Our last full day in New Orleans began with a recommended eatery called Petunia's. They are famous for their red bean omelet. Being a three egg omelet including a Cajun sausage and cheddar cheese, I'm surprised they are not more famous for their heart attacks. Nonetheless, it was an unbelievably delicious plate of food. Good hash browns, too! After breakfast, we hopped a bus and headed sort of south and west to an area called the Magazine District or as all the signs indicated, Uptown. It was a quaint little area filled with Starbucks and antique stores and the like. Basically, this was a place my mother would have enjoyed. Like A LOT. After this excursion out of our known realm, we headed back to the hotel to rest our still-full stomachs and to plan out the rest of our final night. We decided on going back through Bourbon Street one last time en route to our dinner destination: The Gumbo Shop. Supposed 'best Gumbo in New Orleans' was not a fake title according to Matt. Having recently had some Gumbo, I ordered a blackened chicken po' boy and that did not disappoint. (BTW - Look into getting some Abita Ale when I get home.) At this point, we have consumed a hand grenade and a beer each and we wanted more. We both got refills of our novelty drinks and headed back past Esplinade towards Frenchman street. We stopped back into the spotted cat for another drink and to sit and enjoy a lively jazz band called Skip Robinson and the New Orleans Quartet. They had a great on stage personality and fun sound. Good time. On the way back to the hotel, my enjoyable buzz was killed by the fact that it was monsooning outisde and my cheap convenient store umbrella was destroyed somewhere near Chartes and St. Louis ave. Despite being drenched, I got into my hotel room and began to pack for our trip home the next day having completed yet another eventful day in the Big Easy.
Day three. My calves are like bricks of pain at this point. Walking everywhere on concrete has its pitfalls as my legs can attest to. Oh well. Today was a relatively relaxed day. After our wonderful continental breakfast, we headed out to the Cafe Beignet on Royal St. to meet up with a Cemetery tour group. We walked about a mile towards Rampart Ave. through the French Quarter and into the St. Louis Cemetery #1. It is the oldest cemetery in all of Louisiana. Really interesting history and culture over there. All the graves must be made above ground because of the fact that New Orleans is built on swamp land and graves 6 feet under would eventually act like an air bubble and pop back up again. Creepy. The film 'Easy Rider' was actually shot in this cemetery as well. Seeing the statue that Peter Fonda was cradled in during a very famous scene was quite intriguing as well. After walking back, we got some gumbo and Beignets at the Cafe Beignet on Burbon St. Delicious. Unbearably hot, but delicious. We puttered around our hotel for a while before heading out for dinner again. Bourbon Street was more lively than ever, being a Friday night and all. Going right past the tourist madness, we went to the Port of Call on Espliande Ave. for some burgers and Monsoons. Messiest. Burgers. Ever. However, again delicious. After consuming dinner, we headed further out of the French Quarter to a place called The Spotted Cat, a little hole in the wall club that had a live band Matt had been told about called the New Orleans Jazz Vipers. They played an array of familiar jazz tunes with a decidedly upbeat way about them. We watched them play, a hippie dance and our drinks empty. It was a good time. The place had a very familiar atmosphere to some of the places I frequent down town in Chicago and in Wicker Park. Unfortunately, because of my legs, I headed home early and left Matt behind to meet up with a friend of the guy who recommended the band to us. Needing to rest my legs, I plopped into bed around 1 a.m. or so and fell asleep. 'Nother good day. Now Playing: Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone"
Neither of us being terribly hung over to begin the second day here, we decided on a quick awakening in order to catch the last minutes of our Continental Breakfast. So after breakfast over a few episodes of Deadwood and some lounging/planning, our stomachs were settled and we headed off to the hotel gym to get a quick workout in. After that bout of futility, we came back to our room to clean up and head out for our afternoon excursion. First, we started walking towards the riverfront. It was a very pleasant day, unlike the previous, and walking along the banks of the river was quite refreshing. Along our walk, we came across a little diner on Bourbon and Dumaine called the Clover Grill. It was a classic burger joint that had very little on the menu. However, their 1/2 pound burger was deliciously appetizing and filling. Noticing the flamboyance of the staff and the gay-oriented newspaper on our table prompted me to announce to Matt 'I think we're in a gay diner.' Later searches of the interwebs lead us to the knowledge that the Clover Grill was in fact very much a "gay diner." It had good burgers and weenies. Awesome. We walked further into the French Quarter down St. Anne to Jackson Square, a park Matt and I had been told to visit as a feather in our historical knowledge/tourist hat. It is a pretty little park with a large statue of Andrew Jackson proudly riding his horse. After this, we found ourselves in need of a small snack. What better place for a snack than the Cafe du Monde? Ah yes. Calories. If you like a rich French donut with your powdered sugar then this is the place for you. Though the lines are long, the inexpensive and devilishly delicious pastries are well worth the wait. $2 gets you three donuts in a bag with a pound of powdered sugar. We both ate one and immediately asked ourselves why they come in threes. Walking back to the hotel and attempting to scarf down the others, we were left with dusted sweaters and a bag of pure white powder. God, we needed a nap.
