The Big Easy

I can finally check off that I traveled to The Big Easy aka New Orleans, Louisiana while on  vacation.  Ever since I saw the movie The Big Easy starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin I’ve been so wanting to go.  That movie was a hoot! And it came out in 1986 – 39 years ago!  Then 13 years ago I saw another movie about Louisiana that resonated with me but in a much different way.  It was called Beasts of the Southern Wild and it came out in 2012.  It starred then 6 year old Quvenzhane Wallis who was nominated for Best Actress Oscar at the tender age of 9 for her groundbreaking performance.  A phenomenal movie which I will never forget.  So much so that I held off traveling to Louisiana because the movie was all about the forgotten people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and I did not want to even think about the horror and destruction…So here we are in 2025 and it’s the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina so of course I’m going (smile).

 

In real life I make all of the travel arrangements for me and James, my life partner, so while browsing online for hotels in the French Quarter, I searched for some place real, some place authentic, a place that would speak to the New Orleans experience.  I booked our hotel stay at The Royal Sonesta – New Orleans, a luxury hotel situated right on Bourbon Street.  I chose it so that we could truly be surrounded by all the sights and sounds of the city.  I did not choose wrong.  The Royal Sonesta – New Orleans took up a whole city block, featured a doorman and was outfitted with 3 uniquely different restaurants – Desire Oyster Bar, The Jazz Playhouse and Restaurant Revolution.  As part of it there was also a lively bar facing the street called Le Booze’ as well as  PJ’s Coffee House of New Orleans which sold coffee, sandwiches, fruit, pastries and such.  Our hotel room with an interior balcony and king sized bed was located on the 3rd floor where (lucky for us!)  The Oasis Bar at the Pool was also located and open from 7am to dusk.

 

 

Wisely enough The Royal Sonesta gave us a $15 dollar a day credit to be used at any of the aforementioned properties and we had only 6 days and 5 nights to explore the French Quarter so explore it we did (smile).

 

Sunday October 12th

Did I mention that we traveled in the month of October?  You would not have known it was October because the weather felt like late August back in New England where I’m from – here it was mid to high 80s all week long, little or no humidity and sunshine for days!

 

We checked in well after the designated time of 4pm because the hotel had a huuuuuge party the night before that had just dispersed so our rooms were not ready.  We gave them our luggage to store away and headed through the courtyard to Desire Oyster Bar to try some of those chargrilled oysters we had heard so much about from friends back home.

 

 

After picking up and dropping off our bags in our now finished room we headed out (by the way you do not need a car in the French Quarter as everything is accessible by foot, by pedicabs, by horse and buggy carriages, by trolley, by bus, by ferry, by boat, by Uber or by limousine.

We were starving, the dozen of chargrilled oysters were good but real salty so they just exacerbated my hunger.  We stopped at a place nearby called The House of Buns where I ordered the Red Beans and Rice.

 

 

Afterwards we walked the streets and I felt like I was in the middle of Spring Break for all ages: young, old and in between.  Lots of people walking everywhere but from what we heard the crowds were thin and nothing like what was to come, i.e., Thursday night and the weekend…

 

 

It was around this time that I started feeling tired (I had woke up that morning at 5am for our long travel day which took us from Bradley Airport in Windsor, CT to Charlotte, North Carolina and finally to New Orleans, Louisiana) so I was beat.  Not to mention the hour time change…But nothing a hot shower and a good night’s sleep wouldn’t fix.

 

Monday, October 13th 

We woke up late on Monday morning (I think it was after 830am which is late to me since in real life I wake up at 430am 5 days a week to head to the Orangetheory gym in Hamden for a kick-a– class (smile).

We decided on visiting The Garden District on our first day so we could get closer to the water.  We took a City trolley there for one low price of $3.00 (the ticket to ride lasted all day long for trolleys and/or buses).

 

 

We were starved when we arrived in the Garden District so we rang the bell and got off in front of this cute French restaurant called La Boulangerie on Magazine Street – like a lot of the fast casual restaurants – you order your food first, take your number and find a table.  The waitress or waiter then brings your food and drink to your table.  I ordered a sausage, egg and cheese on an english muffin and a double expresso.  It was delish~

 

 

We headed to the Riverwalk Mall where there were restaurants, shops and you guessed it, the river (smile).  It was another beautiful day so we walked the boardwalk, went window shopping in the mall and then headed out to Caesar’s Casino to get our gambling on.

 

 

 

We did not feel like waiting for a trolley car or bus to arrive so on the way back we caught a pedicab for just $20 bucks and our driver pedaled us back to the hotel in no time.

 

 

After a quick shower and fresh clothes,  we headed out for dinner and this time we dined at Nola because they had an upstairs balcony with al fresco dining so we could people watch while we ate.

 

 

Then we bar hopped (not for drinks but for live bands and karaoke) and were back in our hotel room by midnight.

 

 

Tuesday October 14th

We ate breakfast at the hotel this morning – Desire Oyster Bar (yes, they serve breakfast too!).  I had a huge bowl of steel cut oats with candied pralines, brown sugar and raisins and a large coffee.   It was delish!

 

 

After breakfast we spent the day poolside at The Oasis Bar at the Pool to soak up the sun and relax before taking a shower, changing our clothes and heading out to Mother’s Restaurant.  My girlfriend Jeani in Atlanta works for Delta Airlines and she and her husband Brian travel everywhere so when she makes a recommendation, we listen (smile).  We walked to the restaurant as it was only about 12 minutes away.  It was crowded!  We waited in the ordering line, took our number and looked for a table way in the back because the front of the restaurant was already jam packed with people.  I had Jerry’s Jambalaya with cabbage and red beans and rice.  I drank iced water with lemon (actually I drank iced water with lemon with all of my meals as number 1: I don’t drink alcohol anymore and number 2: I knew I would be consuming an extraordinary amount of food on this vacay (smile).

