I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend! I am truly thankful for all of the men and women who have served our great country. I spent my Memorial Day Weekend in New Orleans. What started out as a not so great vacation due to the rainy drive down to Louisiana ended on a high note with the birth of my best friend’s baby girl on Memorial Day evening.
New Orleans Food and Wine Experience 2016
Excited for the weekend!
Every year on Memorial Day Weekend in New Orleans is the New Orleans Food and Wine Experience, also know as NOWFE. It’s a great event that takes place in different establishments though out the city. I participated in the Royal Street Stroll which took place on Friday evening and the Grand Tasting which was at the New Orleans Convention Center on Saturday evening. The Royal Street Stroll takes place on Royal Street at various businesses. At each stop there are different selections of wine to try and you get to explore each business while you are there.
The Grand Tasting is the Mac Daddy of the whole event. All of the best restaurants in New Olreans participate in the event. Some of my favorites include Muriel’s, Mr. B’s, Sac-A-Lait, and Palace Cafe, just to name a few. There are also a ton of wineries that participate as well as of liquor sponsors like Tito’s. You can drink as much as you want while you are there and sample every restaurant you would like, but I highly doubt you would have enough room in your stomach to do the latter.
NOWFE Grand Tasting
This was my third time to attend the Grand Tasting, they changed it up this year. They used to have one on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. This year they only had it on Saturday evening. It was much nicer than in years past, and not nearly as crowded. I think the $175 per ticket price tag weeded some of the patrons out. In the past I had to wait in long lines, this year the lines were a lot shorter. There was also more seating available making it more intimate as well as several photo booths so you could commemorate your experience. You can learn more about the event here.
One of my best friends was in town from London so on Sunday. I spent Sunday sitting at Brisbi’s on the Lakefront with her and my friend (I recently hosted the gender neutral shower for her). You can read more about her shower in this post. My pregnant friend was due any day, so after hearing an old wive’s tale that eating eggplant will make you go into labor she order the fried eggplant sticks. I decided to order the raw oysters, they were huge. It was a really relaxing day, little did I know that those eggplant sticks would do the trick! Later that evening, I got a call from my friend telling me that she was in labor!!!!!!
Look how BIG these oysters are!
The next day we went to one of my friend’s homes for a pool party while we waited for my friend’s labor to progress. McKenna discovered sidewalk chalk and loved every minute of being outside. While waiting on the new baby’s birth, we all placed bets on the gender, weight, and birth time. Later that evening we got a call that it was time to get to the hospital. A little before 6 pm we found out that the new arrival was a little girl!!! It was a very exciting moment for everyone.
Right before it decided to rain
Playing with sidewalk chalk. She doesn’t mine getting dirty!
My Memorial Day Weekend in New Orleans was a great one! I can’t wait until the next National Holiday, our entire family will be heading to Destin, Florida for the Fourth of July!!!
No Comments