We arrived at the hotel and were given our room key and went straight up to the room to unpack before heading to get some lunch. I believe when you are paying for a nice hotel and room you should get a nice hotel and room. Our first night at the hotel was not very satisfactory, dirty room, stained furniture, broken fixtures, horrible room service, dirty walls in the bathroom, etc. Geoff made a list of all the problems in our room, it just looked like this room had not been fully taken care of in a couple of months, and took it to the management. After hearing about our problems they immediately gave up double points for our stay, and upgraded us to a suite on the 22 floor. I wasn't expecting much with the other room we had but I was very excited to see our wonderful (and CLEAN) room that afternoon.
Here are a few pictures of our room:
Our Bedroom...Our Bathroom... (I love the subway tiles they used in the shower/tub)Our living room, with bar and table...
And our guest bathroom... (This suite had great views of the river, I hate I didn't take any pictures of that)
When we were walking back down to catch a cab back to our hotel we stopped in my dream store, What's New Gift and Home Accessories. They had so many fleur de lis in this shop I could have bought everything. I have a bit of an obsession with fleur de lis items, they make me feel good and part of my Kappa background (or at least that's what I blame it on). I didn't buy anything in the store, they were in the process of closing and trying to get a homeless many out of the store who was being a little to friendly with the sales clerks. I will have to go back to this store when I go back and will be visiting them online.
Geoff and I stayed in Saturday night so we could rest up for Sunday. On Sunday, we went on a walking tour of the Garden District of the city. I did my reseach beforehand and this was the best tourgroup I found (Historic New Orleans Tours). We had a blast on this tour and our tour guide, Bob, was excellent, he gave great detail to all the stories he told and answered all the questions we had. He even gave us trivia questions to answer, Geoff got 2 out of the 3 correct! Here are some pictures of the homes we saw along the way,
This is the "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" house. This is the house I really wanted to see throughout the whole tour and it was the last one we came to. The next picture is of the back of the house with the stairs, where the baby was found!! It was pretty exciting for me to see this since I enjoyed the movie so much.
I had so much fun seeing all the homes in this area of the city, they are so beautiful and I love the Greek revival architexture. While we were walking we saw Nicholas Cage's home (now for sale), John Goodman's house, and the author, Anne Rice's home (also for sale). This neighborhood has the best coffee shop and book store (The Garden District book shop) which has so many signed copies of books, I picked up a few books as presents. What great gift ideas!!
Once our tour was over, we took a streetcar back to our hotel to go get ready for a surprise dinner Geoff had planned for us that night. This streetcar ride was my first one and we had a blast. Here is a picture of Geoff and I riding along:
Monday morning was bittersweet, we were excited to spend the morning exploring a little more of New Orleans but we had to leave such a great city. We got up early, packed our bags and headed to Cafe Du Monde!!!! This is the one place I really wanted to go and we saved the best for last.
The beinets were delicious, I debated on whether or not to bring some home with me on the plane. We truely enjoyed this treat on our last day in NOLA.
After eating our fabulous breakfast we strolled around the french quarter for the last time. We went to Saint Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. It was so beautiful inside and out. We spent alittle time inside and enjoyed experiencing this historic church.
After this we caught a cab back to the hotel and then off to the airport. We had such a good time visiting and can't wait to go back soon!!
~Katy