…to Miss New Orleans.

We are lucky to be within driving distance of New Orleans, Louisiana.

This city, celebrating her tricentennial this year, is a treasure. I love to visit NOLA, and look forward to my next visit.

If you go to NOLA and don’t eat amazing food, you’re doing it wrong. This weekend, everything we ate made my foodie heart sing. We started at Cochon, which is a celebration of all things pig. I love the Star Wars and 80’s memorabilia that decorate Cochon Butcher. It’s a visual and culinary delight.

We also ate at Mr. B’s, Maspiros, Cafe Du Monde, The Gumbo Shop, Brennan’s, and Fleur de Lis Cafe. Everything we ate was delicious, fresh, local, and made with love.

We bought pralines for family at Laura’s and Aunt Sally’s. We ate an exquisite macaron from Sucre. We had a Lucky Dog from a street vendor. Each experience represented different aspects of the city.

NOLA is a walking city, and we wandered all around the French Quarter, ducking into art galleries, pausing to admire the greenery of the balconies full of ferns and trailing, flowering plants. The buildings are full of history, and if you take a few minutes, you start to appreciate the beauty in the wrought iron, exposed brick, and gabled windows.

Music permeates the city, rolling by through open car windows, wafting out of corner bars, raucously blasting from brass instruments in the square.

Every sense is involved and at times overwhelmed by the sights, scents, and sounds of the city.

Let me clarify – I love to visit, but I would never live there. There is a lot of crime, homelessness, and drug use. The local government is more worried about erasing history than fixing infrastructure and addressing the crime. You have to be wise and thoughtful as you approach NOLA, and understand there are real dangers here.

We travel here with our eyes open, and we miss her when we are gone.

I can’t wait to go back!