Luis and I finally got out of town for a small getaway. The last time we went on a vacation was August 2019. I have always wanted to go to New Orleans. I have always gravitated towards the music, food, arts, and primarily the cemeteries! I love photographing and documenting cemeteries. My final project for one of my photography classes at Texas Tech was driving around Texas photographing different cemeteries.
Anyways, I finally got to visit New Orleans! We drove the 8 hours to New Orleans, and it was a fantastic scene. Going over miles and miles of swampland was different. We arrived in New Orleans early evening on Friday. We checked into our Airbnb near the French Quarter, changed, and hit the town.
On our first night, we did the typical touristy thing and immediately went to Bourbon Street. We ate at a place called Ole Nola Cookery. After dinner, we walked around Bourbon Street and found a little bar that was playing jazz music.

The following day, we had a food tour scheduled at 11 am. We got up early and walked around Jackson Square (mainly to get a photo without 902384326891237 people) and walked around the French Quarter. The streets are pretty tight, and all the buildings have unique details and different colors. We met our tour guide at Roux Royale. The cutest little kitchen and gift shop. Our tour guide, Kristi, started the tour off with a shortbread praline cookie made in New Orleans. SO GOOD. I bought some to bring home! We walked around the French Quarter and were told the history of New Orleans. Our first stop was at the French Quarter Market. A cute little market with several food stalls. We tried a New Orleans creation with Italian roots, the muffuletta. It’s a sandwich on this thick bread (think Schlotsky’s bread) with layers of Italian meats and cheeses, a homemade olive salad, and olive oil. Luis has the traditional muffuletta. Since I have a pork allergy, I had a turkey muffuletta. It was delicious!

Next, we took a short little walk to Market Cafe, and we indulged in gator bites! It was my first time trying gator. It was surprisingly good. It tasted like a stringier chicken if that makes sense. After our gator bite adventure, we walked by Cafe Du Monde (more on that later) and then in front of Jackson Square. We venture further down to the street to Laura’s Candies to taste a praline (for you Texans, it’s pronounced PRAWleen). Extraordinarily, very sweet candy. I did purchase some Mississippi Mud bars to take home. Our last stop was right around the corner called New Orleans Creole Cookery. This was my favorite stop. We sampled a chargrilled Oyster (yes, I tried it!), gumbo and jambalaya. Luis had the traditional gumbo and jambalaya, and I was served seafood gumbo and vegetarian jambalaya. YALL. The vegetarian jambalaya changed my life! It was the most delicious thing I had in New Orleans. So much so, our last day in New Orleans, I went back and got some to go to bring home with me! It had rice, tomatoes, onions, squash, and zucchini. SO. GOOD.

We made our way back to Roux Royale and shopped after our tour was over. Such a cute boutique. After our food tour, we decided to ride the streetcar to make sure we see all of the French Quarter and the hotspots. We then decided to ride the ferry out to Algiers Point. It is a short ferry ride that is $2 a person one way. You have a great view of the New Orleans skyline. Algiers Point is a cute little neighborhood on the other side of the river with many restaurants and bars. We stopped at River Fine Food Store for an afternoon snack and a drink. It was a quaint little bar/grill.

We got back on the ferry, walked down the riverfront, and made our way to Cafe Du Monde. The line wasn’t very long, so we wanted to check it out if we ran out of time Sunday morning. It’s no secret I love desserts. I went crazy for churros in Spain, and this was my American equivalent goal. The beignets were delicious (remember to bring cash, it is cash only). We waited in line for maybe 10 minutes. They were so good, I went back and bought another order. To best describe the taste, they taste almost like a funnel cake. So good! Cafe Du Monde was a high point of the trip.

Saturday night, we went to The Original French Market Restaurant for dinner. We ventured back out to Bourbon Street for a daiquiri. You can’t visit New Orleans without having a daiquiri! But to be honest, it was wayyyyy too sweet for me. I didn’t have much. Sunday morning, we got up early and went to breakfast back at the French Market (where we had the muffulettas). We walked to the souvenir shop for Cafe Du Monde and bought a couple of items to bring back to Texas.

Before we left, we found an open cemetery, all of the iconic cemeteries are currently closed due to COVID-19. On the way out, we stopped at Metairie Cemetery. I love the attention to detail and the different mausoleum designs. I plan to go back once the cemeteries open back up and spend more time documenting the scene. We drove back and got back into Austin around 1030pm. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I can’t wait to go back!
I hope you enjoy the few photos I took on our trip below.
~ Jalys.