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June 10, 2005Weekend Trip to New Orleans 2005
I had two free nights at the River walk Hilton, due to bad service when I was there last November. Scott got two nights also and we bought one of his from him for $75 since we were staying for 3 nights. We left at 8pm Thursday night and drove all the way through arriving Friday morning. Friday we took naps to get caught up on sleep and walked around. We ate lunch on Bourbon Street at Johnny Whites Pub and Grill. I had a shrimp po-boy while Brandi had Shrimp Creole both were great. We walked around some and then mostly slept. Saturday we got up and went to eat breakfast at Café Beignet, a simple and beautiful outside café at Music Legends Park on Bourbon Street. I had an amazing crawfish, green bell pepper, and swiss omelet that came with grits and French bread. It was the best. I don’t even eat grits but I could eat those all day. Brandi had French toast that was created with actual French bread. She loved her meal as well. Café Beignet was a great place, great food, but horrible service. At 1:00 we went on the Cajun Pride Swap Tour. It was a two hour boat ride through a swamp that was crawling with Alligators. Our driver was very relaxed and let us do what we wanted and to take the time to really enjoy being out in the swamp. He would feed the gators chicken from the boat which was great fun to watch. When the boat would stop on the bank there would be literally 5 to 15 gators come out of no where from all sides up to the boat. They ranged from 3 to 7 feet long. We also saw some snakes, a raccoon, and two beautiful large owls. After the tour we went back to the hotel to rest for about an hour until the evening. We then went out and ended up walking through the French Quarter looking around. We decided that we wanted to eat cheap and simple and avoid the fuss so we stopped at Krystals which was a classic looking burger shop that specializes in these little burgers called Krystals. It was really good. After that we went shopping along Bourbon Street looking at the little shops and activities going on and then it was back to the hotel room, but not before donating $5 to Harrah’s Casino. Sunday, Day 3: Brandi and I got up early and bought a couple all day passes for the cable cars. What’s cool is these $5 passes are good for any and all public transportation the city offers. We hopped on a cable car at Canal Street and took it down to the St. Louis Cemetery #2 which is on Basin St. We wanted to see what a real New Orleans cemetery looked like. It was really cool to check out all the old tombs and see how cemetery’s work in areas where you can’t bury people underground. It was stormy and there was thunder and lightning while we were there. It also rained which made it all seem much creepier. Next we ate breakfast/lunch at a place called Huey’s Diner. After we ate we went to meet Martin and Kelly at the hotel. We all went to the Riverwalk Mall and shopped and hung out. We got some giant rubber crawfish for the kids, a crazy rainbow ball for Kennady, this cool crawfish magnet for Kristen and Joe, and some amazing fudge from the Fudgery for my mom. After Martin and Kelly went back to her parents house, Brandi and I set off down St. Charles Ave. in Cable Car #901. St. Charles Ave. goes from Canal Street, on the edge of the French district, all the way through the Garden District. I wish we had known earlier how easy traveling in the cable cars would be and how far out you could go in them so we could have done this sooner. We took the car all the way to the end of the line and then another car back and it was a nice ride with lots of homes, trees, and businesses to see. After we got back we went walking to find a place to eat. We walked all over the French district window shopping and looking at all the art and antique shops while we scouted out a place to dine. We decided to eat at The House of Blues and ended up spending awhile trying to remember where it was. This was good however because we got to see this we hadn’t seen before because we got all mixed up walking around. Finally we found the House of Blues and went in to eat. Good thing too because it was starting to get stormy. They sat us at a table that turned out to be the only table in the house that was reserved for someone. It was the private table of Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. He was beautifully painted on the table top and there was a plaque that says the table is his. The food was great. I had a Blues burger with sautéed mushrooms and swiss, and a cup of Gumbo. When we left it poured rain all the way back to the hotel. We did have a small umbrella which Brandi used to keep her and the camera bag dry. I had fun just getting soaked by the flash flood. That ended our last day in New Orleans and so Monday we headed back home. It was a great drive spending time with Martin and Kelly. Here are some pics from the trip:
Posted by AJY at June 10, 2005 10:23 PM | TrackBack Filed Under: Me, Myself, and Life , On The Road |
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