Dec. 29th: Garden District and Jazz

There was only one day that we had off this trip to do whatever we pleased.  And so we took advantage as best as we could.  While barhopping the night before we ended up having a great and lengthy chat with one of Bob's friends from Baton Rouge who happened to be a fellow historian getting his PhD in (get this) the history of New Orleans.  So - it made sense that we take his advice in terms of what we should see while in town.  And of course the one area he wanted to make sure we saw was the Garden District.  So that's where we spent our day off:  wandering around looking at these huge mansions built for single families.  The houses in the Garden District are quite literally awesome.

Fortunately as we were walking in the Garden District we stumbled on Magazine Street - which if you haven't heard is the street to be on if you want to go shopping.  Awesome shops with so much character!  Let's just leave it at that.  So after an afternoon of wandering around, we decided to spend our one free evening doing what is required of every New Orleans visitor ... we went to see some Jazz.

One might have expected us to head to Bourbon Street for our jazz, but with all of the commercialism and debauchery on it now - the jazz found a new home on Frenchmen St.  So that's where we went!  The one bar that we had intended on going to was completely full but the awesome thing about Frenchmen street is that if you can't get in to one place - there's another one right next door!  We ended up at Maison and it was awesome.  We found a table for us and ended up having a lovely night with good friends and more fantastic Cajun flavour!

Other awesome parts of DAY 2:

• Waking up to find out that but not only do I talk in my sleep, but I apparently refuse requests to stop my bedmate from snoring ... twice! ... sorry Britty.
• Walking out the door wearing a sleeveless top in December, and it being completely normal
• Taking the historic trolley
• Seeing really nice houses, with really beat up sidewalks and roads (caused by the roots of the beautiful trees lining the streets)
• Thinking that splitting a plate of pasta and a sandwich was a good way to have a light snack, only to find out that one plate of pasta SHOULD be two plates, and that their idea of a sandwich requires an entire loaf of french bread (FYI, the muffelata is delicious even when not fresh out of the oven)
• The Antique and Upcycled Shops on Magazine Street
• Having lunch for dinner as well (FYI, the muffelata is delicious even when not fresh out of the oven)
• More Bloody Marys! Alongside Crawfish balls and queso fries
• Having the right sized cab show up at exactly the right moment