 

 

 

At night we bar hopped again (for live music and karaoke) and found a spot where the singer originally from New Orleans had a rich and powerful voice.  We stayed out that night ’till 11pm then went back to our room and hung out on our balcony deck which faced the courtyard, not the street.

 

 

Wednesday October `15th

We woke up late again and headed to Desire Oyster Bar for breakfast where I had the same thing – a huge bowl of steel cut oatmeal with candied pralines, brown sugar and raisins.  Then we headed to the Nola Visitor Center to buy 2 tickets to an Airboat Swamp Tour (James’s pick).  We purposely opted to not go on a lot of tours for this trip as we felt as if we could navigate the city without them.  But this tour spoke to James so I agreed (smile).

Our Swamp tour was on a small airboat which carried up to 10 passengers.  With transportation to the pier and the tour it cost us $119 per person.  It was worth it though because we went deep into the swamp and stayed for almost 2 hours with a tour guide who was native to the area – 5th generation bayou family member – he regaled us with stories of him and his friends hanging out in the swamp when they were little boys looking for alligators and snakes.  He called the swamp his “backyard.”  I called him our Crocodile Dundee (smile).

 

 

 

 

For lunch we found a cool looking restaurant called Crescent City Brewhouse on Decatur Street where I ordered the wild tagliatelle pasta with grilled chicken and a side salad.

 

 

Fun Fact:  Our waiter, Joshua G. was also a budding actor.  He told us he was on pins and needles about a 2nd call back he just received for a role he was praying about and then told us he played the Jamaican dude in Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell’s Get Hard movie.  I googled “Jamaican in Get Hard with Kevin Hart” later that day and watched Joshua’s scene with a big smile on my face.  He was very good!

 

After we ate we went out for a long walk where we ran into the Louie Armstrong Park and more street performers.  Even one who sounded like so much like John Legend that we thought the outdoor restaurant was playing his song, Ordinary People on loud speakers.  It was another beautiful day.

 

 

We then took the trolley back to Bourbon Street and walked into a record store called Peaches Records!  I was so surprised because it’s not every day you see a record store in a city.  As it turned out, this record store was unique in that it used to be a Woolworth’s Store back in the 1960s where one of the more notable sit-ins took place.  Seven students staged a sit-in at the Woolworths lunch counter to protest racial segregation.

 

 

Thursday October 16th

We were running out of time but could not leave New Orleans without at least trying a beignet – so many people, including my gym friend Penthy, told me how goooood the beignet was.  As it turned out there was a Cafe Beignet right across from our hotel.  At this Cafe Beignet the  dining was al fresco and it featured live jazz musicians, in this case a 3 piece band.  I had scrambled eggs with white cheddar cheese and bacon on a plain bagel with black coffee.  James had 3 different flavored beignets so I took a bite out of one of his beignets (smile).  It was tasty for sure.

 

 

That night for dinner we ate at Acme Restaurant which my gym friend Anne M. highly recommended.  We had tried to go to Acme Restaurant on Monday night but there was a large water main break that night which shut down all of the restaurants and bars on the street.  The TV news reporter was there interviewing one of the chefs so I had to smile since I’m in the TV industry.

 

 

Anyway, we waited in line at Acme because it was so popular and then were seated in the back.  I enjoyed the seafood medley which was well worth the wait.

 

 

That night we listened to live jazz music but this time at The Jazz Playhouse in our hotel.  I drank 2 mocktails as we listened to the sounds of The Brass-A-Holics.  This group was incredible as they all played musical instruments including the saxophone which is my personal favorite. I would have taken pictures of these gorgeous male musicians but my phone had died – bummer!   At the end of the night The Brass-A-Holics summoned everyone out of their seats to follow them around the restaurant where we all marched/danced to When the Saints Go Marching In.  It was another memorable evening spent with people whom I’ll probably never see again in my life (smile).

 

Friday October 17th

Travel day – I have to note: Traveling by air today is exhausting and it really tries your nerves – we almost missed our connection two times (one time on the way to Louisiana, one time on the way back from Louisiana) through no fault of our own.   Another thing –  on the flight headed to New Orleans our Pilot informed us that he thought he was going home after his shift had ended but was asked at the last minuteto stay on and take our flight so I’m thinking, Oh no, he’s really tired… Anyway, he then proceeded to tell us that 3 things needed to be fixed before we could actually take off so our flight would be delayed but he would keep us posted as each one was completed.  He came back after each one was completed to let us know the status.  On the 3rd “thing” he accidentally said it was ‘good enough’ and then changed it to mean it easily passed all of the tests but all I kept thinking was ‘good enough.’  Yikes!  As it turned out, God protected us and got us back safely so I really have nothing to complain about right?!? (smile).

 

At any rate, here are my memories of New Orleans in October:

Beautiful sunny and hot weather

Bare legged tattooed ladies

Daiquiris and pizza shops

Jello Shots

Po’Boys

Loud competing music in the streets

Independent art galleries in the Art District

Apartments, condos and homes with unique architecture and ironwork balconies

Street sweepers in the early morning cleaning up the mess from the night before

Poverty stricken children of color drumming on empty canisters for dollars

Homeless sleeping in the street

Young male street performers holding court on Bourbon Street while entertaining the crowds

Caleb the funny doorman at The Royal Sonesta

 

Sincerely,

 

TVFL