With all of the nice weather we have been having here in Chicago, I thought the city deserve a little shout-out. I love to take long walks around the city because no matter if you walk the same path twice, you can always see something new or something different. I went though my achieve for the last few weeks of some of my favorite shoots around the city just to highlight some of the architecture beauty in the South Loop and Downtown Chicago. Each photograph has a description of where the image was taken so if you see something you like or somewhere you want to go you are a quick Google search away form getting there yourself! Enjoy the warm weather and let's hope it sticks around!
xx A Traveler's Bliss
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Besides all of the sightseeing, wandering, and photography that took place over the course of three days, there was a lot of eating done over the course of three days, as well. Like, no-crumb-left-behind-kind of eating. We were all really excited to try New Orleans and southern cuisine because it wasn’t familiar and they have a lot unique dishes and recipes. Sure, you can get food anywhere, but the experience is all part of the journey. Obviously, we needed beignets, stat. The most popular destination in New Orleans to get your beignets in Café du Monde and it is also the biggest tourist attraction in the city. You can stand in line for hours waiting just to get a tiny table inside the cramped (but adorable) eating area, or go around back and to the walk-though beignet window (yes, that is a thing) which only took about twenty minutes. Another great place and far less crowded to get your beignets in Café Beignet New Orleans. There are a few Cafes around the city serving beignets, coffee, and other delicious pastries. After the beignets, we started our food journey at the Court of Two Sisters were we ate an all you can eat buffet style brunch while listening to an amazing jazz band. It was a great way to dive into food (literally) and try a little bit of everything we wanted to eat at once to see what we liked and what we weren't totally sold on yet. Another priority for our taste buds and food experience-must was eating on cast iron balcony. It’s all about the esthetics and the environment, people. We ate at two amazing balcony bars: Cornet and Royal House. At Cornet we had the taste of New Orleans again and tried a little bit of everything: gumbo, jambalaya, and even crawfish mac & cheese (which was hands down my favorite). We just sat in the in center of the balcony, listened to the wild sounds of Bourbon Street below us, and enjoyed the sun. At Royal House, the streets below won’t be as noisy or crowded as Bourbon so you can relax while enjoying your meal. Get in early for dinner, because by the line starts to form outside door and around the corner after seven. And the last place to eat that is a must is Castnet for seafood and fried food. It is about a twenty-minute drive outside of the city (from the French Quarters) but is worth the drive. The place was packed and everyone wanted the same thing: crawfish. It was insane and completely worth the wait. You can sit inside or sit outside under an umbrella all while enjoying your fresh or fried food.
Well, I'm hungry now.
xx A Traveler's Bliss The infamous time of the year has finally come when you through responsibility out the window and run away to the land of “No-Cares-Given”. Yes, I am talking about the magic that is spring break. Spring break has generally gotten a tarnished reputation for college students as the time of year to go south, party and remember about twelve percent of the entire trip. For a few friends and I, we decided to go someplace warmer than our current locations and have an alternative vacation in a historic city versus on a beach. We headed south to New Orleans to strut in the French Quarters and hangout in the bayous. What Did We Do? Three days in New Orleans is enough time to get a quick taste of the city but not enough time to do it all. One of the first things we did was take a tour of the French Quarters by carriage. Super touristy, right? But the carriage tours were faster than the walking tours, we got to sit back and relax, and had a great tour guide. We did one of the tour carriage rides that was $20 per person for thirty minutes versus a private carriage ride that would have been $100 for an hour. The carriage tours begin and end in Jackson Square on Decatur Street. Jackson Square quickly became one of my favorite little hubs. There is so much life in the square and always something happening within a few blocks that you are never bored. The small garden in Jackson Square is perfect for relaxing and making your plans for the day, eating your beignets from Café du Monde, or having an impromptu photo shoot in front of St Louis Cathedral. Right in front of St Louis Cathedral you’ll find street performers performing, artists selling their work, and psychics. Oh, yes. There are psychics with different tables performing different trades: palm reading, tarot cards, and past life experiences. The wait for one of the psychics is not long or depending on the time of day their chair is open and the price is usually $20 per person. For the first time in New Orleans, and seeing a psychic, it was all about the experience and having my tarot cards read on the streets on New Orleans under an iconic landmark seemed pretty worthy to me. There are tons of shops in New Orleans with psychics and mediums that also perform this trade if you want a