January can be busy with getting into new routines, and I can get more into that at a later post, but I FINALLY made it to writing about our New Years festivities in NAWLINS! GEAUX 2017!!

We drove from Houston through the swamps of Louisiana all while watching the movie The Skeleton Key, featuring Kate Hudson as a caretaker in a creepy voodoo house (I won’t say much more otherwise it will give away the ending, but driving through the swamps in a rain storm set up the vibes for our holiday stay #ilovecreepythings). After getting lunch in Baton Rouge, we went to the Evergreen Plantation home, where the movie Django Unchained was filmed (and it is also currently the filming location for the upcoming Roots series). We had the BEST tour guide ever, she was very thorough about the history of Louisiana, the people of the land, as well as the true definition of Creole. It was inspiring to hear as well as a beautiful home.

After touring the swampy marshland plantation, we made our way into Nawlins and promptly had THE BEST shrimp po-boys of our lives at Parasol’s, which was conveniently down the street from our Airbnb in the Garden District. We then did what you SHOULD DAMN WELL do when in NOLA – a ghost tour of the French quarter! I have gone on other tours in the past, but this time we opted for the Voodoo Bone Lady tour. In my opinion, the Haunted History tours are better and provide a more thorough historical description of the area, but the Bone Lady was very entertaining and told more stories about voodoo that I haven’t heard prior. All I could focus on was GHOSTS. My sis and I took lots of pics and saw multiple orbs in our shots, which we then proceeded to make up what we thought they meant because we like to imagine being priestesses ourselves. #whyarewesocreepy

We then drank hurricanes at Pat O’Briens and partied it up on Frenchman street while listening to live jazz. I also loved the art market off Frenchman, where John and I scored these amazing t-shirts! POE BOY and I want to be BAYOU FTW! (We LOVE puns to the nth degree incase you can’t tell…)

New Years Eve was probably my favorite day of our entire southern holiday trip. We got up early and had an amazing breakfast of biscuit sandwiches, walked around the square and French quarter, visited the hurricane Katrina exhibit at the Louisiana State museum, ate lunch off of Bourbon street with INSANELY huge ass beers, visited congo square and the jazz park, bar-hopped and shopped off Decateur street, followed by a fancy 3 course dinner with my sis and bro-in law at Bayona. FOOD IN NOLA IS SO RICH OMG YES (BUT OH MY GAWD MY STOMACH).

After that we met up with friends at the Howlin Wolf for NYE festivities with Rebirth Brass Band! (If you ever watched the HBO show Treme, it’s centered around some characters from this Grammy winning band and the music is rich in NOLA culture. Plus they brew their own beer, which was what we drank all night). We had a blast and loved people watching!

This was my 3rd trip to NOLA and it did not disappoint. I always forget just how energetic and magical the city feels, almost like it is a part of me, a part of all of us! We were sad to say goodbye after our short jaunt, but loved the architecture, music, food, and made many memories. We can’t wait to come back! Maybe Jazzfest at some point? #ilovenola