NOLA with the girls

Thais, Celeste and I hadn't had a girls weekend in a couple years since our rendez-vous in Boston when Thais's dental conference brought her to my neck of the woods in Boston. Well, when she found out she'd be headed to New Orleans for another conference this summer she invited Celeste and I to join her for a long weekend. I'd never been to New Orleans, but it was one of those places you hear tons about and I felt I wanted to visit at least once to see what all the buzz was about, so what better opportunity than with two of my best gal pals!

Arrival in New Orleans, figuring out the best way to get to the hotel.

Brunch at Mother's...a very popular spot and tasty too.

Thais arrived a few hours later and we headed out for dinner at Arnaud's Jazz Bistro on Bourbon Street.

We enjoyed a great jazz trio as we chatted the evening away catching up on the latest.

The food was wonderful and the service elegant and so attentive.

We ate at some fabulous restaurants, but Arnaud's was my favorite combining amazing cuisine and atmosphere.

Bourbon St. as we headed back to out hotel after dinner. I was a little shell shocked at some of the sites.

The next day, we spent the afternoon strolling through the Garden District.

I had fun taking pictures of some of the smaller details while Celeste captured some of the beautiful homes in their entirety.

A couple of my favorite shots from the afternoon (below).

La Fayette Cemetery is also in the Garden District, so we wondered through.

Then we cooled off in the car and drove ourselves through the 9th Ward to see if things had improved in the past few years. After seeing Adam's pictures from his missions trip, things seemed to be coming along, which was encouraging.

Before heading back to the hotel to relax and freshen up a bit, we stopped by Cafe Du Monde for Bennets. I love that every culture has its own version of fried dough...the donut, the zeppilli, the bennet...but I digress.

No matter the name, it was a sweet treat.

Then we window shopped around Jackson Square's market and boutiques and stopped for a snack of Po-boy sliders at Stella's.

That night we went out for our "fancy" dinner as Thais's called it, though every dinner that weekend was super nice! We ate at a posh spot, Meson 923, which our concierge suggested and she didn't lead us wrong once all weekend.

After dinner, we stopped to change and headed to Pat O'Brian's since it's one of those can't miss spots when visiting New Orleans.

Sadly Celeste headed out a little early since she had to get back to photograph a wedding on Saturday, so we grabbed Starbucks and headed to the airport.

That night, Thais and I had sushi at a great spot on Magazine Street. Then we headed back there the next day for lunch at Cafe Rani and some gelato.

Dinner that night was at Clancy's, a neighborhood restaurant, which you could tell was a local's favorite.

The top off the weekend, we headed back to Bourbon Street for some live jazz. The quartet was amazing. I didn't even realize how much I liked jazz till I heard it up close and personal and what better place than New Orleans, the home of jazz.

The weekend came to an end as we grabbed a lovely brunch on Sunday at Eat before heading to the airport.

On a side note, my airport experience was a little crazy because I had booked a less convenient ticket hoping to fly standby at a more convenient (expensive) time (thank you Dave Ramsey)...well I was told that standby wasn't going to happen and that my real flight had actually been rescheduled for even later and there was nothing anyone could do. Well I didn't realize my flight had been rescheduled and this was actually my saving grace...well that and a few prayers (seriously!), so a quick phone call to Airtran and I was magically booked on the most convenient flight of the day! I was thrilled. God is so good!