The Big Easy

I hope everyone had a good holiday season! We just wrapped up a busy month that included a trip to Phoenix to see a friend (for me), a getaway to Chattanooga (for Trent and me), Christmas with my family at our house, and New Years in New Orleans. I can't lie: while these adventures were hardly lavish, they also weren't very frugal. But were they worth it? Yes. Definitely yes. Traveling is my biggest passion.

We saved some money in The Big Easy by renting an apartment with our friends, who also have young children. The apartment was dusty but roomy and affordable; it was located within a block of the Garden District (which consists of gorgeous Southern mansions). We walked a lot. We prepared the majority of our meals at home; in fact, we went out to eat only twice (once to Gordon Biersch near the aquarium, and once to a fantastic Creole-Mexican joint called Juan's Flying Burrito). On New Year's Eve, we stayed in, made dinner, and toasted with a glass of (inexpensive) wine.

I absolutely loved New Orleans, more than I was expecting to. It now ranks with San Francisco, CA and Wilmington, NC as one of my favorite U.S. cities. New Orleans is gritty, artistic, mysterious, a little dangerous, multicultural, magical, and beautifully spooky. I feel like I'd need to visit two or three more times to get the complete NOLA vibe. While we were there, I had the sense that we were in a completely different country. Loved that!