Don’t Let a Second-Line Parade Pass You By! |

One of my coworkers, Karen, and I went wine tasting together a month ago. We always have such great conversation at work & we’d never hung out outside of the office! So one August night, while my boyfriend was out of town, Karen and I decided to go to a wine tasting event together.

She talked about an upcoming business trip in September to New Orleans. She’d never been to Louisiana before, so she booked her flight for a couple days early to make time for touristy things.

After a couple glasses of wine, I guess I felt bold enough to invite myself. I hadn’t been to the Big Easy either, and sight-seeing is always more fun with company right?

When we left the wine bar, I wondered if she really meant it when she said I could join her and share a hotel room and car during the week of her business trip. But the next day at work, away from the Pinot Noir and Merlot, she still welcomed me crashing her party!

So I booked a round trip from Boise to New Orleans.

Karen and I had only had two social engagements together outside of work before we shared a hotel room and toured a new state together for 5 days. Obviously I already knew what a fun positive person she was through working together, but I was still a little bit nervous about the trip. I worried about having the same taste in restaurants and schedules, and I hoped I wouldn’t overstay my welcome since she was so generous in offering her hotel room with me anyways.

I AM SO GLAD WE MADE THIS INTO A GIRLS TRIP.

Karen is such a happy go-lucky soul, which made me so grateful to explore New Orleans together. The city itself has so many diverse areas….the most notorious being Bourbon St. in the French Quarter. But I tend to prefer rural scenic areas and favored the swamplands just outside of town that we navigated by airboat 🙂

Our first morning began as every morning does….coffee. The Renaissance hotel has a full coffee shop, bar and restaurant so I just hopped downstairs for a couple of coconut milk lattes to sip while we rode a shuttle out to the bayou.

The blue sky and the purple water flowers were surreal!

The views were pretty but the real reason we were there were the gators.

How do you lure in 10 foot alligators towards a loud boat propeller?

Marshmallows, duh. (The s’mores kind obviously.)

They float and they are easy to spot – apparently these guys have a sweet tooth! We were out in the bayou playing around in the water for about and hour and half, just in time for lunch in the French Quarter.

At this pace, I’ll be writing 2,000 words so I’ll just skip to some of the other highlights. 🙂

Voodoo shops, Bourbon St., sharing the famous Hurricane cocktail, a basement dueling piano bar, our rooftop pool, a rooftop bar, crawfish and corn bread, and lots and lots of dry white wine.

We were starting happy hour on Thursday night in the hotel bar of the Sheraton on Canal St. Out the floor to ceiling windows, we could see a police escort for a second-line brass band and a parade of beautifully dressed women dancing behind them. People from the sidewalks started joining in, and before I knew it Karen had set her drink down and started dancing in the street with them!

We followed the band down several blocks until we realized we’d better head back to our friends at the hotel before our dinner reservations. It was so much fun to live in the moment!