MonsterBash FORE

Dead Prom Queen ... complete with autopsy incision scars

Architectural Eye-Candy

New Orleans satisfied so many of my senses!  The food, the music, the architecture....

The doors and windows alone could fill up an entire photo album. 

Take a peek:

And then there are the hidden jewels, like secret courtyards, and the attention to detail that can be easily missed.

Can you read the signs??

I am a fan of signs and New Orleans gave me an eye full!  Here are some fun ones I wanted to share:



1-year Blog-iversary!!!

I just realized that last week Wednesday, October 19, 2011, was the one-year anniversary for joy & nostalgia!!  WOW!!  Really?!  Where did a whole year go?  Well...I hope my posts have improved in that time.  And I promise to continue to raise the bar! 

Thanx for tagging along!!

Let the FUN begin!!

Halloween 2011

Aviatrixx ~ a small nod to steampunk

My husband ... the female pilot!

Princess Eugenia, Prince Harry & Princess Beatrice

Cyndi Lauper & Mr. T

LeatherFace & Midnite Priestess

Dia de Los Muertos

Sanderson Sisters ~ Witches from Hocus Pocus!!

We have fabulous friends who really know how to rock it out!



Not goodbye ... so long for now

We closed out our FABULOUS week in New Orleans by strolling the French Quarter under sunny skies. 

And returning to where our adventure began, dining at the Ruby Slipper.

We will FOREVER recall the joy of our days in the Crescent City ... you have become part of the fabric of our nostalgia!

Until we meet again, NOLA!  Never change!!!  We will be back in a few years to celebrate our favorite holiday ~~ All Hallow's Eve!

Where did our week go?

Thursday: Our last full day in New Orleans

We rode all 3 streetcars (Riverfront, Canal & St. Charles).  We rode the St. Charles thru the Garden District to see the houses lit up at nite (and decorated for Halloween!).   

While sipping wine at the Cabildo, we listened to a lecture on the fading of the Creole history.  The Cabildo is on the register of historic places; it is where the Louisiana Purchase was signed.

We drank margarita and sangria.

We strolled the French Quarter.  OF COURSE!

We visited City Park with its sculpture garden  ...

 ... and botanic gardens.

We dined on the balcony at the French Quarter Inn, enjoying gumbo and red beans & rice, under the still full moon, with jazz from across the street floating up to our ears. 



A Full Moon in New Orleans

Wednesday

For our one and only time having breakfast not at our resort (we brought oatmeal and bought bagels & cream cheese to save money), we tried another find from Where magazine. 

Daisy Dukes was a great little place only a couple blocks from "home"!  One of their big selling points is free refills on Bloody Marys!  WOW!!  If I hadn't had one bad experience a decade ago with Bloody Marys, I would have enjoyed drinking some of my vegetables for the day ... with that little extra kick!!!  We stuck to feeding our caffeine needs and drank free refills of coffee!  They also have a great breakfast platter for only $3.99 from 5A-9A.  Unfortunately, for us, we were late starters and didn't arrive until 10!  So, we both got a Plain Jane omelet with hashbrowns and a biscuit.  I added a pancake and Chris added sausage & bacon to his omelet.  LOTS of food!!!  (It literally was with us for the whole day!!!  I kid you not!)  We ate in the open front area to soak up more of the fantastic weather and were able to watch the Today Show on the big flatscreen tv. 

Now, check out my pancake...



Does this look familiar?



A pumpkin-shaped pancake "carved" into a jack-o-lantern!!

After dropping off my leftovers at our resort, we made our way back to the French Market to just meander.  During one of our visits, Chris discovered a margarita to his liking and I found sangria!!!  (We ended up back at the French Market about 3 times for these specific vendors.  Sadly, one of the nites, Chris's place was closing up so he had to settle for another...which was slightly more expensive and not nearly as good.)

This was our day to spend some time at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum.  This is the home and site of the first licensed pharmacist in the United States.  (It has very limited hours, which were different than what I found in Where, actually, so we missed out on a previous day.  So make sure to stop by and see the hours posted on the building itself, if you are intersted.)  What a cool place!  It is only $5 and you can take as many photos as you like! 

We loved this place!  Very odd, very rare, very US!!  Chris took many, many photos, so that we can print and frame them to use in either a kitchen or bathroom in the future.  For your enjoyment, here are a few, just what the doctored ordered! 

 As this is October's full moon, what better way to spend the evening than outdoors listening to live music!  We walked over to Lafayette Square for an outdoor music festival, Harvest the Music, sponsored by America's Second Harvest.  (Another find in Where!!)  This was bigger than either of us expected.  There were food and drink vendors around the perimeter, plus various merchandise vendors.  The place was packed, too!!  We walked around, but didn't get anything as we were literally still full from breakfast at Daisy Dukes!  This is like 6PM!!  We found our way to the steps of a courthouse located behind all of the festivites, including the massive stage. 

We enjoyed a kick-ass musical performance by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews!  Never heard of him, but this young guy is a performer!  He is a trumpet player and backs himself up with fantastic drums, percussions and more horns!!!  I have since done a little reading up on this New Orleans-favorite and he was discovered by one of my favorites, Lenny Kravitz, back in 2005 and Lenny took him on tour!  Don't miss seeing him should you get the chance!!

While sitting on the steps, Chris noticed alot of truck and vans driving by ... and that they had the words Paramount Pictures on the doors.  So he says they must be filming something close by.  We had heard of the HBO show Treme that is based on an area of New Orleans and that 21 Jump Street has done some filming in NOLA, too (apparently my Johnny was there somewhere in April!). 

We decide to investigate.  We rounded a couple corners until we found the set.  I asked a cop what was going to be filmed and he told us GI Joe.  I was a bit surprised b/c I didn't think the first one did well, but I guess they thought it did well enough for a sequel.  We walked a little further and I asked a guy coming out of one of the Paramount trucks if any celebrities would be out:  He said, "The Rock, Dwayne Johnson.  Bruce Willis was here last week." 

We stuck around for a little while, but then they started filming and made us move from our very strategic spots, virtually leaving us with no way to see anything anymore.  So, no sighting of The Rock this trip!

However,  we did see The Rock's double approach the set.  To our surprise, he had come to sit on the steps in front of us when we were listening to Trombone Shorty!!!  AND he had pulled out paperwork that said GI Joe at the top!  It didn't dawn on either one of us Paramount Pictures trucks + GI Joe paperwork = GI Joe filming!!!

What I found the most weird, tho, was no one really seemed to be fazed by the movie trucks.  It was as if they are so used to film sets and/or having celebrities in their midst that we were about the only ones hanging out for a glimpse.  Huh?!