I have been waiting for the right time to share my photos of my trip to New Orleans in August. Honestly, I just wanted to take some time to fully digest it before even posting about it. It was one of the best trips of my life, mainly because I got to share it with seven of the most important women in my life. I am the consummate planner and I read every review possible before I created a complete itinerary for my friends. When you are traveling with eight people, it is essential to be organized and intentional with the plans. If not, you will spend a lot of time waiting on someone to make a decision. My friends were quite impressed by planning and it paid off in the end. Everyone agreed that it was a complete success.

I took a ton of photos which I’ll share them over five posts so I can give a good overview of the trip without overwhelming everyone. Here is a recap of Day One:

My friends and I arrived together in New Orleans on Thursday afternoon and were greeted at the Country Inn and Suites French Quarter. We immediately cozied up to the bar with our new favorite bartender, Ricardo.

The rest of the evening was spent in a progressive dining experience. We started at Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone for drinks and appetizers. Although we didn’t get a seat at the spinning bar (see second photo below of the bar in motion), we found seats at the back bar and listened to the jazz band while enjoying gorgeous cocktails. The highlight appetizer was the Crawfish Beignets. Wow, was it good!

Next, it was on to Sylvain which was recommended as one of the best restaurants in the Quarter. It was very dark in there, but had a cool vibe! We were all pretty happy with our meals, but Crystal picked the winner when she ordered the Beef Cheeks. A couple of the ladies ordered the scallops (picture below) and thought it was an excellent dish as well.

After that, we headed to Sucré New Orleans (French Quarter location) for sweet treats. The place was very charming and full of delectable treats. The staff was very entertaining. The guy that was helping me dropped my dessert on the floor, so he gave me another choice for free. It was heavenly! After that, we were thoroughly stuffed and headed back to the hotel.

On the way back, we stopped by one of the touristy junk shops and modeled some freaky masks for each other! Much laughter ensured.

Once we hit the hotel, we visited Ricardo again at the bar and then we hit the hay to prepare for a very full Day Two.

Check out tomorrow’s post to see our Day Two adventures!