Day 1. New Orleans Bound.
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.
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"
posted by MikeStan @ 11:01 PM
1 Comments:
M&M:
Looks like a fun time. Be safe and remember to keep track of your personal belongings while out and about.
It should be worthwhile checking with some of the locals to get a feel for what the area was/ is like - pre/post Katrina.
Don't forget to see and hear some Jazz while in the city.
All the best,
Uncle Phil and Crew
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