Of course, we had to start off our last full day in New Orleans with early morning beignets from Cafe DuMonde. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and indulged in the doughy, powder sugary goodness while looking over the Mississippi River.
Next up: shopping! We walked over to the French Market to buy some New Orleans goodies and went in some of the other shops along Decatur Street. One of those shops was the Pepper Palace. This place was awesome and deadly at the same time. They have free samples of just about every salsa, hot sauce, and more that they sell. I love spicy foods, so I decided to go for one of the hotter salsas. Bad idea. I happened to try their scorpion salsa and my face got all red and my throat was on fire. However, I would definitely suggest checking this place out if you are in town- just be more careful about what you are tasting!
After we spent plenty of time shopping, we continued exploring the French Quarter and took advantage of the many musicians playing live on the streets. One of the bands was The Smoking Time Jazz Club. You can see a short video below of them performing one of their songs. Later on at night we also saw some of Davide Martello’s performance. Davide goes by the musician name of Klavierkunst and plays beautifully on his piano. I enjoyed his music so much that I even bought one of his CDs. You can check out some segments of his tracks on his website.
Then we headed to The Beach to get some drinks and bask in what felt like 90 degree weather on their outdoor patio. After being entertained for a few hours, we ventured off to check out some of the different artists selling their work on the street. Although you are not allowed to take photos of their artwork, we did get the names of a few artists whose work really stood out. My favorite was the work by Alan Zakem. Zakem Art creates contemporary pieces of city nightlife that are colorful and eye catching. Soon, we headed to Pierre Maspero’s for dinner and then caught some of the St. Patrick’s Day parade after we left.
Next we went back to Jackson Square to get ready for our Vampire Tour! This is a tour we could not pass up. We booked the tour with Haunted History Tours, and got to walk around the French Quarter while learning about the different potentially vampire related incidents that happened all over the city. After an exciting day and a spooky night, we wrapped up our spring break adventure and got some rest for the long drive home we had ahead of us the next day.
11 Comments
Rita
August 31, 2014 at 11:22 amI see you share interesting content here, you can earn some extra cash, your blog
has big potential, for the monetizing method, just search in google –
K2 advices how to monetize a website
Lauren
July 15, 2014 at 9:36 pmThe Pepper Palace sounds like so much fun! I would much such a wimp at those really fiery sauces!
Marissa Sutera
July 16, 2014 at 7:30 amIt was lots of fun, until you push your limits and try a salsa that is WAY beyond your heat tolerance 🙂 Thanks for reading Lauren!
Ming Lim (@OnALim1)
July 15, 2014 at 3:01 amI remember the Pepper Palace from my visit two years ago. We tried some of the hotter samples and they were certainly fiery! Loved all the street artists around the Quarter too. There’s just so much going on there, I’d love to do a repeat visit!
Marissa Sutera
July 16, 2014 at 7:29 amThere is so much to see there and it was my return trip there was definitely worth it! Thanks for reading!
CarmensTravelTips
July 14, 2014 at 7:26 pmMy kids would of love the Vampire Ghost Tour. New Orleans is such a great place.
Marissa Sutera
July 14, 2014 at 11:01 pmIt sure is! The tour was a lot of fun because the guides get all into character during it. Very interesting!
dianadegzz
July 14, 2014 at 1:19 pmLooks very nice, I’m glad you had a good time! 🙂
Marissa Sutera
July 14, 2014 at 1:24 pmYes, NOLA was great! Thanks for reading!
Travelling Penster (@travellingpens)
July 13, 2014 at 4:13 pmOh I’d love to see the live bands in the street! What a great experience
Marissa Sutera
July 14, 2014 at 1:16 pmIt sure was, the bands were great! Going back and listening to those CDs reminds me so much of New Orleans. Thanks for reading!