I’ve kicked off this blog with several posts about the food, drinks and sights in Miami, New Orleans, and Portland, Maine, but this isn’t one of those posts. I’m only going to share one piece of advice here:
Follow your wanderlust wherever it takes you, whenever time and money allow.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s one main rule for visiting New Orleans: while you’re there, the calories don’t count. One of the best ways to truly experience this soulful city is through its food, drink. So get ready. Here are my favorite ways to gain a few points in New Orleans, plus the best things to do while you’re making room for the next meal.
Now, we don’t have happy hour drink specials in Boston (and we haven’t had ’em since 1984), so fantastic drink deals make me more excited than those who live in other states might understand. Still, no matter where you live, New Orleans’ deals on food and drink are almost too good to be true. Okay, enough with the disclaimer. Let’s dive in.
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I’m going to be honest. It took a few days to get over the chaos of last weekend’s travel plans. In addition to the two cancelled flights and one unexpected Chicago overnight, during our 22-hour quest to get from Boston to Miami, I left a pair of running shoes on a plane, Alex left a hat in Chicago. and we both left our willingness to use much brain power for the next couple days back in Boston. Thankfully, I made a spreadsheet of nightlife, dining and sightseeing recommendations, so all we had to do was choose a place and request an Uber.
Once we were back home in Boston and the dust had settled, I got to looking through photos and realized how much we’d packed into such a short time. Does that ever happen to you during a whirlwind adventure? I’m not ashamed to say we spent most of the time eating and drinking. These were my favorite weekend stops:
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Last month, Alex and joined some friends on a weekend ski trip in Maine. After spending the better part of Saturday falling forward, backward and sideways during a rough snowboarding lesson, I was sore, exhausted and even more certain of my lack of coordination. So when the idea of swinging by Portland on the way home was brought up, naturally I mustered the energy and eagerly hopped into the car.
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The above statement sort of held true. At the time, I was using it to reassure Alex that, although our flight from Boston to Miami had just been canceled and our only reroute option was an overnight in Chicago (which was, at the time, colder than the Boston winter we were trying to escape) everything was going to be great. An old friend had offered to host us for the night and we’d get to meet her new husky puppy, Milo.
Old friends. Deep dish pizza. Puppies (we love puppies). He was convinced. I was convinced. Great!
Off we went—west instead of south—to do all of these things.
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I owe my resiliency and undying curiosity to my mother, my never-faltering need to see the world to my grandfather and my first lesson that goofiness can yield adoration to my grandmother.
That’s me with my Grandma and Grandpa in the photo above on a park bench near Buckingham Palace. I still remember my fifth birthday like it was yesterday: the dress I’d chosen, my cousin and I fighting over who got to ride the rocking horse in our living room and the green, sugar-free Jell-O my Grandpa was eating for dessert when he blurted out those magical words:
“Hey, Zip (that was his nickname for me). Want to go to England?”. For all I knew at five years old, England could have been the next town over. That summer, we boarded a plane and my life changed forever.
I’m an avid believer that the best way to find yourself is to embrace the everyday adventures, say yes to spontaneity whenever time and budget allow and try to stay calm when things don’t go according to plan. This blog is about all of these things.
“Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.” – Anna Quindlen, “A Short Guide to a Happy Life”
Sprinkles of Serendipity 