My 29th Birthday Weekend - Friday

My wonderful husband planned a family trip to New Orleans for my 29th birthday! New Orleans is possibly one of my favorite cities and we love "urban exploring" there. He got us a room in the Warehouse District. It was great to see a different part of downtown. I love the Quarter, but with Lyla, this was a little more practical. We got there at about 3 on Friday and while we were checking in Forrest Gump showed up. You never know who you will see down there!
We then headed over to Cochon for a late lunch. Other than the history of the city, I love the food!!! We had pork ribs with pickled watermelon for an appetizer, TJ had brisket with horseradish potato salad and I had an oyster and bacon sandwich with coleslaw and green tomato, crawfish casserole. Wonderful southern coastal cooking. They also had some great beers at the bar. I had the Lazy Magnolia Pecan Ale and TJ had a Saison Dupont.
Check out the hat squad behind me! There were about 6 of them all wearing fedoras or pork pies. The colorful people make this city so unique! After dinner we took a stroll towards the river. We stopped by the Wine Institute of New Orleans, or W.I.N.O (that's great, huh!). They are the first place in Louisiana to have enomatics. TJ and I tried about 15 different wines. We would have stayed longer but Lyla crashed out in her new carrier. (She out grew the Bjorn so we upgraded to the Kelty TC.) I felt weird enough having her in a wine shop, but to see her sleeping upright while we were sampling wines just seemed cruel!
So we headed back to the hotel to get her stroller and then to the Riverwalk. After an evening stroll, the smell of charbroiled oysters was too much for me so we dropped off at The Crazy Losbter for some Cajun, Carribean, and Greek charbroiled oysters! Yum-o. We had to have Lyla's favorite, bread pudding, for dessert. This restaurant is right off the river and they have a live jazz band playing out on the patio. It was such a nice way to cap off the day!
Lyla checking out the menu.