New Orleans Day 2: Southern and Grubbin'

On day 2, we woke up bright and early for breakfast and to lie by the pool for a bit. It was in the hotel’s courtyard so luckily, there weren’t any gross aromas wafting in from the street. After the pool, we headed outside to wait for our Southern Styles Tours tour bus (a Groupon deal of course). Normally, I’m not a huge fan of tours but when I was planning the trip, it didn’t seem like there was much to do in New Orleans other than eat so I figured, why not?

 

Our tour guide ended up being really funny and we got to see a lot. It was really eye-opening to see all of the damage left behind by Hurricane Katrina, even after 10 whole years. Of course we all heard about it on the news but I don’t really think I ever understood the impact it had until I saw it with my own eyes. As we were driving through the 9^th ward, the tour guide told us that the area was under 12 feet of water. He also said that the city recently gave paint to its residents so that they could paint the fronts of their houses. The president was coming down and the city wanted to look like they were doing better than they really were. He also mentioned that a lot of people believe the government used dynamite to blow up the levees in the 9^th ward so that they could save the French Quarter. Once I returned home, I watched Spike Lee’s documentary, When the Levees Broke, which also touched on this. A lot of people said they heard explosions. I really hope that this "conspiracy theory" isn't true. You can see some of the existing damage in the photograph below but we weren't even allowed in the area that was hit hardest.

Aside from the Hurricane Katrina Damage, we also stopped at The City Park of New Orleans and got out to walk around and grab a snack if we wanted. I was trying to save my appetite for dinner so I did some exploring instead. After getting back on the bus, we made an additional stop at a cemetery and drove past some celebrity homes, including Sandra Bullock’s and Peyton/Eli Manning’s childhood home. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting New Orleans. Since it's not a walking tour, you get to see a lot of the city in a short period of time and although there were some devastating things to see, it was very informative in a non-boring way.

By the time we got back to the hotel, I was pretty hungry and was regretting the fact that we didn't grab a snack so we walked over to Sucré and ordered some French Macarons. Drew ordered the Peanut Butter & Jelly and the Pecan Macarons while I ordered the Bananas Foster and the Salted Caramel. I'm not always a huge fan of Salted Caramel but the salesperson suggested it and it was delicious! In my opinion, they were definitely better than the macarons at Laudrée. They tasted like food as opposed to flowers. Just saying. 

After our light snack, we headed back to the room to rest up a bit before dinner and talk about the day. We didn't have plans for the following day and decided to book a swamp tour, which several people had suggested to us. Once our plans were set and we were ready, we headed out walking towards Emeril's for dinner. I always try to walk anywhere I can because a) it's exercise and b) it's free. However, in this case it wasn't the best idea. It was very hot out and I felt ridiculous because I was carrying my heels in a shopping bag so that I could change into them a block away from the restaurant. Yupp. Please tell me I'm not the only one...?

Emeril’s was very very good. We shared the barbecued shrimp appetizer which was to die for. In fact, it looked so good that I couldn't wait to dig right in. Hence, the lack of a photo. For our entrées, I got the Herb Crusted Salmon with a Potato-Sweet Corn Croquette, Baby Spinach, Watermelon Preserves and Chorizo Vinaigrette. Drew got the Andouille Crusted Drum with Grilled Local Vegetables, Shoestring Potatoes, Glazed Pecans, and Creole Meunière. I liked Drew’s dish slightly better than my own but they were both delicious. For dessert, I got the S’mores Ice Cream Sandwich and Drew got the Banana Crème Pie. Overall, it was definitely one of the better meals I’ve had in a long time.

After dinner, we headed back towards our hotel and stopped at the Carousel Bar in Hotel Monteleone, which is in all actuality, a real slow-moving carousel. Naturally, all of the seats were taken at the carousel so I didn’t get to experience it firsthand but we did sit down to have a drink in the lobby area. 

All in all, the trip was shaping up to be better than expected thus far. I just had to make it through the rest of the trip without any more of my OCD inducing mishaps...