Getting there

Our trip started off with an adventure: a 10-hour layover in Detroit and arriving to a white Christmas in New Orleans without our luggage. Why? We'd arrived at YOW NW check-in counter by 0415 for an 0600 flight, which was delayed to 0730 due to inbound A/C, and were advised would not make our connection in Detroit, but that they'd put us in business class on the next DTW-MSY flight. Well, after 6 hours in DTW we boarded said flight and were in our roomy seats having a pre-takeoff drink when they announced, "due to snow and ice in New Orleans this flight has been cancelled." Five minutes later we were in line to rebook and faced an overnight Detroit and a routing via MSP to get to New Orleans the next evening, but for what it was worth I mentioned being with Expedia.ca and, perhaps by coincidence or perhaps not, we were handed boarding passes for seats that had "just opened up" on a nonstop to depart in a few hours. All was well until we arrived at the MSY baggage carousel to find no bags, and then stood in line another hour to file a claim.

We ended up spending much of our time in the Big Easy at the airport and mall, but were reunited with said bags shortly before departure to Houston. Our hotel, the New Orleans Marriott, was located on Canal Street just a couple of blocks off of Bourbon Street. It was my third time in the Crescent City, and the first time for Jen. My last venture into the French Quarter had been on a hot, humid weeknight, and the place was still packed. Well Christmas and Boxing Days weren't quite as crowded, but were festive nonetheless. We saw snow and ice around the city, even on the lawn of my relatives' home. Of course we had coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde, and walked much of the Quarter by day as well. We had brunch one day with family, who were kind enough to drive us all over town schlepping and shopping. And we dined one evening at Commander's Palace, considered one of the best restaurants in the United States. The service was impeccable, everything down to a T. We'd phoned ahead to advise we might not be dressed formally, since the airline lost our bags. They were very accommodating and went out of their way to make sure we had a memorable dining experience. Read more