Cross-Country Drive: Biking, Dining and Music in New Orleans, Louisiana

What is there to say about New Orleans? It is one of my favorite cities in the world. The architecture, food and music somehow make me feel at home there even though I have only visited it twice. Our arrival to New Orleans coincided with the annual Essence Music Festival which takes places at the Superdome. What this meant for us was that everyone was at the Superdome during the day while other areas of the city were oddly quiet. 

We wanted to venture away from the Marginy for the day to explore the French Quarter. Our inn, luckily, had bicycles that we could borrow, so we went on a fun ride for the day with lots of stops along the way to appreciate the architecture. 

I absolutely love the wrought iron balconies that can be seen all over the French Quarter. It feels so romantic and charming. 

Along the way, we came across this group of musicians playing with some dancers on the street. *sigh* 

We also saw signs that the French Quarter is a tourism mecca with such establishments as Rev. Zombie's Voodoo Shop. 

Our first stop of the day was Pat O'Brien's to get some adult beverages. I started off with their famous Hurricane, which I still think tastes like Hawaiian Punch. We later ventured out to the courtyard and enjoyed the beautiful weather. If you have ever been to Pat O'Brien's at night, you are sure to be familiar with their fire fountain. Unfortunately, it was still early in the day so there was no fire yet.

Next we visited the world famous Preservation Hall. There weren't any shows scheduled while we were in town, but we got to poke our heads in to the venue. One day, I will get to see some live music there!

Lunch time creeped up on us so we enjoyed some amazing dishes from Coop's Place. Their seafood gumbo and Cajun pasta (shrimp, crawfish, oysters, tasso, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms in a spicy alfredo sauce) made us super happy!

What could make us happier? Iced coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde! I have fond memories of my first New Orleans visit, where I stumbled to Cafe du Monde at the end of every night I was there. Still as fun as last time.



After stuffing our faces, it was time for us to bike back to the inn for some rest before our dinner date at Arnaud's.

Arnaud's is one of those super, super, incredibly old school, white table-clothed restaurants that still exist in New Orleans. It has been around for almost 100 years! There are a few others, but we found ourselves at Arnaud's this night.

I ordered the Shrimp Arnaud (Gulf shrimp marinated in Creole Remoulade sauce) and the Crabmeat Karen (crabmeat and mushrooms baked in the most adorable puff pastry). We shared the bread pudding for dessert.

Arnaud's is so old school that they do bananas foster tableside! Fun to watch even though that wasn't our dessert. 

Located within the restaurant is also a small Mardi Gras Museum, which showcases some intricate costumes of Mardi Gras Balls past. 

After dinner, it was time to put on our brave faces and walk along Bourbon Street. Since this was Raisin Bread's first time in the Big Easy, I felt like he had to see all of the craziness. He had enough after about two blocks and seeing some things that are definitely not for children!

Instead, we spent the remainder of the night in a more laid back part of the city: Frenchman Street. We were able to enjoy some great live music at The Spotted Cat Music Club and the Apple Barrel Bar.

I love NOLA, but we had to continue on our way the next morning!

Pat O'Brien's
718 St Peter Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

Preservation Hall
726 St Peter Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

Coop's Place
1109 Decatur Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

Cafe du Monde
800 Decatur Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

Arnaud's Restaurant
813 Bienville Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70116

The Spotted Cat Music Club
623 Frenchmen Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

The Apple Barrel Bar
609 Frenchmen Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

Week in Review (May 13 to 19, 2013)

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I had an eventful week of graduation events and my family coming in to town to see me graduate. I managed to get quite a few workouts in. Having my DailyBurn membership definitely helped me fit them in this week. I also did a TON of walking on Friday and Saturday around DC to visit some sights. I'll be creating a post later this week about my graduation activities. Until then, here is what my week looked like:

Monday: Daily Burn - Restorative Yoga (16 minutes)
Tuesday: Ran 3.21 miles + Daily Burn - Yoga 3 (52 minutes)
Wednesday: BodyStep class (60 minutes)
Thursday: Daily Burn - Yoga 4 (60 minutes)
Friday: sightseeing with family
Saturday: sightseeing with family
Sunday: ran 4.0 miles

Total yoga this week: 3 times
Total mileage this week: 7.21 miles
Total mileage this year: 142.2 miles

Posted with Blogsy

Cross-Country Drive - San Antonio to the Big Easy

I am fast approaching my three year anniversary in the DC Metro area. It seems as good a time as any to look back on how I got here. Taking a cross-country road trip is something that I think everyone should do once in their life and if possible take a leisurely drive.

My drive "across the country" wound up being neither across the country nor leisurely. The week before I was to leave the West Coast, I found out that I needed to work on July 1st in order to get my annual bonus that I had worked all year for and was no small amount of money. We had originally planned to leave on June 30th, so that meant I would have to work two extra days. After weighing our options, we decided that I should stay the extra two days. Raisin Bread would begin the drive as planned on June 30th, and on July 1st after work, I would fly to San Antonio to meet up with him. Poor Raisin Bread had to make the drive all the way to San Antonio by himself in two days, which were the roughest two days of the schedule!

