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New Orleans Guide Day 3 & 4

Day 3

We were a little slow moving in the morning so again we didn’t leave enough time for sit-down breakfast. Our tour at the Whitney Plantation was at 10, and was about 40 minutes out of the city, so we hit the road, and found a donut and coffee drive through place on our way.

I don’t want to disparage the tour at the Whitney as a whole, but our tour guide had a super strange demeanor throughout. She seemed bored, or indifferent with our group, or like she was reciting it monotone from notes. We ended up leaving perplexed and disappointed. Thrillist had posted that as being the best option for a plantation tour – being that they share about the slaves perspective/lives and she did not do it justice.

Determined to salvage the day, we headed back to New Orleans. We stopped at the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden and wandered the grounds (it’s free). It was a gorgeous sunny day out, and we were glad to be outside walking around. We worked up an appetite and wanted to have a treat. To Brennan’s we headed for Bananas Foster. What a cool restaurant to stop into. It’s more fine dining, but we sat at the bar and they put on a little tableside show for you with the dessert dish. Totally worth experiencing.

We still had a couple of other bars we wanted to stop at, so first we wandered down to the Carousel Bar. It was completely packed, so we did not stick around and have a drink. We carried on to the Old Absinthe house, and tried their specialty cocktails (but no Absinthe for us).  We didn’t want the true obliterated Bourbon Street experience. To compromise, we grabbed a Grenade from Tropical Isle to sip on the way back to our hotel.

This brings me to the ultimate sandwich. Verti Marte was on our suggestion list, and this “po-boy” was EVERYTHING. It was a mess of ooey-gooey deliciousness. This was not your typical shrimp po-boy. We wolfed this sandwich down, and it was the only one we were both resentful about splitting. The men’s NCAA championship game was playing that night. We discussed finding somewhere to watch, but decided to just chill in our hotel room to finish the night. We did order pizza later on from Vieux Carre Pizza because they delivered and it was great pizza. The front desk asked where we ordered from when I came down to get it, and approved of our choice as well.

Day 4

It was good thing to lay low the night before, because we finally allotted enough time for brunch… or so we thought. We decided on Elizabeth’s, and ate like royalty. Would totally recommend, it’s a funky restaurant with amazing food. Our swamp tour was that morning and I thought we were all good on timing because it was at 10 a.m. In reality, it was actually at 9:30. So we were about 10 minutes out when I get a call asking if we’re still coming for the tour.

At that point I realized I messed up. Nick is speeding down the road, because they said they couldn’t wait for us. We are literally pulled over in FRONT OF THE tour. We’re watching our group walk down to the boats. God was watching over us, because the policeman asked what was going on and Nick said, “we’re not doing so well – we’re late for our tour.” The policeman asked, “where’s your tour?” Nick goes, “right there,” and the policeman goes, “have a nice day,” and lets us go. Then to add the cherry on top, we didn’t miss our tour – they let us get on still. All ended well, thank God!

The swamp tour itself was found through TripAdvisor, and was Cajun Encounters. We saw a wild pig, several alligators, a snake, and a disgustingly large spider. Our guide was knowledgeable and funny. I was glad we weren’t sitting back by him, because he was messing with all the people back there and scaring them. It was a beautiful morning on the boat, and worth the trip out of the city. I’m pretty sure they also do a pick up/drop off option from downtown New Orleans, so then you definitely wouldn’t be late like us.

We had to head back and checkout of our hotel. The staff were so friendly and accommodating. They definitely made sure our experience was high quality. On our way back into New Orleans, we discussed what to do with the rest of our day, because our flights weren’t until later at night. The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum had been recommended and they only do one “tour” at 1 p.m. daily. The time aligned and we stopped in to experience that.

