NOLA

We rolled into the Big Easy at two o'clock in the morning. There was a state teachers' convention in Mobile--no rooms. No rooms in Mississippi either. So. Why not drive all the way to New Orleans? Tim is a machine when he's behind the wheel. I took a ten minute cat nap, but otherwise stayed up with him. Two o'clock in the morning is a difficult time to get a room. When you try to do it online, the day you actually want is no longer available. Calling hotels.com and the like had similar results. We had to talk to front desks, and even the person working couldn't make reservations over the phone--we had to walk in. My sister's recommendation was booked. The Omni Royal Orleans was not. I must say, we lucked out. We crashed when we got in, and slept in a bit longer. Around ten, we decided to get moving. We moseyed by Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral (see pics on right) then decided on breakfast. Brennan's? No. Only one place--Cafe Du Monde for beignets--oh yeah.

Okay, I like this picture, but wouldn't you think that if someone asks you to take a picture at Cafe Du Monde that you might try to include the beignets? Oh well.

From here we wandered around the French Quarter (again, see pics on right). I stopped for a croissant (because I had not had enough refined white flour with the beignets). We jumped on the trolley to tour the Garden District where the mansions are lined up one after another, no more than 40 feet apart. The houses on this stretch look like the ones on Lindell on the north side of Forest Park, but the lots are much smaller, making for a denser concentration of mansions, not to mention a longer stretch of them. We didn't hop off the trolley, so there are no pictures of these. From there, we ate a late lunch at Deanie's!! Tim had a crawfish po' boy, me the crab duo--crab au gratin and crab balls (no wise cracks, please)--both were very tasty. We roamed the riverfront and meandered back to the hotel to cool off and freshen up for dinner.

We headed out around 8 o'clock for dinner so we didn't take a camera. We went to Red Fish Grill--it was excellent. I wish we had brought the camera, but we knew we were headed out to listen to some jazz after dinner. Tim and I ordered the alligator sausage and seafood gumbo, the BBQ oysters, and the hickory grilled red fish topped with jumbo lump crab meat with tasso ham, peas,  mushrooms, and carmelized onions. I would go back and order the same thing. The dessert was sinful--double chocolate bread pudding--dark chocolate bread pudding topped with white and dark chocolate ganache and chocolate almond bark. It just might be the best dessert I've ever eaten. We had to order it when we ordered our entree so it would be ready--it was warm, served ala mode. Heaven.

From there we headed down Bourbon Street in search of genuine New Orleans jazz. There is lots of debauchery on Bourbon Street--lots of completely undesirable trash. I was really in hope of finding a sedate crowd and some authentic music. We found it at Fritzel's, the oldest jazz club in New Orleans. A banjo, stand-up bass, coronet, and drum kit = some good old-fashioned, New Orleans jazz. We left around midnight only because I was fading fast. Tomorrow, we will catch a few more sights and head towards home via Memphis.