As you can see from our route map, I wound up missing half of the country.

I also learned that giving yourself seven days to drive across the country doesn't allow for much besides driving, eating, sleeping and driving. 

From San Antonio, our plan for the next day was to drive 544 miles to New Orleans. Our day started off with breakfast at our hotel, with Texas-shaped waffles and biscuits and gravy. 

We made a pit stop in Houston three hours in to have lunch with my former co-worker and former roommate Christine at Goode Company Texas BBQ.



Sliced brisket sandwich for me!

The weather turned from bad to worse after we finished lunch. It was pouring down rain, which caused us to fall behind on our timeline. Can't see. 

Considering the rain delay, we continued on to New Orleans without stopping except to grab a Texas-sized drink.  

We checked into our bed and breakfast located in Faubourg Marigny and then headed out for a lovely dinner at Elizabeth's. The restaurant in tiny but we lucked out and were seated right away.

The food was also amazing. In my opinion, it was the best meal of our trip. I was introduced to the most divine creation: praline bacon. So delicious. My entree, duck with cherry sauce, was also wonderful.

After that drive all day, we were ready to hit the hay. We planned on staying in NOLA for two nights so we had a full day of exploring the city ahead of us. 

Goode Company Texas BBQ
8911 Katy Freeway
Houston, TX 77024

Elizabeth's Restaurant
601 Gallier Street
New Orleans, LA 70117

Week in Review (May 6 to 12, 2013)

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you probably know that I have been taking advantage of my new found freedom from academic life.

On Wednesday after work, I headed to the headquarters of LivingSocial to make a terrarium. They are super easy to make and sound easy to care for, but I'm really bad at keeping plants alive. They are also so pretty to look at so I am hoping mine stays around for a while.



Then on Thursday, I visited the Samuel C. Johnson IMAX Theatre for the first time at the Natural History Museum. My friend invited me to a staff viewing of the 3D film Flight of the Butterflies. The film follows the migratory journey of the monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico. It is visually beautiful!

Image: Source

On Saturday, Raisin Bread and I tried out a new-to-us Japanese place in Falls Church called Maneki Neko. I ordered the vegetable tempura appetizer and shoyu ramen. Definitely the best green tea and ramen I have had in the DC Metro so far!

Yesterday, I decided to take a different running route and ventured to Theodore Roosevelt Island. This was my first time going to the Island and I loved it. The trails were still pretty muddy from the rains we have been having, but it was a perfect day to try something new in the glorious weather. I would like to go there again and do some hiking or some more trail running.

My Sunday run also took me past Artisphere's Yarn Bomb public art project. How can this not make you smile? 

I signed up for a free 60-day trial of Daily Burn this week and have done two of their yoga classes so far. I am trying to get myself to try some of their other workouts but have not gotten myself to yet. I'm planning to do a more in-depth review of Daily Burn after I have used it some more. For now, here is what my workouts looked like this week:

Monday: Daily Burn - Yoga 1 (35 minutes)
Tuesday: Ran/walked 2.4 miles
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: Ran/walked 3.1 miles
Friday: rest
Saturday: 4 hours of spring cleaning
Sunday: ran 3.39 miles + Daily Burn - Yoga 2 (40 minutes)

Total yoga this week: 2 times
Total mileage this week: 8.89 miles
Total mileage this year: 134.99 miles

My entire family will be traveling to visit me this week for my graduation on Friday so my workouts this week and weekend might be on the lighter side. It will be the first time that we have all been together since November, and for that, I am excited!

Maneki Neko
239 West Broad Street
Falls Church, VA 22046

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Art Deco South Beach

The next morning marked the final day of our road trip. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The weather was gorgeous and the music was already pumping at some of the neighboring hotels. It was spring break after all.

Once we were done with breakfast, we had to check out of our room and store our luggage. Then we took a long walk to the Art Deco Welcome Center on Ocean Drive. I love the Art Deco period, and it makes me so happy that Miami  Beach was and is still today a city that believes in historic preservation. We took the self-guided audio tour and got to see and learn about just a sampling of South Beach's wealth of Art Deco architecture. A great number of the buildings remain small boutique hotels.

In addition to the many Art Deco buildings, Ocean Drive is also home to Amsterdam Palace aka Versace Mansion, which was the location of a seriously sad event in fashion history. 

We pretty much had all day to complete the audio tour so we took a break for lunch in the middle of our walk. Like many of the restaurants on the Lincoln Road Mall, The Cafe at Books and Books has a huge outdoor seating area. The weather was perfect for dining al fresco. I ordered "The South Beach" sandwich, which had turkey, brie, pear, watercress and mango chutney butter.

We continued on our tour and were led to a beautiful old Post Office. They sure don't make them like they used to.