This was the only negative tall moment of the trip, thankfully. The reason tour is in quotation marks, is because it’s really just one big room. The guy basically moves around the room and grabs random things and gives context to what you’re seeing. Overall I’d recommend the tour. With that being said, it got super crowded, and there wasn’t really room to move around. So we got berated by people for being tall and in their way; instead of politely asking like a normal human being. So that ruined the tour a little bit. Plus other women who were nowhere near us, were yelling about Amazons as well. For the record, the gentlemen is just talking half the time there is nothing to “see” that you’re missing or he passed things around the room.

So we hightailed it out of the there to get away from the bad energy. Like I said, I do recommend the tour. You probably won’t find an awesome spot to stand out of everyone’s way, it’s just the nature of it. They hyped it up as being super gross and making people faint, but I think you’d have to be super sensitive to hearing about medical treatments etc to experience this.

We went back to the hotel to get our rental car. Then we decided to head back to the park area where the Sculpture Garden was and take a nap.

From there we figured we’d head to the airport because my flight was an hour or two earlier than Nick’s. It was tough to leave, but overall we really felt like we did the best possible with the time we had. We’d both come back, as there is always more to do and experience! New Orleans was too good us, and we’d recommend visiting wholeheartedly.

Quick outfit notes. I wore my favorite linen culottes on Day 3. They kept me comfortable and from overheating while we were walking around. I got this tank top from Asos as well, and it is also a tall. It’s just an easy basic to pack and remix on a trip. The slides are from Nordstrom Rack. I found them in the Winter, but you have to snatch up good sandals whenever the size and price are right. The slides impressed me with how comfortable they were for walking all day, and no blisters!

Let us know in the comments below, have you visited New Orleans? Is it on your list of places to go? Why or why not?

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You Won’t Get the Cold Shoulder From Us

Each day I look at my Timehop app, as well as Facebook memories. I enjoy reminiscing about, well, pretty much anything. I am a pretty sentimental person. So any opportunity i get to walk down memory lane is a win in my eyes. This week as I was looking through my memories, I saw the post Jenilee and I first shared to our family and friends announcing our blog. We waited a few months before we announced to our friends via social media. Not for any particular reason. Once we fell into our natural roles and got into a groove, it felt like a nice natural time to announce.

That was a big step for both of us. In general it’s hard to put yourself out there. In my opinion, even harder to do so in front of people you already know. Starting a blog is obviously a shift from what you may post on your normal social media pages, so people tend to judge easily. However, the responses we have gotten from all of our family and friends, has been nothing but supportive. I think they can genuinely tell we started this blog for the right reasons; which is primarily to help our tall fam! Everyone can even be supportive to a fault, where they tip toe around “well I didn’t love that outfit” “That look wasn’t my favorite”, but you know what, that’s fine.

Sometimes Jenile and I don’t even like what each other want to post, but that’s the fun part about sharing this page. We both have incredible similar yet vastly different styles. Hopefully between the two of us, we have all of you covered. We are so lucky with this aspect since it doubles our creativity, style, and personality. Hopefully it helps even more people relate to us. The whole reason I wrote all of that though, was to reflect on how cool it is how many DM’s (Direct Messages) we have gotten with comments, requests, funny stories and/or questions. It has blown our mind. We feel so connected to our readers now more than ever. It just makes it easier than ever to keep on writing. We want to hear from you, if we haven’t made that clear before!

So should we dive into the similarities of our styles a bit? Hint: the matching inverse outfits we wore to dinner. Sometimes Jenilee and I can just be too extra for our own good. We couldn’t love it more. I ordered both of these shirts for myself, because I thought they would be solid night out options and are like nothing else I own currently. Once I got them in, I was thrilled with the fit. Both of them fit perfectly. The black one is a bodysuit, and even had room to spare on Jenilee’s 6’4 torso. Talk about a big win! However, our normal size was a little loose on her chest where it fit mine well. So take that into consideration if you snag this one.

Anyways, after I ordered these I saw that we had a dinner party coming up. The opportunity presented itself to message Jenilee, “we’re going to wear the inverse of each other to dinner and twin so hard.” There was no convincing involved, I passed the black shirt off to her at the gym, and we owned the heck out of our matching attire.

