Hello everyone. I'M BACK!!!

So we have scaled back on a lot of travel with Phoenix growing older (he just turned 16!) and needing us around a lot more. But the travel itch remains. So Harneet and me now travel separately so someone always stays with the old adorable pup.

So I headed out on a quick trip with Erica to New Orleans. We are both food obsessed and the seafood and cuisine called! We got here 2 days ago and have already had full days. If you love food, stay tuned. That is definitely a big focus of this series of posts.

As soon as our flight landed, I was starving. Erica has been before and we headed to an old favorite of hers called Mr. B's. Here we indulged in their delicious BBQ shrimp drowning ourselves in butter and spices. We also got our first taste of a sseafood gumbo in New Orleans. Neither of us is precious about sharing (which means we could try a lot of variety).

Properly full, we then wandered over to Spotted Cat for some local jazz. The music was fantastic and despite no deep background, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Spent a few more hours wandering down Bourbon street before calling it a night.

Our next morning started at Cafe Du Monde getting our first taste of delicious beignets and chicory coffee. Cash only, open 24 hours and those warm beignets just melt in your mouth.

With our tummies full, we headed over to grab a rental car and visit a few plantations. Note that I am a horrible planner so was so glad that Erica was more prepared and booked stuff in advance. Our first stop was the Whitney plantation where we got a guided tour. This plantation was super interesting. The entire experience was framed from the perspective of the slaves who struggles and suffered and survived through years of torture. I also did not realize how much Haiti influenced the culture of New Orleans. It makes me sad to see how these same people are being treated today. Also, I will never be able to think about voodoo or use the word mumbo jumbo in the same way again (look at the origins of those words and why they were villainized - propaganda at it's best). The cruelty and endurance of humans never fails to shock me. We left with our hearts heavy but also more informed. Here are a few pics of the plantation tour. It definitely prompted some good conversation for the rest of our day.

Once done with the tour, it was close to 2:30pm and we grabbed a quick poboy and gumbo from B&C seafood (recommendation from the front desk of the plantation). It was much lighter than regular restaurant gumbo but still delicious.

For a slightly different experience, we then headed to the Oak Alley plantation. This was a completely different experience than Whitney. It was interesting that the angle here was more skewed to the lives of the plantation owners. While both acknowledged the horrors of slavery, there was a definite difference in the way the tours were approached.

After heading back and returning the car, we were soooo exhausted that we just put our legs up until it was time for our dinner reservation at Commander's Palace. This is an institution in New Orleans and boy, did it deliver. More food pics below from a fabulous luxurious meal.

And we finally get to today. After waking up late, we headed to French truck coffee to indulge in some coffee and fuel before making our way to the World War II museum.

This museum was something else. It was huge and so well done. We spent almost 3 and a half hours there and could have spent more time. It was great to see an equal focus on the European and pacific side of the war. Again, a heavy experience but also very informative. An angle I hadn't seen in other places is explaining the Japanese side of the war, the impact on China and the impact on Japanese Americans back home as well. Erica also helped fill in some of the blanks for me from what she has learned. I would highly recommend to anyone visiting.

Now we planned the day expecting hurricane force winds and had a master plan on picking up famous mufuletta sandwiches from Cochon Butcher in case it got bad. So we headed there for a light lunch and to grab sandwiches for dinner. On recommendation from the guy at the counter we got a sausage sampling of andouille and du jour (since we had tried boudin at Commander's). But he also recommended their soooo delish Mac and Cheese and brussel sprouts (for veggies you know). However, we were now late for our prebooked Sazerac house tour. We frantically purchased a 3 day Jazzy pass thinking to take the tram but turns out we ended up just walking.

At the Sazerac house tour, we got to sample a number of delicious cocktails as we walked through the house. Being lightweights, we left happily buzzed and are now lying on our backs complaining about how full we are. Again, definitely a super fun experience.

And that's it. We plan to do tram runs this evening if the weather stays good. Talk tomorrow!