Sarah's Suitcase

The joys (and dangers) of having a Pinterest account is the wide variety of information it gives for things to do and places to see when traveling to new places (or returning to some favorite places).  When my mom, bowling team and I travel to Louisiana, we only have two nights in New Orleans which brings up the saying, “So much to do, so little time”.  Pinterest, as well as the internet, has helped us determine our top choices for sight seeing.

New Orleans is a great city for a history nut.  The Jackson Square, pictured above and named after the famous President Andrew Jackson, is home to an open air balcony where artists tend to show (and potentially sell) their artwork, and the square is also the location of the oldest cathedral in the United States: St. Louis Cathedral.  Their website provides information on the history, mass times, and the opportunity to hold a wedding.  An open balcony provides the chance for artist to show off their artwork and visitors a chance to appreciate/buy it.

Plantation tours are also a rich history experience, and no tour should be the same.  The Top Ten Plantation Tours website briefly describes 10 plantation tours available in or around the city, then provides a link for further information.  Bocage Plantation website states this plantation is closed until further notice.  Upon further research, I found out the home and land were sold at an auction in 2012 with no information on it reopening.  The Oak Alley Plantation (pictured above) dates back before the Civil War with historical structures from that time period still intact and open for the tour.  A tour at this location costs $20 and gives a visitor access to the house that still houses some belongings from the original owners, other structures on the property and the gift shop.  For a traveler who wants to peek into centuries worth of history, a plantation tour is one of the best ways to go.

The main thing I want to experience is MUSIC.  If we go to New Orleans and don’t experience that, then we haven’t traveled in my opinion.  Piano bars, street corners, jazz bands, House of Blues, the possibilities are endless.  The House of Blues website provides information on upcoming concerts as well as a full menu.  Seafood, cajun, “Jambalaya Bayou Bowl”.. when in the gulf, you might as well eat their food!  Bourbon Street is a famous attraction filled with tourists and bands during the day and an interesting side of tourists at night.  Some of my friends and coworkers that have already traveled to the city have stated that Bourbon Street has a smell mixed of “pee, puke and alcohol”.  As long as we stay in a large group and alert of our surroundings, I don’t see any problem with traveling to Bourbon Street.

No matter what we do or see, I know New Orleans will be a great time, and I can’t wait for June!

Until next time… “the world is a book and those who do not meet only read a page.”

Before the prep for my New Orleans trip started, I would’ve only thought about booking a hotel room while on a trip.  Renting a home for a vacation only seemed real in movies such as The Holiday, until now.  In fact, the practice of renting a house for a few days seems to becoming more and more popular.  For a large group like we have with the bowling team, it seems much cheaper and easier as well to book a house that can sleep up to 10 compared to renting a hotel room for 3-5 people.

The house the bowling team and I rented is here, seemingly in the heart of New Orleans.  The house has seven beds, a full kitchen, washer and dryer, internet access, and two TVs: most of those things are hard to get even in a hotel room!  Even though I haven’t ever rented a house for a vacation, I can’t help but think already of how the house outways the options for hotels.

1. Your own space: you’re not hearing the screams of little kids next door, or running down the hall

2. You don’t have to wait for the hotels to serve you a full breakfast: with your own kitchen, why not go grocery shopping and fix your own breakfast?

3. The hotel spaces always seem congested especially when you have up to four people trying to use one small bathroom.  This house has 2.5, and even though there’s about nine of us, it already seems like a castle!

Another blog site lists a few more reasons of why one should rent a vacation home instead of a hotel:

4. The “rent with a view” is something that didn’t pop in my head right away, but is so true!  I haven’t looked at many pictures of our house, but the listing provides location details, and it seems we’re staying right on a main street close to Bourbon street.  Can’t complain with the center of New Orleans being at your doorstep, can we?

5. $$$$: I’ve mentioned the cost a little bit before, but the listed website mentions it in more detail: when you book a house for a vacation, most of the time all “hidden fees” that you’d find in a hotel are listed right on the website.  Cleaning fee, security deposit, etc: all of that you can calculate into your budget without the worry of having to add more at the end.

 

Hey, the other blog list suggest Hawaii as a cheap option for home rentals as well: luau anyone?

Every time I travel there are two things that are EXTREMELY important to me: what are we going to see and what are we going to eat?  I LOVE FOOD.  I have my favorites, but I love trying new things.  For our Louisiana trip, the bowling team and I have been starting to look up tours and where to get the best Cajun food.  One tour group we have been looking at (Cajun Encounters) is a three hour city tour of New Orleans that also takes us through one of the cemeteries and gives credit towards another Cajun Encounter tour.

I originally thought the Cajun tour would include a food voucher or something, but it doesn’t seem to.  Not to worry though, since we’ll be in the heart of New Orleans for three hours!  During this tour google search, I also typed in the “best places to eat Cajun food in New Orleans”.  Not surprisingly, there was more than a handful of resturants listed.

Right now I am a little partial towards the first option: Resturant Revolution.  From their menu online here, http://www.revolutionnola.com/restaurant_revolution_menu.html#lunch they have a wide variety of choices.  It looks like the typical breakfast from home has been mixed in with the southern style seafood, but they still offer “plain” options (basic eggs, basic scrambled eggs, etc).  For anyone over 21, their wide selection of wine and cocktails seems to be a good reason to flock there as soon as we land in New Orleans!  And on that note, I think it’s time I go cook MY lunch! 🙂

Til next time,

 

“We travel not to escape life, but for life to not escape us”

 

 

Confession time: one of my favorite TV shows right now is the Bachelor (corny reality TV, I know, but it’s so addicting!).  A couple of weeks ago the contestants and Nick were going on trips all over the world, and one of their trips was to Lousiana, which is my second trip for the summer.  It was excciting to see them there because I was able to get an insight of what I would be experiencing in a few months.  The scenery was gorgeous- the historical plantations, the bayous, and the downtown scene!  However, the one thing that got me freaking out in excitement was the ghost tour that was shown.

Back story: each fall, my coworkers and I go through a haunted house and they scare the S–T out of me!  However, I’m a huge history nut, love ghost stories, and I LOVE hearing historical ghost stories/figures.  So going on a ghost tour while on vacation would be my idea of fun.  I have an opition to go on a ghost walking tour in London, but I still want to experience something like that in Louisiana.  According to the travel book my mom ordered and my Internet research, some of the top choices for experiencing a haunting are:

• The Old State Capitol building in Baton Rouge
  • https://www.vacationsmadeeasy.com/TheBLT/17HauntedPlacesinLouisianaYouNeedtoSeeforYourself.html
  • I’ve read some brief history on the Capitol building and its ghosts.
• St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans
  • http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/st-louis-cemetery-no-1-tour/
  • An above ground cemetary filled with some historical figures (world class chess champion, Revoluation figures, etc).
  • Located near the French Quarter, with a tour that lasts between one and two hours.  Cost is $20.00 per adult although reviews suggest taking your own (free tour) vs a tour guide.
• The LaLaurie Mansion in the French Quarter in New Orleans.
  • https://www.prairieghosts.com/lalaurie.html
  • “For more than 150 years, and through several generations, the LaLaurie House has been considered to be the most haunted and the most frightening location in the French Quarter.”  (Maybe I’ll pass on this haunting….)
• The Myrtles Plantation.
  • http://myrtlesplantation.com/haunts.php
  • One of America’s most haunted houses (without the horror ghost stories it seems)

The benefit of having so many months to prepare for this trip is figuring out which places to go see!!  There’s so much to see in so little time, so I guess we’ll see where we wind up…

Don’t listen to what they say.  Go see.