I  tossed on my basic black Gap jeans and the heels I can’t stop talking about. The purse is my current go-to outfit completer, and I was on my way. One thing I have to add. I sent Jenilee a text after I put on my outfit. It said, “I just feel like the best version of me in this outfit.” It is just the best feeling? When you’re not tugging on tops, pulling up pants, or just feeling uncomfortable? I would chalk this entire outfit up to a tall win. I’ve linked the snakeskin peplum top here, because it isn’t available to link in the widget below. I explain why if you keep reading!

Jenilee wore some older Asos Ridley Jeans, a fun pair of tassel earrings, and her snakeskin flats from Long Tall Sally to complete the true inverse effect. I will note that my feet are a little wider than hers and I ordered and returned these flats because they weren’t quite the right fit on me. But she looks like a rockstar in them!

We both also arrived with our leather jackets to start. We both have a few different versions of leather jackets at this point and they are a true staple in our closets all year round. I am going to link a few below in case you are in the market for a real or faux leather jacket. And now this post is going to take a weird turn and I am going to share something with y’all that I might later regret. Here we go!

We have discovered a mind blowing ASOS trick. While Jenilee was in NOLA I was pretty bored at times and for some reason thought I should start browsing ASOS UK. Y’ALL. They are holding out on us majorly in the US. It was a whole new world in there. There were new items I had never seen, items available in all UK sizes that were sold out in the US months ago, and so much more. I was incessantly texting her about my discovery. First I was mad, then sent 3 links. Then I was happy, sent many more links. Followed closely by confusion and with placing an order to test it out. Then I ended back with being upset.

It was a lot of feelings and emotions to sort through. All in all, I think I am in a neutral place with it now. I have added checking the UK site into my daily ASOS browsing. My recent orders have been ordered through the UK because the options are just that much better. I just do a quick pound to dollar conversion, make sure I converted my size correctly and nothing else is different. So with all of that being said – if you use any of our links going forward and it says out of stock, etc. make sure you check the UK site too.

Just to revisit the sizing conversion, it is 2 sizes larger than your normal US size. So if we order a 10 in US then we’d buy a 14 UK. Also worth noting before you purchase through the UK site, is whether your credit card allows foreign transactions without a fee. Ours don’t, but I know a lot do!

Now I will be here questioning if it was a good idea to disclose my dirty secrets, for fear of all the clothing selling out. But you know we are about transparency over here. So there you go. Do you have any shopping tricks up your sleeves? Let us know with a comment below!

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New Orleans Trip Part 2

Let’s pick right up where we left off. If you missed Day 1 of my New Orleans trip, you can catch up here! We filled our first day to the brim! It was so good, I was worried about the rest measuring up! We had grandiose plans to have brunch on Sunday before we officially began our day. That was laughable, because we got up pretty leisurely and drank coffee in our hotel room.

By the time we left, we knew we were cutting it too close to do a sit-down breakfast spot, so we looked up some cafes and found Croissant D’Or Pâtisserie. We shared some quiche and a couple of croissants in their lovely little courtyard area. Funny side story, on our way to breakfast, an older gentleman was rolling down the street on a motorized scooter (the wrong way down a one way street). He starts yelling YASSSSS at me, because he saw my shirt. This shirt brings me nothing but joy.

We then strolled down to the meeting place of our Voodoo Tour, which was across the street from Armstrong Park. Again, this tour was through Free Tours by Foot. The recommendation was made by our French Quarter tour guide. Robi, the Voodoo Tour guide is the only Voodoo priest to be giving tours in New Orleans. Voodoo is an actual religion and has nothing to do with what the tourism industry has made it into today. It was an entertaining and fun tour, and we’d recommend that to anyone as well. Robi became a fast friend (fan?) of Nick’s per the picture below – haha.

