New Orleans
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2007
1
81
92
Trip End
Dec 27, 2007
Loading Map
New Orleans,
Louisiana,
United States
Thursday, November 22, 2007
The next morning we did a tour of the French Quarter - looking at all the old shops and bars and ending it off with the customary visit to cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets, which for those of you who don't know, are really yummy french style doughnuts covered in lots of icing sugar which poses a serious choking hazourd if inhaled! That night we decided to venture off to experience some of the jazz bars that make New Orleans famous ! We ended up staying in just one as we had found ourselves a comfy little spot in the window seat and were pretty relaxed. It was nice to hear the brass band sound & we stopped at a few other places to listen to different types of music on the way back to the car - even some reggae in a dingy looking bar with some really funky dancing going on (there was a trying to do teh funk Raquel!!)
The next day was Saturday & we decided it was time to try out some real Creole food.
A house in the French Quarter
We went to Ignatius - a little restaurant in Magazine street & ordered a range of dishes to share. Red beans & rice, Jambalaya, spicy corn, seafood gumbo & crawfish eitouffe. The Eitouffe was our favourite along with the rice & beans...delicious! We left with full bellies & headed off to watch Tulane play basketball where Nancy was expected to work. It was pretty exciting as there were some tense fans after the shot clock stopped working and, as we were sitting right behind the technical table, we were right in the thick of the disagreement between refs, technicians & of course the visiting team's coach who we referred to as 'the rat'. Tulane started to close the gap in the scoring & even I was joining in with the "GREEN WAVE" chant! Unfortunately they were unable to hold on & ended up losing by about 10 points. That night we had planned to listen to some more jazz at Tipitinas but Noen & I feel asleep on the couch & couldn't be bothered to get ready to go out once we woke up. I did, however, find out the next day that it was Wade's night off & we could've met him somewhere...so was a little suspicious about this whole falling asleep episode & wondered if it wasn't a scheme by Nancy? I'm not quite sure what she was trying to hide, but we didn't get to meet 'the guy' the whole time we were there!? Okay, he is an intern, but still! Greg was quite content to rather spend the time uploading photos & desperately trying to catch up with the travelpod entries!
Sunday brought the rain & we decided to drive out to see one of the cemeteries where the graves are all above the ground (this is because New orleans is below the water line and graves underground would be submerged in water and coffins would begin floating ...very interesting...we then decided that the best thing to do in this kind of weather was to go & see a movie...and so we did.
Bourbon Street
We saw American Gangster which was long, but good. Noen being the avid movie fan that she is took about 3 breaks during the film & I had my customary 15 minute nap...it was great! We also consumed a bag of popcorn, some M&M's, about a 2 litre Sprite & some gummy sweets in this time & Nancy couldn't stop moaning about how sick she felt & how it was all my fault. What she failed to remember, however, was that she had bought a humongous lollipop at the sweet shop & that was the real reason she was feeling ill! Noen & I were up early the next morning to go swimming at 6am. We went to the Riley Centre on the Tulane campus & swam for about 45 minutes. It was a good bit of exercise & I really enjoyed swimming again! Our plan for today was to have a s morning & then pick Greg up to join us for a Po-boy lunch at Dominici's. Noen treated me to my first ever pedicure...it was lovely! The best part was probably the massage chairs in which you sat during the pedicure. Of course Nancy & I got the giggles as her chair kept sending out some kind of protrusion which we assumed was meant to massage your butt, but was rather disturbing! The Asian ladies who were doing our pedicures obviously knew all about this chair as they just looked at each other & smiled. Of course once our nailpolish was drying we swapped chairs so that I could experience the upthrust too! That really made the ladies smile...in fact I think they giggled!
With our pretty toes, yes Noen, even yours - we all headed for Dominici's for a po-boy lunch.
Bourbon Street at night
Nancy explained that these sandwiches got their name from the days when 'poor boys' would eat these french baguettes after pulling out the inside & filling them with shrimp or oysters which they had collected. They were good - I ordered the shrimp, Greg had a pork sausage one & Noen had her favourite - the oyster filled po.Greg asked to go and see the Katrina raveged areas but Noen was a bit scared to go into the really badly parts of town, so we went to the boat club area and Greg took some photos there. We also saw the flood line on some houses along the way. Some houses had a sprayed on sign which indicated what was found in teh house and thedate the house was checked.
Tonight we decided to head down to Bourbon Street to try out the local drinks...we started at O'Briens. There were 2 musicians playing requests on "dueling" pianos and we had a good time listening & singing along to some of the songs. Greg reminded me that one of my favourite songs was "Walking in Memphis", so I requested it and they did a great version - the strawberry daquiri was good too. After a while we moved down the street and stopped in "Cats Meow". Some scary guy was leading the kareioke campaign & despite my love for this weird phenomenon I just knew I was not anyway near able to follow this act! He was a phenomenon himself! We just stood transfixed at this freak of nature & I understood why Noen says she used to have nightmares about him after first seeing him perform on stage - a big black sining cowboy! It was now time to try out the famous New Orleans drink - the 'handgrenade'!
We went into Tropical Island & ordered ONE - it seemed I would be drinking alone here - while we sat back & listened to a guy playing some good ole country music. The started to kick in & I understood why it was called New Orleans most powerful drink! Apparently the 'hurricane' is stronger...just as well I didn't have that!
We popped into a few other bars before calling it a night & heading for home.
Tuesday was a day of packing & getting ready for our second train journey to Chicago. We were fortunate to be able to leave a few things with Noen that we no longer needed i.e. Summer clothing & a few gifts as we will be seeing her again at Christmas time in Pennsylvania. Noen dropped us off at the station & we boarded the train loaded with good 'padkos' again...ready for our 20 hour journey to Chicago. Despite the fact that we were held up for an hour near Jackson, Mississippi - as they had to clear something off the tracks - the journey went well & we arrived safely in Chicago to be met by Maryann who was waiting patiently for us to arrive.
Comments
Hi Greg and Jules
Thanks for that story Jules. It sounds like you had quite a fun time with Noen & were able to do the typical New Orleans things again. I also really enjoyed the photos....brought back memories for us of our stay with Noen In New Orleans.
Love you Mom & Dad xxx