We snuck a trip to New Orleans in at the end of Spring. This is a town that I have some really nice memories of and it was nice to see how it had changed since our last visit. Mostly however, we ate a bunch of cajun food, wandered around sipping hurricanes and just relaxed.
We took the trolley up to the Garden District on one of the days of our trip and wandered around the pretty houses there. It was a really relaxing place to spend and afternoon.
We did a short day trip out to Mamou to hit Fred's Lounge for the Saturday morning Live Cajun music show. The bar is open at 9 am and people were crammed in, two stepping and having a great time. The drive out covered some pretty country and we even stopped for gas at a station that had a live tiger. Louisiana is wild.
I found time to do a little craft shopping while we were there as well. The Quarter Stitch has some really lovely needlepoint canvases by local artists as well as some great cross stitch patterns. I picked up a couple of patterns which I'll hopefully get to soon. I also picked up a cute charm for my charm bracelet at The Bead Shop but their selection of beads was amazing. Next door to the The Bead Shop is Uptown Needle & Craftworks which had some cute fabric and I picked up some great Cotton and Steel fat quarters. Most of these shops were along Magazine street which was great to meander and pop in to whatever caught our eye. One of my favorite stores was not a craft store but had such cute stuff - Kawaii NOLA had all kinds of adorable japanese accessories and gifts. I bought a cat coloring book that just cracked me up and a cosmetic bag with a deer design that was made by a local artist.
We spent our last day having an awesome breakfast at Restaurant Stanley and taking a final walk around town.
That last pic is a little cat who lived in a weaving shop in the quarter. She was so cute but it made me anxious to get back to my own little gato. We had a great time in New Orleans, but it's always so nice to be home.