From there we worked up an appetite and Robi had recommended another Po-boy place to try that we passed on the tour. It was just another hole in the wall place. I also realized it was literally 100 yards from the Airbnb we stayed at my last trip to New Orleans. As you can imagine, I was disgruntled when I realized I missed out on a tasty sandwich last time. I don’t think we had one good Po-Boy our last trip. To make up for it, we had like four this time haha! We took our sandwiches and walked back to Armstrong Park to sit on a bench and enjoy the beautiful day. A gathering of drummers started up right by us. By the time we left, there were probably 15+ drummers collaborating and making beautiful rhythms together. It was special and fun to experience it!

Once we pulled ourselves out of the drumming trance, we checked our list of places we wanted to hit up and headed over to Pat O’Brien’s. Are you even visiting New Orleans if you don’t go have a Hurricane at the original place of inception?! I think not. It was pretty crowded but we still found a seat in the courtyard right away. I’d say worth a stop for a drink, but we didn’t need to hang there forever.

From there we wanted to make our way over to Frenchman Street because we had a list of live music we wanted to check out. Once we arrived we found out the show was cancelled because the band had bad weather/flooding where they lived. The beauty of that, is being on a street where you’re surrounded by great music, you just go next door or across the street and find another band!

As we walked in, we caught the tail end of the show at The Spotted Cat Music Club. Once that ended, we went to Bamboulas and found they had the NCAA women’s Championship game on AND live music. What more could you need?! If you’re not a live music fan, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I don’t understand you! The Carl LeBlanc Band was jamming. Plus the basketball game was very competitive and fun to watch as well. From there, we realized we needed some food and by that time it was raining. It was then I discovered the umbrella I packed for this purpose, did not have my back. All the pins basically fell apart. Luckily most of the bars have a second floor balcony and we were able to dash across and barely get wet.

We stopped into Dat Dog, which is a bar and hot dog establishment. If you like Worcestershire sauce, this is your place. If you don’t, AVOID AVOID! We split two hot dogs and I wouldn’t do it again. Too overpowering. We realized we need more/better food than that, so we ended up looking on Yelp and finding Adolfo’s down the block. When we put our name in, they told us we wouldn’t be assured seating before they closed. We decided to wait it out and see.

In the meantime, we met another gentleman who was also waiting, and passed the time chatting with him. His table was called, and since we were fast friends at that point, he let us join him for dinner to make sure we’d get in. Random New Orleans dinner experience, for the win! The food was great there, would totally recommend. I had Flounder which was one of their specials, with their ocean sauce and we split the Mussels as a table. We left full and tired and satisfied with another great day, so we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

Notes on the outfit quickly. Y’all know I said I wouldn’t wear this shirt unless my hair was in a ponytail. Well oops I did it again. I found this adorable polka dot headband from H&M. It has wire in it to keep its shape, and I love it. The 5 inch shorts from Gap are my go-to shorts. I honestly thought I wouldn’t be buying white shorts anymore, but the length is right for me to feel comfortable. I did buy my normal size for jeans 31 and they fit comfortably. Sometimes I do prefer to size up in jean shorts for those thick thighs. To finish it off, I always pack my Converse for traveling. They don’t let me down!

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Nothing But Blue Skies

Don’t you just feel… lighter? It’s the breeze blowing gently across your face, or the sun warming your shoulders. What I’m hinting at, is that Spring has arrived! We welcome the season, and are endlessly grateful for Winter to be firmly ushered out. Usually in Wisconsin we have a few fake outs on our season changes. This was definitely the case last Sunday and Monday when we got two more inches of snow. Meh, to that memory. Thankfully we were blessed with a warm enough day to melt it quickly.