different experience, but some of those can require an appointment and can get costly. An iconic staple not to be missed is the paddle wheelers floating up and down the Mississippi River. The Natchez Paddle Wheeler is New Orleans famous steamboat that is near Jackson Square. If you have the time, definitely buy a ticket a take a ride on the Natchez down the Mississippi. We did not budget that into our itinerary, but it is on the list for next time and would be worth the experience. Down the street a few blocks from the Natchez on Decatur Street is the French Market. Everyday the French Market has a Farmers Market with fresh produce, seafood, and artist selling their work. You will also find unique souvenirs here compared to the gift shops around the tourist-trapped shops around the city. So what’s the difference between Bourbon Street and Frenchman Street? Let me break it down for you. Bourbon Street is the touristy, party-hard, bars-for-miles-street while Frenchman Street is the bars with the jazz. If you want something loud all night go for Bourbon Street, but if you want something more local friendly go for Frenchman Street. Another fun street - Dauphine Street. The houses are all so colorful and and architecturally unique, the street is perfect for impromptu photoshoots and all your photographic needs. The last major event we packed into our three days was a morning trip out to Slidell to Cajun Encounters Swamp Tours. Sure, we could have gone to a beach, but why not go to the bayous to see snakes, turtles, and gators? Plus, it gave us a relaxing morning out in the sun, on a boat and away from the crowds for a few hours. We had a great guide who taught us about crawfishing, gator season and the different kinds of snakes in the bayou (I was not a fan of the snakes). Even though we were in the area, we did not tour a plantation. Doing a bayou and plantation tour in one day is an all day event, so we choose to do one over another and the bayou tour sounded like the more exciting tour. There were a few things on our list that we just seemed to never have enough time in the day to fit in and have to put off until the next time we find ourselves in New Orleans. The Garden District was one place we found ourselves crossing off the list. We wanted to spend a good amount of time wandering and exploring this neighborhood but time was the number one enemy. Another was an above ground cemetery. We made the mistake of thinking we could just visit one to walk around and see the mausoleums (because to us northerners, burring a body above ground is a pretty fantastic sight), but didn’t realize the hours to the cemetery were so limited unless you booked a tour. So, sadly, we just got a few glimpses of the cemeteries as we passes by and from the expressway. And the last thing we passed up on, just because it was spring break and so crowded at night was the New Orleans Haunted walking tour. As creepy cool as it would have been to learn about the haunted history of New Orleans, especially learn a bit about voodoo, we probably wouldn’t have been able to hear much anyways. You know spring break is officially over when you are back in that work week and school grind on Monday morning and what is Monday greeting you with? A rainy-day. Don’t get me wrong, I adore a good rainy day, just when I get to walk around with no plans outside or cuddle up in bed and watch a movie. Not actually have to use my head and be productive.
So, with the rain and a mountain of work that has to be done, it is back to reality. Thanks spring break and no responsibilities. You were wonderful. xx A Traveler's Bliss Spring Break was well spent in New Orleans, reunited with a few travel friends from London. Here is a brief visual guide of the three days in photography, another post to follow soon with more details of the trip.
xx A Traveler's Bliss On February 2, 2017 Cassie De Pecol set a new world record – the first woman to travel to all 196 sovereign nations in the world. Not only has she traveled to every country in the world, she did it in record time, completely shattering the previous Guinness World Record holder. De Pecol’s Expedition 196 took her a total of 18 months and 26 days to complete. Starting her planning at 23 years old, De Pecol dived into research to plan out her trip, budgeting, and how to acquire funding.
De Pecol wasn’t just jet-setting off around the world to beat the clock and set records. De Pecol’s mission was to promote peaceful tourism and teaching others on how to offset your carbon footprint while you travel. While De Pecol has been highly praise for her accomplishments, there are critics who are skeptical of the carbon impact she herself had in the 255 flights required to complete the journey and the lack of quality time spent in each destination. In an interview with cnn.com, De Pecol remarks on the criticism she receives for the brief amount of time she spent in each country, "It all comes down to two words: time management [...] One could spend Saturday and Sunday chilling at home watching Netflix -- totally OK, I am guilty of that at times -- or traveling to five places within one country, five countries within those two days." As another women who wants to live out of her suitcase, De Pecol’s story and accomplishments are inspiring and part of a bigger story. She calls attention to fears women have traveling alone in foreign countries and the concept of being mindful while you travel. Feeling inspired? xx A Traveler's Bliss |
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