The hubby and I recently took a trip to New Orleans to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. Now, if you happen to know me this is not my typical vacation spot. I usually opt for Hawaii or some amazing warm beach vacation to completely unwind and relax. Surprisingly, New Orleans has been on my bucket list for some time now and I heard April is a great time to visit. This was definitely a much-needed vacation and opportunity to celebrate one year of blissful marriage!
Let’s just start by saying this city is amazing! If you like food, music, art, and history this is the place to be. Everything about this trip was perfect! We started our trip by watching our wedding video, hunny moon video clips, and endless photos on the flight there. We had the perfect studio Airbnb and the weather in the 80’s. Humid and sunny -- not too different than my go-to beach vacations! We had bikes at our Airbnb and as it turns out biking is really the best way to get around the city.
With only 4 days we had to dive in and see what this city had to offer. We lumped together all the recommendations (there were so many, because there are more than 900 places to eat) from our friends that have been there before and from our Airbnb hosts. When I first thought about the food, my head kept saying “how am I going to survive there with my dietary restrictions (no gluten, no dairy)…I’m not going to find any food that I can eat” …Boy was I wrong! There were so many places with gluten free and dairy free options. And not to mention the seafood. It was so fresh and unexpectedly non-fried. Yippee! I had some of the best food I’ve ever had on vacation.
Follow me on Instagram (@honumassage) to see all the food porn including vegan blueberry pancakes, vegan crepes with strawberries and coconut cream, breakfast tacos, coconut curry with shrimp, fresh ahi, paraline bacon, arugula and crab salad with fennel and grapefruit, and of course I had to try broiled crayfish (except I was unable to eat them the correct way… there was no sucking the heads…ekk!). Is your mouth watering yet?
Some of the highlights of our trip were city park, the garden district, magazine street, the cemeteries, Frenchman street, riding the street car along St. Charles street, Preservation Hall and all the wonderful music everywhere we went. We also enjoyed all the warm-hearted people. They all have such a love for that city and they just want to have a good time. I enjoyed meeting the locals and learning about all the history there. What they say about southern hospitality is really true! Justin also loved being called hunny and dear by all the ladies.
The trip was so much more than just exploring the city, but enjoying each other's company and having one-on-one time with no interruptions or work -- just the two of us is a wonderful city. It’s good for our souls to step aside and take time for what is important to us in life. I value my relationships, especially my relationship with my husband. It’s so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of life and not focus on what is really, truly important to us. I also value travel and exploring. I am the first to admit that I don’t do this enough, but I am working on it and hope to be able to be writing another blog post about travel shortly.
Life is too short to not enjoy what you love doing! Fill yourself us with what makes your soul happy!