My field trip to the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans (pictures)

I spent the weekend in New Orleans and when I asked people what was really important to see what came up again and again was the food. As a coffee lover I had to go to the legendary Cafe Du Monde. This coffee shop is well known by the locals and the tourists alike and serves some of the arguably best coffee downtown.

Cafe Du Monde borders the Mississippi river and is on one of the main streets in the lower French District. It's hard to miss with a line of people in front nearly 24 hours a day. This place never stops. We got there early and the locals were just beginning to get up so luckily we didn't have a huge line or long wait.

Coffee here doesn't taste like anything I have ever had before. It's not some frothy mocha fancy whip topping. It's either black coffee or coffee au lait (coffee with milk). That's it. I guess the lack of choices also cuts down on the line. You can't stand there and say, "What should I get?"

However the cool thing about this coffee is they add chicory root. This tradition started during the Civil War when the Union had a blockade against the city to stop shipments from arriving. As a cheap substitute the shops had begun using chicory root and when they could finally change it back the locals protested it and the shops use it to this day. 

So this coffee has a very unique flavor that I never found outside the city. Good but strong. I got this cup of awesomeness to remember the experience by.

I was surprised by the level of service as well. We had a waitress that took our order and when I was done with my coffee she came by and cleaned my mug so I could take it home in a gift bag. It was an extra nice touch that I appreciated. 

Did you know the coffee isn't even what they are famous for? It's these things they call Beignets. The closest thing I can equate it to is a doughnut but it's not a doughnut at all. It's fried bread dough smothered in powdered sugar. They don't travel well and are best eaten while still hot but they are so good they are worth raving about. 

I ate these little treats at several restaurants but these were cooked perfectly and very soft and just melt in my mouth good. I can see why people travel from all over the world to eat here. 

This is me in my lion shirt. It's been raining like crazy the last few days and the humidity is doing a crazy thing to my curly hair but this is me enjoying my morning. 

That's about it. 

I hope you enjoyed my travel pictures. We had lots of fun and my family will be talking about this trip for years to come. I feel like I ate my way through New Orleans. I had so much good food it's hard to say what was the best thing I had and now that I am home I will have to think about returning to a normalcy and maybe even a diet. 

I am afraid to step on a scale to find out if extreme measures will be necessary. lol

First, I have to work on edits for The Unicorn and the Virgin (m/m) but will post more about my trip later for you all to see. If I finish today, I will treat myself to read one of the new books I picked up while at the booksigning at the Authors After Dark conference.

Incentives always help me to work harder. 

Lots of love to you all,

Missy Lyons

www.missylyons.com

New Orleans Zoo visit - AADNOLA

I am in New Orleans at the writers and readers conference Authors After Dark. The first day was a little crazy but I found the hotel and checked in. The moment we entered the city the sky darkened and lightning flashed. A summer storm had suddenly appeared from the out of nowhere and in a city of concrete walls and asphalt streets the rain water has nowhere to go. The downpour was intense and almost scary. I had to leave the car and wade through a foot of water. When we drove on the streets I had to be careful of pedestrians so I wouldn't splash them but that was near impossible.

I didn't stay long in the hotel Royal Sonata though and the family wanted to fit in some sightseeing so we found some fun places to take the kids while we were here.

The New Orleans Zoo was absolutely beautiful and there are plenty of extras besides the animals so you don't get bored. They had a train ride which we totally took advantage of and a Dinosaur exhibit with animatronics so you get the full experience of roaring moving dinosaurs. It was way cool.

This is me and the babygirl just having fun on our tour of the zoo. It was absolutely beautiful and some of the buildings in the zoo were created by the same man who built Central Park Zoo so it was very refined and had a classic beauty in some places like at the fountains.

I noticed three fountains but the most modern one at the entrance was my favorite.  How can anyone resist these elephants playing in the waters?

This is a picture of one of my favorite animals at the zoo. The big cat exhibits always make me happy. It's like watching a big kitty and makes me want to just go up and rub their chin. The male lion they had at this zoo was absolutely beautiful and sleeping after the rain storm.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures so far. I will see if I can't get more pictures posted soon. :) If you are in New Orleans at the conference I will try and say hello.