One of the perks of being a teacher is that I have not gone one year of my life without a Spring Break. Pretty rad.
Even better is when my man takes the week off and we go somewhere (a first this year). We packed our bags, a cooler, and loaded up on books on CD from the library and headed south…
First Stop: Houston and the Houston Rodeo
We stayed at Hotel Derek (more on booking good hotels, cheap later…) near the Galleria and it was cool, clean, and in a central location. The 3 Essential C’s. Five minutes after checking in we were out the door with our cowboy boots on and back on the road to the Houston Rodeo.
Parking was very organized but really just turned into a nightmare because of the massive crowds (on a Monday night!). We shuttled from our parking lot to the stadium, and ended up missing the rodeo itself. Bummer. We did get to check out a petting zoo. Awesome!
We did make it in time to the concert we were there to see, the Zac Brown Band. It was only when made our way to the rafters in the very last row of the stadium that I realized they were a pretty popular group of musicians! We stayed for a half a dozen songs and decided to duck out early and try to beat the crowds.
On the road…
We hit the road early and made our way east to New Orleans. We broke up the trip with a stop at Micky D’s for breakfast, listening to several chapters of Super Freakonomics, and a good leg stretch and baby gator holdin’ at the Gator Chateau in Jennings, LA.
New Orleans
We pulled right up to our hotel and were greeted with kindness immediately. This is also the point in the trip where Josh realized he didn’t have his wedding ring on, but that’s another story (big ups to the Hotel Derek for overnighting that sucker to us is NO!).
So, here’s how we usually book nice hotels for poco dinero. While I wish we were the types who planned wonderful trips months in advance, we do not. We 100% committed to this trip the day before we left. If you are like us, might I recommend to you the Priceline Negotiator. This is great if you have a budget (and like to gamble), know the area you want to stay in but don’t have to stay at particular place.
Basically what you do is:
- Insert all your travel details: city, check in/out day, and number of rooms.
- Then, it will ask you to pick the part of town you want to be in. At this point you will need to know a little bit about your destination and where exactly you want to be (and also where most of the nicer hotels are).
- Now it’s time to choose your star level. Go for the gold, baby! We always pick the 4-Star.
- Entering your price is next. Ninety bucks is typically our starting bid and a lot of the times it works. Remember you are booking a room in a hotel that probably has TONS of rooms open that they’d like to fill somehow someway.
- Here’s the thing about the Negotiator… The next step is to enter your credit card information. They will either accept or reject your offer. If they accept, you’re in. You got the room(s). Booked. There’s no going back. This is why you must be sure of where you want to stay, open to whatever you get, and pick the highest star level possible! If they reject, try your bidding again in increments of $5.
We Negotiated and got the Omni Royal Orleans in the French Quarter for $100/night. I loved it! It felt so old Eurpoean/New Orleans. Chandaliers, grand windows, beautiful flower boxes. A quiet escape from Bourbon Street. Our room was TINY, but we didn’t hang out there at all. It did look onto an adorable courtyard (one of my favorite things about NO– and life–patios and courtyards).
We threw our suitcases down and walked a block or two to toast to Spring Break 2012 with a classic Hurricane from Pat O’Brien’s. The afternoon sun was shining bright in the courtyard and the sweet refreshing drink hit the spot (especially after the drive). A word to even the most seasoned drinker: Just have one. Two hurricanes sound like an amazing idea, but if you’d like to be functional the rest of the day and evening, stick with one.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the French Quarter and walking along the Mississippi River (where they were filming scenes for Treme) before getting ready for dinner at Pascal’s Manale.
This has been a long-time favorite place for my parents, and I can vividly remember watching the the oyster bar action and sitting in the noisy dining room many times as a kid. The taxi drive there up tree-lined St. Charles Avenue gave us a great mini-tour of the old mansions. We split a cup of gumbo (amazing) then I had the Frutta del Mare pasta which was loaded with oysters, scallops and other yummy goodies. Josh ordered their signature dish- the Original Pascal’s Barbeque Shrimp. They strapped paper bibs on us both and when the jumbo shrimp came in a bowl of soupy spices, it was time to get to work. In the end, it was probably more work than anything and “barbeque” meant something a little bit different to us than it does in NO. Oh well.
We took a cab back to the Quarter and wandered Bourbon street (which takes on a whole other life at night). All the clubs and caberets were thumping with dance music and people with those yard-tall daiquiri drinks. This isn’t what we wanted!
Thank goodness we walked a little further down and ducked into Fritzel’s European Jazz Pub. Talk about being transported back to another world. The place was quaint with couples and families seated and waiting for the 5-member Fritzel’s New Orleans Jazz Band to start up. We sat at the bar and listened to classics about “ol’ New Orleans” as a steady rotation of people politely filed in and out of the small pub.
The next day we got up and walked straight to the Mississippi with one thing on our mind: beignets.
The morning fog set eerily on the river as we made our way to Cafe Du Monde. The line was already about 20 people deep when we got there, but thankfully it moved quickly.
Nothing gets between me and something covered in powdered sugar.
Two small cafe au laits and two orders of beignets were all we needed to start our day. The cafe was bustling, a street performer was serenading us with an electric guitar. The whole trip seemed something out of a movie. Or a twisted version of Europe.
We headed down the river to the French Market, six blocks selling everything from Mardi Gras masks and beads, to andouille sausage, to voodoo dolls, to knock-off purses and sunglasses.
And because you can’t stop thinking about food in New Orleans, we went across Decatur Street to the famous Central Grocery. The line was wrapped around the olive-smelling store when we got there at 11AM. Which was great because it forces you to check out the shelves stocked with imported spices, walnut-sized capers, and Slap Ya Mama seasonings. We made it to the front of the line and ordered a 1/2 muffuletta sandwich to share. The employees are gruff and old-school– no service with a smile here (heck, check out their website), but they know what they’re doing and they know it’s good.
We took the sandwich back to the hotel and upstairs to the rooftop pool. It was a perfectly sunny day, warm but not hot. We laid out for a few hours with the sounds of tug boats going down the river and jazz being played in Jackson Square below. Check out the view:
It was then back out to try a refreshing Pimm’s Cup (gin-based liqueur Pimm’s with lemonade and a slice of cucumber) at the Napoleon House across the street:
Ran into these guys on a few different corners. They cause a loud and happy scene:
And stopped at the Royal House Oyster Bar for happy hour and some deliciously garlicy charbroiled oysters:
All day long we had been going back and forth as to where we wanted to eat that night (our last night in NO). Everyone you talk to has their favorite places. A lot of the same ones kept being repeated so we had our list narrowed down to about five restaurants.
We decided on NOLA, Emeril’s new place which just happened to be about 3 doors down from our hotel (the main reason why we picked it). Our reservation was at 9:15.
By the time we popped into a few places for pre-dinner cocktails, we decided we didn’t need a fancy restaurant, especially since the place we were at (I don’t even know the name!) had homemade jambalaya, red beans and rice, and gumbo. We sat at the bar and ate there. It was delish.
We were pretty anxious to head on over to Frenchman’s Street, where we were told the locals go to hang out at listen to music. It was a safe walk from the Quarter (maybe 10 blocks) and it did not disappoint. It was just a small street with back to back jazz bars with different sounds in each one. All very cool, all very good. All very New Orleans.
The last morning we packed up and walked once more to Cafe Du Monde. Same order, but this time from the To-Go window. We took our bag of beignets and small cups of coffee across the street to Jackson Square. There we sat in the sun and took in the sights and sounds one more time before making the eight-hour drive back to Dallas.
