Somewhere along the way, we decided to have an extended stay in New Orleans and ride some of the trails around the city. We were so excited to really spend time in that city. I have been there many times for work but never had the opportunity to explore the different areas of this colorful city. We were always working and partying (after work, of course) in the French Quarter so who knew there was more? As it turns out there is lots more to the city than just the French Quarter (but I love it anyway).

That is when we decided to rent a house instead of staying in a hotel. For one thing, we were going to stay for 5 nights so we didn’t want to be stuck in one room. We decided to rent through VRBO. Their site is easy to use and we found a small house in the Carrollton neighborhood that worked well for us.

To be honest, I tried Airbnb but didn’t find what we were looking for each of the two times we decided to go with a house rental (once in New Orleans and once in Florida). I imagine their site is good but we found VRBO seemed to have more choices in our price range that would allow dogs.

The house was in a safe but clearly changing neighborhood. The house was a 2 story, 2 bedroom, 2 bath attached house. The other house belonged to the owner of the one we rented. There was a deck and a back yard so we were able to keep our bikes in the back of the house under a tarp. We also had a driveway so the car wasn’t on the street.

It was a railroad type house. Basically, it was 1 room wide. Downstairs, there was a living room with a non-working fireplace, a dining room, full kitchen and eating area, another possible sleep area with a futon, and bathroom with a washer and dryer.

 

Upstairs there were 2 bedrooms and a bath between them. The bathroom had a claw foot tub which couldn’t be used for a tub but only as a shower. The bedrooms were quite nice. It was relatively quiet too. The house had Wi-Fi and cable. They left plenty of information about the city.

In reality, everything was pretty close by including a Whole Foods that was about 3 miles (and a world away). If you visit New Orleans and want to go to a supermarket, whatever you do, don’t go to Save A Lot!  It was just terrible. We really feel bad for people who are forced to shop there because of the prices. We walked in, gaged and left, fortunately Whole Foods was close by. We thanked the grocery gods for our good luck.

We were really glad we were in a house because it rained most of the time we were there. Staying in a neighborhood is completely different than staying in the French Quarter (as an aside, I have only stayed in the French Quarter the 8 or 10 times I have been to New Orleans). We really got out into the neighborhoods and found amazing restaurants along the way. Because it rained, we also had to find other things to do. We went to a Cajun cooking class in the French Quarter. We went to the New Orleans School of Cooking for the lunch class. First of all, it is a place to buy New Orleans stuff including every hot sauce ever invented. The class was fun and then we had lunch.

We visited the New Orleans Art Museum that had some wonderful local talent showcased.

It is in a beautiful park and is worth the visit. We really enjoyed our time there.

We went to the movies also, among other things. I really needed to exercise so I found a wonderful place for spinning called Romney Pilates (www.romneypilates.com). Best of all, it was across the street from the Whole Foods.

 

Mike rode his trike along the levees whenever he could. I rode with him one morning before the rain. We rode along St. Charles Street (the streetcars went by us) to the Audubon Park and rode around the park and back to the house.

The levees were under construction there so we couldn’t go on them that day.

By the way, most of the streets in and around New Orleans are a bet of a mess. There is a lot of construction going on to fix them but they are pretty disorganized in some places for now. I refused to drive while we were there because of that and I don’t have too much of a problem driving anywhere.

We ate in so many great restaurants that I will review each of them in the Restaurant section of the blog but here is a short list:

Royal Oyster House

Herbsaint

Five Happiness

Coulis

Gautreaus Restaurant

Vincent’s Italian Restaurant

St. James Cheese Company

Café du Monde