Louisiana Archives - Isaac Church // isaactchurch.com

Part 3 – New Orleans 2019

Isaac Church — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 22:42:02 +0000

Sunday morning, we slept in for a while to recover from the previous night’s game. Eventually, we headed to Gallier’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar, just off Canal Street.

Lunch - Gallier's

At Gallier’s, Dad got a bowl of gumbo and a seafood platter, Trevor got an oyster po-boy, and I got barbecue shrimp and grits. They were all excellent, especially the gumbo.

Gallier’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar

A blurry seafood platter with potato salad

Gallier's Restaurant and Oyster Bar

New Orleans, LA

Some of the best gumbo we’ve ever had – that alone is worth a stop.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Riverwalk

We took the rest of the afternoon to walk around down by the mighty Mississippi River. Our stops included a rather large shopping mall, the New Orleans Holocaust Memorial, and Cafe du Monde for another round of beignets.

New Orleans Riverwalk

New Orleans Holocaust Memorial

Cafe du Monde

New Orleans, LA

You haven’t had beignets until you’ve had them from here.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Finally, we went back to the hotel to watch some football before it was time to eat again.

Dinner - Galliano

Our final meal in New Orleans was at Galliano, a restaurant close to the warehouse district. As had been the trend, we split a dozen charbroiled oysters as an appetizer, and then got our main dishes:

Dad got shrimp and grits with a cauldron of gumbo.
Trevor got crawfish pasta monica.
I got seafood coubion, a brothy stew with boudin, crawfish, shrimp, fish, tomatoes, rice, and fried okra.

Dessert

After dinner, we headed over to Drip Affogato Bar to get some gelato. Dad and Trevor got chocolate, and I got the Classique Affogato, which is vanilla gelato topped with crushed pistacios, stroopwafel, sea salt, and a hot shot of espresso. It was all excellent, and I especially was bouncing off the walls for the next two hours or so.

After the gelato, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest before our early flight the next morning.

Drip Affogato Bar

Travel Home

We left the hotel in New Orleans at 05:00CST, struggled through the TSA, and then had an extremely delayed and bumpy flight to ATL. We had to run through the Atlanta airport to catch our next flight, and even so almost lost our spot on the plane back to Greensboro. I’m pretty sure we set the record for the world’s shortest layover – definitely less than five minutes. Thankfully, we didn’t miss our connection – we were the last people to board, and even got the exit row with extra legroom. Dad says he still hurts from the airport hustle.

Louis Armstrong International Airport

Once back in Greensboro, we began the drive back home, stopping briefly at Jimmy John’s in Kernersville, and finally arriving back in Granite Falls around 14:45.

Conclusion

Overall, it was a fantastic trip, filled with great food and great memories. We were all thoroughly exhausted (and then some friends convinced me to go see the new Star Wars at 22:15 that evening), but had plenty of time to recover the next few days over Christmas.

Thanks for reading! Until next time,

Isaac, Jerry, and Trevor

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Part 2 – New Orleans 2019

Isaac Church — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 03:33:00 +0000

We opened day two in New Orleans with a typical mediocre hotel breakfast, and immediately headed over the National World War II Museum for the day. Tonight is the New Orleans Bowl!

National WWII Museum

We didn’t take many photos in the museum, because we were far too busy engaging with the exhibits. It was a fascinating museum, and we all learned many new things about WWII. Each exhibit was decorated/designed to reflect the circumstances of the subject matter; for instance, it was colder in the room about the Battle of the Bulge, and hot in the North African front exhibit. Time passed quickly, and before we knew it, it was time for lunch.

Cochon

Some friends of ours recommended Cochon, a modern Southern/Cajun restaurant in the warehouse district, within walking distance of the museum. Though arriving earlier than our reservation, we were immediately seated, and promptly ordered a variety of items to split:

Fried alligator with chili-garlic mayonaise
Pork belly confit with sweet apple relish
Boucherie plate (cured meats, pickles, mustard, head cheese, pickled green tomatoes, crab pâté, and crostinis)
Wood-fired shrimp with chili-garlic butter
Macaroni and cheese

Mac & cheese, pork belly, and shrimp

Yeast rolls

Alligator

Boucherie plate

The entire meal was outstanding, from the complimentary yeast rolls to the mustard. We all agreed the macaroni and cheese was by far the best any of us have ever had, which is saying something.