It’s astounding how much easier it is to be happy when the weather is nice. Add up a Wisconsin winter, and we’re lucky that Wisconsin is known for its friendly people! It probably has something to do with the good beer too, if we’re being honest. The great weather showed up just in time for Easter. The weather wanted to get in on celebrating Christ’s resurrection too! Caitlin was down in Austin, on vacation for four days. If you’re following along on Instagram she’s shared some amazing days at the pool, so you know the weather is nice. Tim and I went down to visit my best friend from college, and we had an almost 80 degree day in the Quad Cities area. It felt so so nice to sit outside all afternoon long.

Right about the time the weather gets warmer, the summer plans start to kick into gear. I’m already looking ahead at my calendar and trying to figure out if I should keep the few remaining weekends open or just give in and book them up! If we stay in town, we end up making plans here anyway! Summerfest already dropped their headliners, and we’re all busy comparing who we want to see and when they are playing. An 11 day music festival is always a marathon, but it’s only once a year!

If anyone is debating a visit to Milwaukee, Summer is when everything is going on. You could come during Summerfest, or they pretty much have some sort of festival happening every other weekend as well. We typically hit up Germanfest, especially as an excuse to wear our lederhosen and dirndl we bought while at Oktoberfest in Munich. Speaking of, this year our parents are heading to Munich. We’re hoping they’ll both fit in our costumes so they don’t have to buy them! But literally name the festival and they have it. They have Taco Fest, Festa Italiana, Mexican Fiesta, Summer Solstice. Basically any chance to be outside, Milwaukee is creating an opportunity.

We still definitely have to dress in layers, because the festival grounds are at the edge of Lake Michigan. As with most lakes, it runs cooler. You could be wearing shorts and a tank and then boom the sun sets, and you need jeans and a coat. If you’re watching a show, you might be a little warmer in the middle of the crowd. But still, we’re a little past the age where you dress for the weather you want instead of the weather you actually are experiencing.

The athleisure trend has helped everyone’s dressing in immeasurable ways. You might be thinking, how did we get on the topic of athleisure?! Well like this dress, the silhouette is a classic cut. Caitlin had been searching for pinafore dress all Winter, especially after our friend Sarah found the cutest option at a Milwaukee boutique. Unfortunately the tall options are limited, as they usually are.

We were perusing the cutest boutique (Harvest Home) in our hometown and came across this lovely number. It’s the comfiest fabric, while maintaining the cutest pinafore/overall cut. Thanks athleisure, is basically what I’m trying to say. You allow us to look good, but be comfy and we appreciate you. This dress would be so easy to walk around in at a festival or market, or traveling. It makes it ultra versatile.

PLUS, so easy to layer. Here, Caitlin brought out another familiar piece. Our favorite mainline t-shirt bodysuits. They help create the perfect slouchy tuck, without a huge amount of fabric making you look bulkier. The Converse strike again, showing you that they work with literally anything and everything. Now I definitely need to prioritize a white pair, so Caitlin and I can match in yet another way.

That’s all for today. Let us know below if you have any favorite local festivals in your own hometown! Also, do you ever shop local boutiques? Our Mom also just found a jumpsuit that is long enough in a different boutique.

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New Orleans Trip Part 1

Super excited to share this trip itinerary with y’all. Nick and I wanted to do a 30th twin trip for our birthday last November, but we weren’t really sure what that meant when we initially discussed the idea. Last time we traveled together we backpacked in Europe after we graduated college. That was a great trip and will forever be a wonderful memory. I’m excited to say that this trip definitely topped that.

Tim (my husband) and I went to New Orleans the first time for a weekend over New Years a couple of years ago. We were supposed to go with another couple but the guy ended up breaking his foot and we couldn’t find anyone last second to join us. We made the most of it, but being that it was January, it rained a lot! That trip the highlight was definitely The World War II Museum. It’s a must to check out if you enjoy history, there is loads of information that can take you a full day to get through.

We spent a good amount of time culling a list from various sources. This was our first trip traveling together and we wanted to do it right. Whenever you travel with someone, it’s always wise to really spend some time figuring out expectations and goals for the trip. That way, you prioritize effectively and everyone in theory will be satisfied!

