New Orleans: Part 1

I'm back from my weekend in New Orleans, which went way too quickly.  I covered a lot of ground over a short period of time, so I'm going to split up the coverage in two posts. 

It all began Friday when seven girls landed in The Big Easy from pretty much every part of the country for a dear friend's bachelorette weekend.  We all met at The Ritz Carlton in the French Quarter, which is where we called home for the weekend.  It was fabulous!  Such a beautiful hotel with great views of the city and just two short blocks from Bourbon Street.  Pictured below is one of our beautiful rooms.  Don't you just love the huge windows?

The combination of the fabric panel, painted headboard and neatly pressed linens is so luxurious.

Beautiful fountain at the entrance to The Spa

Friday night's dinner was at Herbsaint.  A friend of the bride, who lives in New Orleans, planned all of our dinners.  Her husband was a chef at Herbsaint, so she ordered for the table all of the best dishes for us to try. 

Excellent!

Note: I was not drinking 3 glasses of red wine at once on purpose.  I ordered the wine flight to try three delicious reds. 

Saturday night's dinner was truly special.  The same friend arranged for a private dinner in the Proteus Room at Antoine's.  While being escorted to our private dining room, we passed the Rex Room (pictured below).  We were all enamored with the opulent green of the room.  Lots of special dinners in there!

Pictures of past Mardi Gras Kings and Queens in the hall

Side Note: The friend who organized this special dinner for us was one of the Queens a couple Mardi Gras' ago. 

Below, some of the old Mardi Gras jewels and tiaras on display in our dining room.  Excuse the blurry camera phone picture. 

All the ladies in the Proteus Room!  Such a special evening!

Check back tomorrow for Part Deux!