N’awlins – part deaux

Day deaux in New Orleans started off as any vacation day should: A HUGE breakfast of course.

We woke up bright and early Err… we headed to breakfast at 11:30…. whatev.  Our destination was the Old Coffee Pot Restaurant in the French Quarter. 

To our surprise, Guy Fieri had just been to the restaurant last month! How cool!  

The best part of the restaurant (in my opinion) was the AWESOME courtyard, which had a really intricate mural painted on all the walls.

Gentleman admiring the view:

The service was incredibly slow :-/ but I just had to keep reminding myself to take it easy.   I’m used to a much faster pace of life than they have down here, that’s for sure.  We were able to get some mimosas pretty quickly, so that helped to turn my frown upside down 🙁 –> 🙂

For breakfast we decided on splitting the Creole eggs and potatoes:

And some creole pancakes with mashed bananas:

Jarrod REALLY liked both of the dishes:

I wasn’t real excited about them though.  The banana pancakes were super tasty, just too sweet for my breakfast tooth.  And I was really caught off guard by the creole sauce.  I expected something spicy, but it turned out to taste more like spaghetti sauce!  We decided I was thinking of cajun sauce.  Hopefully I can score some cajun food in my belly this weekend 🙂

After breakfast, we walked around the French quarter:

We spotted Cafe Du Monde, which was one on my MUST-VISIT places… but since we were still full from breakfast, we didn’t stop.

Then we walked along the Mississippi River 

Until we reached the Aquarium!  Neither of us have ever been to an Aquarium before, so we were pretty pumped to check it out!

I soon realized it’s incredibly difficult to capture good pictures of an fish in an aquarium!

Jarrod checking out the fishies:

This one makes me laugh every time I look at it 😀 

There were two really AWESOME parts of the aquarium.  First, was getting to touch sting rays:

Isn’t that out of this world??

In Jarrod’s words, the sting rays were “creepishly smooth.”  I didn’t believe him til i mustered up the courage to touch one as well.  After several missed attempts, I was able to brush my hand across one of the stingray’s backs.  I immediately flung my arm from the water, squealed like a child, and ran over to Jarrod with my hand stuck out it front of me and a look of fright on my face.  Hahaha.. I’m fairly certain I scared all the children waiting in line for their turns.  What can you expect though, those things really are freakishly smooth!

The second BEST part of the aquarium was one of the final rooms on the tour that had a floor to ceiling GIGANTIC aquarium with HUGE fish, sharks, and turtles:

I could have sat in here for HOURS!  So relaxing.

After the aquarium, we did some more site seeing and then stopped at the Crescent City Brewhouse for a drink:

Even though neither of us are beer drinkers, we both thought the fermentation tanks were pretty cool!

Next stop:  Johnny Po-Boys for lunch!

We split the chicken po-boy and the shrimp po-boy:

Then headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!  First stop on the dinner path was Pat O’briens Courtyard:

This picture really doesn’t do the courtyard any justice (darn night time pictures).  Just trust me that it was AMAZING.

For dinner we split the sampler, which consisted of Jambalaya, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and Red beans and rice:

This was hands-down our best meal to date in New Orleans.  My favorite was the jambalaya, and Jarrod’s favorite was the gumbo.  Don’t worry, we wolfed down the red beans and rice too 😀

After dinner, we made a much anticipated return to Cafe Du Monde!

I have been waiting to try these Beignets (French doughnuts) for MONTHS.

That is an extreme amount of powdered sugar! Ready to dive in!

These beignets were so hot and friggin delicious. Heaven in my mouth I kid you not.  We may have to make another stop at Cafe Du Monde this weekend 🙂

After hitting up a few local establishments, we headed to the Casino to get our gamble on.  I was feeling lucky, so I popped $5 into a 2 cent slot machine.  About 5 minutes later, I decided to pull my money out:

Don’t worry, I lost the remaining 40 cents on a penny slot a few minutes later.

Jarrod nearly lost his $10, but luckily he hit the jackpot on his last spin and was able to get his total up to $9.94!

Given that I didn’t pay for any of my drinks, and that I got to keep the 94 cents because Jarrod hates having change in his pockets, I’d say I came out the TRUE winner this evening 🙂