Christmas in New Orleans

Last year we visited my parents at their new place in NOLA at the beginning of December so this year it was time to spend the actual holiday with them.  We were down there for about a week.  The city really knows how to be festive and Christmastime is no exception.  The beautiful mansions in the Garden District look like postcards and many of the restaurants have special Reveillon menus.  We were introduced to the music clubs of Frenchman Street (an authentic departure from Bourbon Street) and saw the annual holiday lights at City Park (with a charming train ride through "scenes" made of colored lights and music).  Of course, we over-ate too.  It's impossible to resist!

Typical view along St. Charles Street 

 Emeril's, where I tried sweetbreads for the first time (insert Hannibal Lecter jokes here)

The Spotted Cat is a great place to see a real (and very talented) local band

 An afternoon in The Quarter isn't complete without beignets 

and a stroll past the creepiest house in town!

Mr. Turkey in the oil-less fryer

My parents' quiet neighbors 

At City Park there was some really weird-smelling bubble foam flying around and it was a long time before we figured out it was coming from several fake snow generators 

 One of our meals was at the splendidly-decorated Roosevelt Hotel

Joyeux Noel!

Christmastime in the Baltimore-Washington Region

In 2015 I accidentally missed out on the holiday-themed "pop-up" bar in DC called Miracle on 7th Street so this year I was determined to check it out.  The bar is set up in a pre-existing site with a special cocktail and snack menu that's based on popular holiday movies or holiday-references in pop culture.  Due to its popularity (and very long lines to enter) last year they expanded to three adjacent businesses in the Shaw neighborhood.  We invited a couple of friends to join us.  While the cool decorations and general spirit of the experience was fun, it was not really worth the ridiculously-long entrance line and also long time it took to order a round of four drinks.  I understand that the owners want their customers to have the Craft-Cocktail Mixologist Experience but when your menu is only 12 drinks long you'd think that they could have some of the ingredients ready in batches for quick serving.  I'll try anything once, so it was worth a stop for the novelty.  However our party was glad that after the "pop-up" stop there was a rather good brewpub around the corner with far less people, no line, and really excellent beer/food.

The menu, holiday elves making cocktail magic in the narwhal bar

Cheers!  Checking out the Stranger Things bar

(that is a ball of cookie dough garnishing two of the drinks)

Goats in sweaters??

Later in December we visited the Baltimore neighborhood of Hampden, a funky area that is close to Johns Hopkins University.  The main drag has a selection of shops and restaurants I've been wanting to investigate for a while.  The main draw of the evening was their famous "Miracle on 34th Street" light show.  One block of neighbors in Baltimore have been decorating their houses with over-the-top displays for the last 70 years.  People come from all over during the month of December to see the lights and it culminates with the neighborhood "trash ball" drop on New Year's Eve.  Before the light show we stopped for a truly delicious dinner at a local restaurant and I'm already planning our second visit to the area.  On our way back to the car an ice cream shop was selling ridiculously rich cocoa with huge home-made marshmallows.  Yum!

In other news, after having to delay for weeks while our landlady had hardwood flooring installed in the downstairs of the house we finally got our Christmas decorations up - just in time for us to leave town for a little bit...