Cochon

New Orleans, LA

One of the best, and most distinctive meals I’ve ever had. Everything was amazing – this was probably our best meal in NOLA, or maybe in the whole south.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

More Museum

After lunch, we walked back to the museum and browsed some more. At 15:00 we headed to the Solomon Victory Theater to watch a fantastic ~45min 4D movie narrated by Tom Hanks.

I would highly recommend visiting the WWII museum if you ever get the chance. All the exhibits were extremely realistic, engaging, and inspiring. It was great for all ages, and we could’ve spent far more time there than we did.

The museum finally wore us out, so we headed back to our hotel to rest a little before the big game.

Enigma

Bourbon House

Bourbon House oysters

Before the game, we went to grab a quick bite at Bourbon House in the French Quarter, after our original restaurant choice had a line wrapped around the block.

It turned out to be a fortunate misfortune: we split two dozen charbroiled oysters with a Creole bordelaise sauce, and a Caesar salad topped with Brussels sprouts and bacon. Both dishes were excellent, and we soon arrived at the Superdome with no delay.

Bourbon House

New Orleans, LA

We only got oysters and a salad, but I’d come back just for that!

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

As I mentioned in the Introduction, App played UAB in the New Orleans Bowl, at 20:00CST (21:00EST). We arrived around 18:00CST, found our seats, reunited with many friends of ours, and prepared to watch the game. I donned my protective plastic faceguard to shield my nose…

After a rough start, the Mountaineers pulled together and dominated the final three quarters of the game, pulling out a 31-17 victory over the Blazers. The victory extended App’s NCAA record of five straight bowl victories by teams in their first years of bowl eligibility.

The Superdome lit up black and gold after a Mountaineer victory

Victory Donuts

Once back at the hotel, we were too hyped-up to go to sleep, so I ordered us a dozen donuts via Uber Eats, and they arrived at our doorstep a quick 25 minutes later. They were unsurprisingly a bit stale from sitting in the shop most of the day, but they hit the spot nonetheless. The sugar rush didn’t keep us from crashing in bed less than 10 minutes after our last bites.

Conclusion

That’s all for today! More to come…

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl 2019

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Introduction – New Orleans 2019

Isaac Church — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 19:01:29 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to all! I don’t know about everyone else, but it’s been a busy fall and holiday season for us. It seems I’ve been traveling every other week: Brazil, Atlanta/Columbia/Chapel Hill, plus a couple undocumented work trips to West Virginia, Raleigh, and Charlotte.

I originally thought my next blog would be a trip with Faith, but it seems I jumped the gun on that thought, because the travel bug has bitten once again. I’m headed with Dad and Trevor to the Big Easy for [prepare to be shocked] App’s bowl game.

Updates

Aside from football and the aforementioned traveling, our lives have been pretty jam-packed. Faith has been busy teaching violin/piano, and playing at weddings and Christmas productions. Mom had gall bladder surgery that ended up being more complicated than expected, but is now recovering well. We’re all looking forward to some peace and quiet over Christmas.

I broke/dislocated my nose on our anniversary, so more to come on that.

Bowling

After a stellar 12-1 season, the Mountaineers were overlooked by the CFP committee for the Cotton Bowl, and instead are headed back to New Orleans, LA for the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, where they will face the 9-4 University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) Blazers.

After the sudden, but overall-unsurprising departure of Eliah Drinkwitz after one successful season with the Mountaineers, O-Line/assistant head coach Shawn Clark will take over as the 22^nd head coach of the ASU football program.

The bowl game will be nationally televised on ESPN at 8EST/9CST, and will be in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Conclusion

Our flight to NOLA (MSY airport) leaves Greensboro at 06:30 Friday morning, so I have a lot of prep to do before then.

Thanks for reading! As always, we look forward to sharing our travels.

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