The search for an Airbnb was a little delayed, I’d advise to book that as soon as possible. We ended up with a smaller pool of choices, but ended up being really happy where we stayed. It was booked through Airbnb but was a hotel. Not sure if they’re able to use Airbnb because they’re a timeshare hotel, but the location was fantastic. We were close to the river, but just East of the French Quarter and west of Frenchman street. While we were in the city, we were able to walk anywhere we wanted to go. Otherwise there were trolley lines nearby as well.

Our flights landed around 10ish. By the time we grabbed our rental car and checked into the hotel, we were ready to eat! We purposely waited on dinner because we wanted to eat as much delicious food as possible to maximize our time there. We headed down the road and started with Port of Call. If you’re looking for a hearty amazing burger and an incredible baked potato, look no further. Pair it with a Monsoon, and you’ll be on your butt after one drink. Be forewarned, there was still a wait at 11 at night, so we ended up snagging seats at the bar instead! We knew the next day would be full, so we headed back and got some sleep.

Saturday morning, we got up and moving pretty leisurely. First stop was at Cafe du Monde, to grab some coffee and of course, the beignets. We had booked a walking tour of the French Quarter with Free Tours by Foot. I absolutely recommend them for any area you’re mildly interested in. Their concept is pay what you feel the tour was worth. Our tour guide, Andrew, was definitely worth the time and money. He gave us a ton of interesting information during the tour and kept it entertaining as we wandered around. We used the live music guide and other recommendations he gave us throughout the rest of the trip to make it amazing.

After our tour we had to grab a muffuletta for lunch. I missed out on them the first time I visited and I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. Central Grocery & Deli was right on way back to the hotel and happened to be the home of first muffuletta. We waited out the line, and it was definitely worth it. The mixture of olives, and meats and cheese is unlike any sandwich I’ve tried before.

From there we wanted to hit up the Barataria Preserve. It’s a free entry Wildlife Preserve, and it was definitely worth the visit. We saw two alligators and a venomous snake (can’t remember the name of it). The boardwalk itself was gorgeous as well. On our way back into New Orleans we stopped at one of the many Daiquiri drive-thrus and grabbed one to bring back. That was a fun little extra, definitely a true New Orleans experience if you rented a car. We also stopped at Creole Creamery to have an ice cream mid-afternoon snack.  

For the night, we changed and headed to St. Roch’s which is a food court spot (unfortunately I didn’t grab a picture of my night looks). The goal was to grab charbroiled oysters, but unfortunately they were sold out by the time we got there. The fresh oysters were a decent stand-in. I wouldn’t really recommend them unless you love fresh oysters. To make up for it, we found ourselves another Po-boy just down the road at Hanks. In our experience, the best Po-boys were at completely unassuming spots (basically dirty looking convenience stores/gas stations). We took the shrimp po-boy and some beers to-go and sat on some steps to savor the sandwich to round out our day.

For my outfit, I always try to accomplish comfort and style. This often means choosing sneakers or slip-ons that you can easily walk in. I had gotten this pair of striped paper bag waist shorts on sale (plus they are tall for a great length inseam) at Gap. Being that Wisconsin doesn’t lend itself to shorts weather until May at best, I had been itching to wear them in New Orleans. They were super comfortable and are very flattering. The Van’s sneakers are my Mom’s that she let me borrow. After this trip, I’m going to pick up a pair of my own. You can’t go wrong with a neutral sneaker.

My jean jacket is the one I always travel with and I actually stole it from my husband once he outgrew it. It is a men’s from Old Navy, but they have a boyfriend fit tall sized option right now that I linked below. Otherwise we always encourage you to try out the men’s section and see if you like that fit better. There is nothing more comfortable than this oversize fit and then you can easily layer anything!

Stay tuned for the rest of our trip. If you have any questions or need clarification on any information I shared, please feel free to reach out and I’ll answer as best I can!

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