
Couldn’t leave without trying Muffulettas. Even brought one back for Brian and Andrew.
Willie Mae’s obligatory fried chicken.
Cafe du monde beignets are an absolute MUST. And by “must” I mean “must eat them every day”
Bottoms up.
Waited in line for this “blitz” snow cone at Henson’s…super worth it. That’s condensed milk.
Pork belly accompanied by some jazz-egas.
The menu called this “healthy” grits, but I beg to differ.
This city has charmed me for life. I can’t wait for the next time I can go back.
Long live Nola-egas,
‘mi
Adventuresam 