New Orleans: Day 3

Our third day in New Orleans was a very special one ... it was our official one year wedding anniversary.

We woke up and Ian grabbed coffee for us -- after we packed our suitcases up and secured them with the hotel bellman, we ventured out to catch the St. Charles streetcar.  A $3 pass enables you access to the streetcar for the entire day.  We took it down to the Garden District, which is known for their majestic homes and bountiful gardens.

We'd read great things about Free Tours By Foot, a tip-only tour.  We chose to use them for our Garden District tour.  Just FYI - they also do tours in NY, Philly, DC, and Boston.  We had an excellent tour guide, Sarah.

Our 10:30am tour began at the Lafayette Cemetery ... another place I was excited to see since it was featured in Double Jeopardy.

From there, we made our way to the homes.  The architecture in this area is really beautiful, and we even saw some celebrity homes -- Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, and the childhood home of Eli and Payton Manning.

Childhood home of the Manning boys

John Goodman's home

The $12.5m home I had my eye on.

Sandra Bullock's home, here and below

Our tour ended close to Magazine Street, a recommended spot to visit from several friends.  Upon the strong recommendation of our tour guide, we headed to Parasol's for their infamous roast beef po-boy. 

They had a bar dog there named Leroy.  The bartender would throw a plastic cup in the air towards Leroy, and he would demolish it ... tear it completely into shreds.

His trick is so infamous that it's memorialized in a painting that hung on the wall near us.

The sandwich was absolutely one of the best things we ate that weekend.  I would highly, highly recommend this place for lunch.  It's a bit off of the main road, and it's not fancy -- be prepared to just saddle on up to the bar and kick back with a messy sandwich and a beer.  That's pure heaven for us.

From there, we walked up and down Magazine Street and then made our way back to the St. Charles streetcar and headed to Tulane.  This college campus stunned us both -- it was so beautiful.  Graduation had just occurred a few days prior, so the campus was quiet.

After walking the grounds of Tulane, we picked up the streetcar once more and headed to The Columns Hotel for an afternoon cocktail.  I loved this!

We had such a sweet bartender, and I ordered the champagne cocktail while Ian ventured out to try the Ramos Gin Fizz (recipe here).  

After a long day in the hot sun, we headed back to grab our luggage from the hotel.  We stopped in Harrahs for a little bit of gambling and lost a grand total of $4 before deciding to scoot.  We're obviously not huge gamblers ;)

After hailing a cab with our luggage in tow, we were ready for our next big adventure.  I'd booked us for two nights at the Hilton Riverside and then our third night at The Roosevelt, a Waldorf Astoria hotel.

I'd mentioned that it was our first anniversary, and they really went above and beyond to treat us.  I mean, truly ... they blew it out of the water.

The Presidential Suite ... are.you.kidding.me.  We were floored.

The suite was absolutely amazing.  It had the most gorgeous hardwood floors, a brown velvet sofa, heavy drapes, and an ornate dining room table.

Getting the thumbs-up from Ian

In the bar area, they'd left us with chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of red wine.  In addition there was a $25 spa credit (if only I'd had the time to redeem it!), and certificates for complimentary drinks at their famed Sazerac Bar and for breakfast the next morning.  We just kept walking around with our mouths hanging open.

After relaxing a bit, we got dressed for dinner.  I wore a white dress that I wore on our honeymoon and the earrings that I wore for our wedding.

We made our way downstairs to the bar, where Ian ordered the Sazerac and I chose The Rose.  If you know me, you know that seeing this drink on the menu had me doing cartwheels. 

After our pre-dinner cocktail, we headed through the lobby and made our way to our dinner reservations.

We had 8pm reservations at K-Paul's, and they seated us right away.  

After three days of walking in the heat, we were exhausted after dinner!  We made our way back to the hotel where we laid around, finished the bottle of wine left for us, and watched a movie.  It was the perfect ending to a great first anniversary.