NOLA is gorgeous. A little grungy in parts, but so full of culture and there's something going on at every shop, corner, store, etc. We started the day with a little exploring of the shops downtown and taking in the sites for a hour or so before checking in our hotel.
[PLUG: hotels.com is the bomb, people. If you travel anywhere ever, check them out first for pricing. We have been able to stay at 4 & 5 star hotels - some historic, some suites, some at resorts - everywhere we went for between $75 & $90 a night. Amazing!]
We stayed in the Queen & Crescent Hotel - beautiful and historic and apparently has a resident ghost named Rose. (We didn't see her.)
Of course then we went to find food. We found this local restaurant named Olivier's that we fell in love with. They had traditional cajun/creole food which is want we were looking for - the real NOLA experience.
After dinner came more exploring and then we watched fireworks over the Mississippi River (with about 10,000 of our closest friends). Apparently, NOLA's July 4th event is one of the top ten in the nation. They had fireworks coming from two barges and against the city lights, it was great.
Post fireworks, we ate at the famous Cafe Du Monde. This little local treasure is famous for being the original coffee stand in Louisiana and also for their beignets (French doughnuts). Ummm I'm not really sure why more places haven't caught onto this whole beignet thing. I don't even like doughnuts that terribly much and these things were gone in about 25 seconds. AND my drink was served in a plastic reusable Cafe Du Monde cup - if you know me, you know that I do love a plastic cup.
We finished the night with a stroll down historic Bourbon Street. Lots of live music and people everywhere - slightly similar to Chapel Hill or Downtown Greenville on Halloween. It was interesting for sure and it's no doubt people were celebrating some sort of independence. haha
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