Lindsey and I wanted to book a small vacation since we had a ton of vacation days to use. We chose New Orleans and booked our flights at the end of August. 

Linsdey's ex-roomie, Lori and her sister, Aubrey, wanted to join us so we turned it into a sisters trip! Aubrey is in the Navy and based in Pensacola, so she drove while Lindsey, Lori and I flew to New Orleans. I got the party started by drinking a cocktail on the plane, alone.

We checked into our bed and breakfast called The Gentry House and settled in. We met Cesar, the bed and breakfast keeper's dog/horse. The building was very old, built in the 1800's but it was nice and quaint. 

We freshened up and changed and then ventured out to find somewhere to eat. This was our first taste (and smell) of Bourbon Street. It was insane. 

Finding somewhere to eat on Bourbon Street was actually extremely difficult. It's like you aren't allowed to eat dinner at 8pm because you're only allowed to drink. We finally found a place right off Bourbon called Finnegan's which was a really quiet bar with a small and very dark courtyard.

We ordered a couple of drinks. I had the Watermelon Cooler and Lindsey and Lori had a specialty Moscow Mule. The drinks were really good. We also ordered food; I had the mozzarella sticks... How adventurous. 

After dinner, we went back out onto Bourbon Street again and went to the world famous Cat's Meow. It's a very lively, fun karaoke bar.

They had a host who would sing and perform after each karaoke performer and he was really entertaining.

We stayed there for a while and then moved on. We found this place called The Swamp, which for some reason sounded really enticing to us. 

They had a huge outdoor space and lots of alligators to wrangle.

We ordered some drinks and of course got on the stage to dance. They also had a play on a mechanical bull but it was called "The Thang." We watched a few people get tossed around and then fall which was pretty entertaining.  

After dancing for a while at The Swamp, we wanted to wind down a bit and go watch a band. We went to the Krazy Korner and there was a really good live band playing some great songs. 

Also, just a warning, if you ever go to the bars around here, there are shot girls that come around and sometimes chase you around with a test tube shot glass in their mouth trying to get you to take the shot. Don't do it. 

We walked around a bit more down Bourbon and saw some really interesting (I'm not sure if that's the right word) things. I've heard New Orleans is crazy but actually being there is a whole different experience.

I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the trip had in store for us...