Since I planned to meet my friends well before the crack of dawn to kick off my bachelor’s party the next morning, I decided to just stay in New Orleans that night instead of doing the round trip to Baton Rouge. Of course, any sane person would ask what the heck kind of bachelor’s party starts before dawn? Well… I’ve been to enough bachelor’s parties to last several lifetimes and had plenty of fun. But I’m at a point in my life where I now want kids to stay off my lawn and a perfect Friday night is getting to bed by 10. Instead of the traditional shenanigans, I opted for a fishing trip with the boys and a football game. It was an absolutely perfect combination for the 2024 me. I actually didn’t want to have a bachelor’s party with everything going on, but my friends bullied me into it. For that, I’m grateful and had an absolute blast.

Anyhow, I’ve stayed at just about every Hyatt property in New Orleans over the years. My favorite by far is The Eliza Jane. Recently, Hyatt added a few more properties to their New Orleans portfolio. So I just had to check them out. Of those properties is The Barnett Hotel, which is now part of Hyatt’s JdV collection. The hotel is right in the middle of downtown New Orleans, and rates were super reasonable that weekend. So I decided to give The Barnett a shot.



The agent checking me in couldn’t have been friendlier, and I had my keys in less than 60 seconds. I got fantastic Globalist upgrade to King Patio room. The room itself was nice, but not super special. And obviously, I took the pictures the next day.







The room layout was a little weird to put it mildly. I’m pretty used to modern hotels making showering a spectator sport with windows peeking into the bathroom. The Barnett took this concept to a whole new level. There is no bathroom door whatsoever. Make of that what you will.





Piece de resistance is the patio. And holy moly, it was awesome! Absolutely beautiful views over my hometown.







The bed was comfortable, but there’s only so much sleep one gets before waking up at 4:30am. Despite the lack of decent sleep, I shot out of bed like my hair was on fire and made the short drive over to my friend’s house. We loaded up a couple of their trucks and headed out to Lafitte where we were meeting our guides. After transferring food and drinks to the boat, we were underway and heading toward Barataria Bay just before 6.



Unfortunately, rain started to fall just after midnight and it was coming down steadily as we eased away from the dock. What I didn’t account for was how much the rain stings when the boat got up to speed. It felt like we were getting sandblasted, and it wasn’t long before we were soaked, cold, and miserable. By mid-morning, the rain finally cleared up







Fishing was slow going at first. We got plenty of nibbles but couldn’t reel in anything decent.



But eventually, things started picking up. My future father in law got us started with the biggest catch of the day, with a 32 inch redfish. Sadly, it was way over the level limit and wasn’t a keeper.



My catch was legal not but nearly as impressive.



Eventually, our ice chest filled up.



We finally called it a day a little after 2pm, and headed back to dock get our fished cleaned. Our final haul was solid.





Then it was a short ride back into New Orleans. After splitting up our haul, I headed back to the hotel for a much needed shower and nap. I had just enough time for a drink at The Barnett’s gorgeous Lobby Bar before meeting up the boys for dinner.



Dinner was at the original Drago’s, which is known for their charbroiled oysters. Naturally, we had a few dozen of those along with a couple dozen on the half-shell.



I had the always fantastic shrimp and eggplant stack for my main. I may have borrowed a picture from Drago’s website because I may have drank a wee too many beverages to remember to take a picture.



It was fantastic evening with old friends and catching up. While we remained close over the years, the time we’ve spent together dwindled with ever increasing work and family obligations. Occasions like this are rare and cherished.
Afterwards, it was straight back to the hotel where I faced planted into the bed and fell asleep.

Thankfully, I was no worse for wear the next morning. I felt good enough for a little early morning walk along the river.



Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast.









I didn’t intentionally plan it this way, but the bachelor’s party fell on the same week as the Saints’ season opener against the Panthers. So I rounded up a few of the guys to go to the game.

Readers of my past trip reports might recall I’m a huge fan of my hometown team. But we’ve fallen on hard times of late, and I got super busy. So I haven’t been paying much attention. But I still wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to attend a game in the Dome. The Dome is a short walk away from The Barrett.
Win or lose, game day at the Dome is quite the fun experience. It’s something I’ve definitely taken for granted over the years.













Anyhow, the game was great and we had a blast. We were actually quite pumped as the Saints pulled off an impressive 47-10 win. Obviously, I’m writing this quite a few weeks later and things have gone off a cliff. Nothing after Week 2 is real .

We weren’t feeling Dome jambalaya and flat beer that day, so we hiked over to one of my favorite spots downtown, Cochon’s Butcher’s Shop, for some food and wait for traffic to die down.



I highly recommend their delicious Le pig Mac.



And after that, I hopped in my car and headed back to Baton Rouge. It was a great week, and it was over all too soon. But I accomplished knocked a huge travel milestone and had a great time with my oldest and closest friends. I couldn’t ask for a better way to close out my single life.

Oh! And I had an ice chest of fish for quite a few tasty dinners to show for it.