Boozed Up and Jazzed Down In NOLA

^{This trip was taken on November 2019. We were still following a vegan diet and got to stay at The Eliza Jane when it was still a Category 4 hotel.}

My idea of traveling to New Orleans consisted of nothing but drinking, eating, and looking at other people doing the same thing. That’s it. I thought all a person did in that city was get wasted on heavy cocktails and pig out on Creole food… And i was 80% correct.

This trip was significant- it was Carolyn and my 5 year anniversary; and it was our first time using Southwest Companion Pass.

We ultimately decided on staying at Hyatt Eliza Jane over the Hyatt Centric French Quarter. The Eliza Jane was our first taste of The Big Easy. What i mean is that the hotel has a life of its own. The building used to be a newspaper printshop. The interior has been remodeled around the original bricks the built the building. The hallways to the rooms is decorated with a collage of old news clippings.

The first night we had Thanksgiving lunch at Compere Lapin. Unfortunately I can’t find pictures of the place. It was really awesome though because they catered to our diet. The rest of the night we drank our through through Bourbon Street. We drank a Hurricane at Pat O’brien’s, saw a show at the Piano Room and at the Preservation Room (highly, highly recommend!), and got the purple drink at the Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop. You can see me deteriorate in the following pictures.

Waking up the next day was tough. We eventually got out of bed with the help of the hair of the dog and got some breakfast at a vegan restaurant called Carmo. This was our breakfast, at 2p. The food here was delicious and the portions were huge. We had to detour back to the hotel and drop off leftovers.

Cafe du monde definitely lived up to the hype. I thought it was a typical touristy spot but the beignets and the coffee mixed with the environment definitely set the vibe. It also helped that an Auntie was our waitress and let us in on all the gossip.

We walked towards Frenchmen Street so we could listen to some more jazz. I really enjoyed this area over Bourbon Street. We drank some sour beers at St Brieux Carre Brewing, ate a vegan hotdog and watched the jazz performers from the a balcony of Dat Dog, and stumbled on an art block market type.

On the way back, we stopped by Erin Rose and had one of the best drinks ever- frozen Irish Coffee.

The frozen Irish coffee from Erin Rose is something we still talk about.

We learned from the first night to not go hard. The next day we hit the road for some nature. I really recommend going out to Jean Lafitte National Historic Park. This was my favorite part of the trip. Next time we visit we’ll definitely do an airboat tour.