I’m a planner and it’s typically hard for me to break out of that mindset when on a “spur of the moment” type trip … so in my infinite wisdom, I thought it best to not book a hotel room until we were close to New Orleans.

Well … I accidentally booked my hotel for the wrong night, but didn’t realize my mistake until I had driven an hour from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, dropped the car with valet, AND carted my stuff up two flights to the receptionist’s desk. The women working the desk looked at me like I was crazy … “um, your reservation isn’t until Jan 10th and we’re actually all booked up for tonight – there’s a football game tomorrow.”

All was not lost! Instead of giving me a hard time about this reservation SNAFU, she called over to a Hilton that was just around the corner which, thankfully, had a rooms available for the night (it’s 12:40 am at this point). They moved the reservation to the Hilton New Orleans St. Charles and I ended up with a better room at the same (super cheap) rate. I guess it really does pay to be a Hilton Rewards Gold member.

After a great night’s sleep and a late rise, I headed up to the lounge for a cup of coffee and a bit of a chat – calling various family members to relay our interesting evening and to see how they had fared for the holiday. After about an hour and two cups of coffee, I headed out to Cafe Fleur De Lis for brunch and a little bit of planning. 😉