I fell asleep and Matt continued his planning. As I awoke to the sound of Matt leaving for a drink in the lounge, I realized that we were in for another night of drinking along Bourbon Street. HI-YO!
Just like the night before, we had a couple drinks in our room and then headed off to the strip. Being a Thursday night, the street was much more alive and jumping than previously witnessed. We walked all the way down to the Original Tropical Isle Bar and had us a couple hand grenades. These were a bit stronger than last night's. We were determined to find a local bar with younger people and just hang out and drink in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, we never got that first step. We looked and looked and kept drinking hand grenades, but there was not one palatable bar for which to settle into. It was like seniors' night on Bourbon Street. Oh well... After four hand grenades each and some beads thrown to us, we started walking further down Bourbon Street than we ever had all the way to Esplinade, where we saw the place we will be dining tomorrow night. We kept walking all the side streets that weren't filled with the elderly and headed back to the hotel drunk as lords. Matt became unconscious immediately while I watched an episode of Deadwood and prayed that pure hand grenades all night meant no hangover in the morning. Good. Day...
So a new chapter begins in this blog: My trip to New Orleans.
Getting up super early on the day after Christmas, my brother and I headed off to O'Hare Airport to catch our 6:05 flight to Cincinnati. Flying over Chicago was actually a first that I can remember. It's possible that I flew the same path en route to Boston in '99 but I truly don't remember as I was too busy chatting it up with my graduating classmates from Edison at the time. Anyway, we flew over the entire city of Chicago in about 10 minutes. It was remarkable. I could actually see the entire downtown loop and it seemed about the size of my fist out the window. I could see clear across the Lake into Michigan. The grid system at 6 a.m. was truly a sight to see from 30,000 ft.
That was trumped however in a few minutes as we were headed east... Into the sunrise. Glorious was the sight of the few puddles of water called lakes reflecting the sky in perfect symmetry. Like little shards of broken mirrors on the rolling hilly ground. We touched down in Cincinnati and were immediately shuffled onto our connecting flight to New Orleans. After passing out on the smallish plane, I awoke to realize it was about 10:30 a.m. local time in New Orleans, our destination.
Getting out of the airport, it felt like Chicago in May. It was slightly overcast and remarkably comfortable. We got to our hotel and had ideas of crashing immediately. After a nap, we got lunch at a well-known local haunt called Mother's. A couple of po' boys and a trip through a thunderstorm later, we found ourselves in a mall looking for umbrellas. We quickly realized that paying $98 for a designer umbrella (let alone TWO) was ridiculous so we went to a local liquor store and got a couple. Our clothes were soaked but we were just getting started. Matt went to get some locally brewed beer and we prepared for our first night on Bourbon Street.
After drinking the Abita Ale and Guinness we had bought, we got dressed and headed to the heart of the New Orleans French Quarter. By this time, dinner hunger was setting in so we sought out a sandwich shop. On the way, we came upon a hole in the wall that was selling drinks. This type of shop is quite common as they are the most efficient places to stumble up to with a $10 bill and desire to drink more. We bought a couple Hurricanes and walked on. We ate dinner at a sandwich shop and continued to explore Bourbon Street. After walking up and down the strip a couple times, we finally came to the Tropical Isle and had a couple Hand Grenades. We finally had a slight buzz going. This made us want to play pool in one of the bars, The Bourbon Cowboy. Everything was red in this place. The walls, the chairs, the pool table... It would have been a happening place had we not started our night so upsettingly early. We finished our Hand Grenades and had a few more drinks from the bar and shot a couple games of pool. We staggered back to the Isle for more Hand Grenades and realized that we didn't want to be in the Cajun Territory at Great America any longer so we headed out onto Canal St. with our last Hand Grenades in hand. Thinking it would be an AWESOME idea to see 'No Country for Old Men' at the mall, we stumbled there. We finished our drinks on the steps outside the mall and headed in. Unfortunately, the last showing was about an hour before we got there (why the mall was open in the first place, I don't know) so we staggered back to the hotel to watch some Deadwood and complete our first day in New Orleans... Now Playing: The Books - "Be Good to them Always"