We saw many more preserved Art Deco buildings. The Tiffany may have been my favorite. 

We made our way back towards our starting point, but not before seeing this cool antique car and spotting a Space Invader mosaic. There are many more around the city, but that was the only one my not-so-eagle eyes saw. 

At the end of our tour, we took a stroll through the famous Lummus Park.

Along the way, we caught of glimpse of a shirtless man skateboarding through the park with a very large snake! There were some odd glances but no one seemed to think twice about it. 

The walk led us back towards our hotel and as you can see, it was a beautiful day to be at the beach.

Our last few hours in South Beach were spent hanging by the pool. A perfect way to spend the afternoon.

The time came for us to start heading towards the airport, but we first needed to grab some food at Joe's Takeaway. We enjoyed a few crab claws from this Miami institution. 

But wait, there's more. Key lime pie served as our last taste of Florida.

And we drove to the airport with this sunset bidding us farewell. Until we meet again, Florida!

To see more photos from Florida, visit my Flickr page.

The Cafe at Books and Books
927 Lincoln Road
Miami Beach, FL 33139 

Joe's Takeaway
11 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139

Week in Review (April 29 to May 5, 2013)

Done with business school after 33 long months!! Now, I can get my life back. I can't tell you how good it feels to not have schoolwork.

My left foot has been feeling strange since the middle of last week and I was afraid that I had aggravated it more by running and doing that difficult yoga class over the weekend. I had an appointment with my doctor on Wednesday, so I decided to hold off on doing more workouts until I got the okay from her.

It turns out that I have a nerve contusion. Contusion is a fancy word for bruise so it will eventually go back to feeling normal without me having to do anything. My doc also gave me the okay to continue my workouts.



Monday: rest
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: rest
Friday: 1 hour yoga class
Saturday: ran 3.15 miles
Sunday: 45 minutes Pilates chair at-home

Total mileage this week: 3.15 miles
Total mileage this year: 126.1 miles

Before business school, I had a pretty decent yoga practice that completely disappeared once school started. I started practicing yoga on a casual basis almost ten years ago. It always made me feel so good and strong. One of my goals now that I am done with school is to build up a consistent practice again. For now, that means once a week.

*Images: Source*

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Welcome to Miami

After our night in Homestead, we made our way to Miami proper, the final stop in our travels around Florida and coincidentally the same place we started. Our first destination was Little Havana's La Camaronera Seafood Joint and Fish Market for lunch. I was starving because our hotel apparently starts clearing the breakfast area 15 minutes before breakfast ends. No fair.

I ordered fried fish roe for a starter, just because I was really curious to try them. It turned out to be a huge portion and not exactly to my taste. But I was super happy with my lobster sandwich. Soft bread, tons of onions and some special sauce. Oh yeah, and the lobster was good too.

We walked around Little Havana for a few hours afterwards, taking in the sights and sounds. Raisin Bread picked up a cool Cuban fedora and we watched the guys playing dominoes in Maximo Gomez Park.

We still had a few hours to kill before we could check into our hotel so we ventured over to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the former home of industrialist James Deering. It is now owned by the county and can host all of your wedding or quinceanera needs. We weren't able to take photos inside, but the exterior gives you a good idea of how lavish the interior is.

Wouldn't I love to have this as my swimming pool!

What had to be my favorite area of the grounds though was the stone barge. So beautiful. 

The gardens were also stunning. Throughout our time wandering the gardens, we saw couples awkwardly taking engagement photos and little girls in big girl dresses posing for their quinceanera pictures. To be fair, I'm sure they wound up with amazing photos at Villa Vizcaya.

We were able to check in at our hotel a little while later. We stayed at the South Seas Hotel, right on Collins Avenue in South Beach. We were right in the thick of things and I felt like we needed to be in order to really have the SoBe experience.

For dinner, we walked to Espanola Way and had some light French fare at A La Folie Cafe. I had the French onion soup and a salade nicoise.

We spent the remainder of the evening watching the craziness of South Beach by taking a long walk along the Lincoln Road Mall and Ocean Drive.

South Beach is quite an eyefull. I also discovered something that I have never seen before in my life. Apparently, this is called a Bulldog Margarita. It looks like it definitely serves a purpose...for evil. Just kidding, not judgments here. But I, for one, did not partake. 

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We finally settled on ending the night by consuming more food at La Sandwicherie. I wish I had one of these in my neighborhood. They have a ridiculously fast sandwich maker in their employ and make terrific, tasty and customizable sandwiches for your late night pleasure.

With our bellies stuffed and our tootsies tired out, these old fogies hit the hay soon after. Young'uns, go on without us!

To see more photos of Miami, visit my Flickr set

La Camaronera Seafood Joint & Fish Market
1952 West Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33135

A La Folie Cafe
516 Espanola Way
Miami Beach, FL 33139

La Sandwicherie
229 14th Street
Miami Beach, FL 33139