Over MLK weekend, I went to New Orleans with some friends. It was my first visit there, but we jam-packed the weekend with lots of good food, drinks, catching up, walking around, listening to music. Oh yeah, and holding alligators in a swamp boat.

I split up the pictures across a few posts. Check them out:

• Architecture in the French Quarter
• Walking the streets
• Music
• Food
• Bars
• Swamp tour
• Shopping
• A few random things

French Quarter: Royal Street

French Quarter: Royal Street

French Quarter: Royal Street

French Quarter: Chartres Street

French Quarter: Decatur Street

Clint & Tolar

Reverend Zombie’s House of Voodoo: Come on in and shop for a spell

$$

We encountered many bros

Doreen Ketchens

Second Line in the French Quarter

Y’all, the food.

Willa Jean: a biscuit with egg, sausage, & pimiento cheese

Willa Jean: shrimp & grits, with etoufee gravy

Country Club: the crew

Country Club: a drink (along with blurry Jacqui & Clint)

Country Club: wall flowers

Country Club: tacos

Killer Poboys: ham & pimiento cheese

Cafe du Monde: beignets & coffee

Cafe du Monde: staff

Antoine’s: place setting

Antoine’s: gumbo

Antoine’s: steak with soft-shelled crab and lump crab meat, and asparagus

Antoine’s: baked alaska

Antoine’s: baked alaska slice

Antoine’s: Tolar, Peter, Adam, Jacqui, Tolar (📷 Clint)

Me in the dungeon

Adam

Adam & Peter

Amaro flight at Gianna’s

A wedding party crashed our quiet cocktail hour at Jewel of the South.

Adam and the birds

Riding an alligator

Clint and an alligator

Before the tour

A tree

Alligator

Swamp grave

Swamp

Peter, Adam, Tolar

A raccoon

Swamp river

Our guide

I’m holding a tiny baby alligator!

A gator head I bought at the gift shop

Selfie at the Lapidary

Tolar & Clint trying on some jackets

Adam with his new face

I found an Artomat outside of the fantastic restaurant Compère Lapin. Artomat turns old cigarette vending machines into art vending machines. For $5, you get a small piece of art. Super cool. Plus, it’s from Winston-Salem, North Carolina!

From the Artomat, I bought a painting created by Carolina Corona

Bunnymen statues on top of a building

Bike “statue”: still unsure how this man was balanced on this bike…

Suffering Bastard tiki mug

I’m back! Spent some time with my family in Atlanta, hung out with JP in Columbia & saw Jump, Little Children, and met some friends’ babies!

Autumn leaves

H roasting marshmallows by the fire

J reading

Me & M

H & M posing

**

Me & M

Jump, Little Children: White Mule, Columbia, South Carolina

JP, J, & me

Chris