NOLA Adventures Day 2

We're having a great time here in New Orleans despite my sarcasm and condescension. It's my personality. End of discussion.

Ray headed to work and I headed to Starbucks for this lovely breakfast. I prefer steel-cut oats, but since Starbucks said it's "perfect", I guess it is, right? ;)

Walked through Jackson Square Park...

 St. Louis Cathedral. From the other side while walking on Bourbon Street past strip bars, I saw this church with a symbol of Jesus Christ projected on the exterior. It was interesting... I'm sure many drunks have walked by quite convicted. Haha. Just behind me and my camera are a bunch o' stinky horses!

 Love the art culture. They surround the park.

 A local artist

I was excited to try a Meltdown gourmet popsicle! They're located just past Cafe Du Monde on the corner of Dumaine and Decatur. I read about them on Yelp and people rave about their unique flavors. I'm all about supporting the local business that serves a unique treat! I paid $3 for a pineapple-cilantro popsicle and really enjoyed it. Around 85-90 degrees and a decent amount of humidity along with serious winds = popsicle disaster... but I made it happen. :) It could've used more cilantro, but altogether it was pretty yummy. In a blind taste-test, I wouldn't have been able to tell there was cilantro in the popsicle, but still thought it was delish. Some of their other flavors include: lime-basil, strawberry-hibiscus, salted caramel, passionfruit-ginger... Kinda cool, huh?

 Nummers

I kept walking on Decatur and stumbled upon this place. Plenty of people walked in, so I joined them. Why not? Since 1906? They must be doing something right! I read the word muffuletta and I was sold. I LOVE muffuletta. I thought it was muffaletta, not muffuletta. LOVE. Nevermind that I walked by about 2 hours after eating oatmeal and a popsicle. I wasn't very hungry but decided that eating was logical entertainment.

Go there if you're ever in NOLA. The best sandwich I've ever had (and yes, vegetarian or not!) was from Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica, CA. They have 1,507 reviews on Yelp with 4.5 stars. It rocks the house. You wait in line 100-deep just for a sandwich and don't mind... that's when you know it's amazing. I'd say the place I went today was second in line.........if you like muffuletta.

About to open up my amazing sandwich of high quality cheeses, amazing bread, and their special muffuletta mix. Perfection. I sat on a park bench listening to some outdoor entertainment from a nearby cafe and dug right in. I ate about half the sandwich and my hands were covered in olive oil. While it was absolutely worth all the extra calories, I had NO napkins! I managed to work my way over to a bar leaving my sandwich on the bench to grab cocktail napkins before heading on my way.

Except... I didn't walk far before the man and his wife on an opposing bench approached me. The man says something like, "Is that a muffuletta sandwich? From that place down the street? I was talking with someone yesterday who is a local and they said their family has been going to that same deli for generations. Was it pretty good?" Needless to say, I raved about it.

Ah, calories galore. Nummers again. Cheese, bread, and olive mix = my personal heaven.

When you keep heading down Decatur you eventually find yourself at the French Market...

Once I got to this point I started to head back because my feet were telling me that it was time. I wanted to capture some of the ornate and beautiful architecture that is all over the city. Stinky as it is... I still think it's charming.

I could probably research... but I don't know what these are here for. To tie up horses? Anyone care to educate me?

 This is just so charming!

 Love these stoops and the shutters.

I love this blue wrought iron!

This was recommended to us and Yelp agrees, but we passed on Preservation Hall. It looks like an awesome, rustic jazz hall, but since we don't have discerning ears for jazz, we didn't want to pay the $12 cover each to stand in a room without bathrooms or drinks. I'm sure there are some amazing artists who perform there, but it was not worth the extra cash since we're not as familiar with the genre.

 Preservation Hall from the opposite side

 Congratulations!

I needed to use the restroom and found it quite difficult to find a public one, so somehow I ended up in the Canal Street Mall... and then ate the rest of my amazing muffuletta sandwich... and happened to walk directly into an Anthropologie at the end of my escalator. It was like fate. I love them for oh-so-many reasons... here's one of them:

Dang. If only I had the cash to spend on a personal shopper! But in hindsight, stuff like that doesn't really matter since I know retail therapy only lasts a matter of hours... but while I'm still on the subject... I bought this:

Thought this old-school Walgreens was pretty cool. Or in coupon world, people sometimes call it Wags. Did you figure that out yet, Alli? ;)

 This seemed like a really charming hotel... but we stayed just down the road at the Hilton instead.

I headed back to the hotel in the afternoon and had a fun g-chat date with my friend Laura. She laughed much of the time as I looked to have a lampshade hat. After our date, I made sure to grab a glass of wine from the hotel bar. Mmm, wine.

When the husband came back to the hotel room after a day of meetings, we headed out to dinner at Red Fish Grill on Bourbon Street. We walked through a load of drunk people near the Mississippi at the Railroad Revival Tour watching Mumford and Sons and enjoyed the warm evening. Great Day 2 in Louisiana! It's funny how much I remember from our last trip to NOLA in November 2008. Here are a few photos from memory lane...

I did contemplate bringing my green pants for this trip... but didn't. I seemed to forget a lot of things, honestly! Not my best work.