N'awlins!
We went to New Orleans this weekend. Surprise, internet! Zach asked that I not post about it until we got back because he's paranoid about random people on the internet knowing that we're out of town. ANYWAY.
One of Zach's coworkers and his boss wanted to go down to see Ron Paul speak, but mostly it was an excuse to go to NOLA so whatever. I've been a few times, but always with my family, so I've never really been "cut loose" down there. We had a blast!
We left at 5am on Friday, on about 2 hours of sleep lol. After our 5 and a half hour drive, we got to our hotel, The Ambassador, but check-in wasn't until 4pm so we went for lunch at the Bon Ton Cafe. Zach had his first taste of crawfish etouffee, and I wussied out and had fried catfish, but it was pretty damn good fried catfish.
Also, a disclaimer. We are southern. We eat shit like this EVERY DAY. Louisiana cuisine may be super impressive and omg amazing to northerners who don't know about the miracle that is fried EVERYTHING and SEASONING, but we do. I'm used to it lol
The first thing that struck me was the intense heat. It was supposed to be around 101°F in Mississippi this weekend, but the ridiculous humidity down there from all the swampland and the river was crippling. After we left the Bon Ton Cafe (which is a reasonably fancy restaurant. We were all in jeans, t-shirts, and flip-flops, sweating everywhere lol) we had a few hours until our check-in time at 4. Still, we were far enough away from all the good shopping and stuff that we didn't really want to walk so much, but the hotel WOULD NOT let us check in a little early so we walked around in the heat and I had a migraine and it was pretty awful. We finally got into the room and collapsed on the bed and slept until like 9:30pm.
When we got up, we decided to go check out some grub, but we were both gross from walking around earlier, so we really didn't get to leave again until about 10:30. We asked in the lobby if there was anywhere still serving that late, and she pointed us to a couple of restaurants that really didn't sound that good, so we decided to take a walk until we were able to find something. We...never found anything on the street in our hotel's neck of the woods, so at around maybe 1am we walked into Harrah's and found a Fuddrucker's in the far corner that was still serving. I hate vacationing because you think you need to get as much of the local cuisine as possible, and local cuisine is usually expensive :\ Fuddrucker's was like $30 for two burgers and some fries, though, so I guess everything in NOLA is just expensive :x
I've been to New Orleans with my family several times, but Zach had never been, so mostly I wanted to let him go wherever he wanted and see everything HE wanted to see. On Saturday, we got up and trekked up the 8 or so blocks to the French market. Actually, we walked over a couple of blocks to catch a street car (if you call them trolleys, they tell you to go to San Francisco :c ) and paid $1.25 each to ride up like, MAYBE 3 blocks, where our street car operator informed us that due to railway (FAILway, amirite?) maintenance, this was the end of the line and we'd have to pay to catch a bus if we wanted a ride to Jackson Square. HARUMPH.
I don't think Zach was impressed. He didn't really want to go in anywhere, so we just kind of walked up and down the street x_x He was looking for a music store, but the only one we found didn't open until noon and it was only like 11:30, and we were totally worn out by that time. We walked down to find somewhere to duck in and get a bite, but nothing really appealed to us. We ended up probably nearly dying of dehydration and heat stroke, so we finally just walked into the first place that looked sufficiently air conditioned. I had a soft shell crab po' boy, which was awesome, because there's just something about eating a WHOLE CRAB battered and FRIED on a SANDWICH. Omnomnom.
When we finished our food, we walked back up to the music store and it was the shittiest music store I've ever been in. There were like four guitars on the wall and a drum kit in the corner, and that was it. The douchebag behind the counter didn't even bother to say hello to us, so we left in a huff. Wasted time and walking to go into that place, so we were pretty mad. We walked back to our hotel and collapsed again.
We had dinner reservations at Delmonico, one of Emeril's restaurants in NOLA . I've...never been in such a fancy restaurant x_x I am deeply saddened that I didn't get any pictures of the food, because it was beautiful. I thought it would be in poor taste to whip out my camera, though, so there you go. We had a ton of food, including a giant cheese, sausage, and fruit plate, rabbit crepes, risotto, barbecued shrimp, Moroccan spiced lamb, and the best steak I've ever put in my mouth. Our waiter was really cool and totally not stuffy. He joked with us and we had a really great time there. We spent like $150 on our meal, and that's not including the food that Zach's boss was cool enough to pay for. Our total bill for the table (5 of us) was $600 or so. Yeesh.
After dinner, we walked to Zach's boss' hotel room to relax for a bit before going back out. He was on the 17th floor of a really nice Westin almost right on the riverfront. It was really neat to be able to see pretty much the whole city from the hotel. We were going to walk up to the roof to check out the full view, but it closed at 10. Sadface. Still, the view from his room was AMAZING and we spent some time picking out all the sights we had seen so far from that high up.
We left his hotel and walked along the river, heading to Bourbon St. to check out the debauchery. We sat for a while on a really neat little dock where the water was splashing up to our feet. Huge barges and tiny tugboats were going up and down the river, and we were pretty much mesmerized for a while.
We got to the corner of (what I like to think of as the official) French quarter, at Cafe du Monde, and there was an old guy who had 2 huge telescopes set up. He was asking for $2 to take a look, so Zach and his boss took a peek at Saturn and the moon. Then we started heading for Bourbon. We saw this guy (not my picture) and Zach asked him to play Stairway to Heaven, which he NAILED. He was so great. He was very theatrical and sang to us, and then told us a story about Jimmy Page and Robert Plant leaving him a $100 bill in his tip cup one time. "The sonofabitch requested his own song!" Loved it. He was awesome.
Bourbon Street was pure chaos. Kyle (Zach's boss. Tired of calling him that) bought us a couple of hand grenades (uh, that's a drink lol) and we moved down the street pretty slowly. At the middle intersection, there was some kind of hold up, as the mounted police on their GIANT HORSES pretty much tromped through the crowd. It would have sucked to get stomped on. Luckily, we avoided that. Kyle was pretty drunk and insisted that he overheard someone saying that some guy hopped up and punched one of the mounted cops in the face. Hum.
We went into one of the sex shops on the street, which was hilarious, and eventually wound up at the Krystal's at the end. We walked back toward the hotel and Kyle and his girlfriend decided they wanted to take a walk through Harrah's, because oh my god, have I mentioned how hot it was down there? D:
So we walked through Harrah's, then split up to go our separate ways back to our hotels. It was around 2am, and we found a place that would deliver food that late and that was pretty cheap considering, so we ordered a pizza, some chili fries, and some wings. We caught the guy outside our hotel and he handed us our food. I should have been suspicious when he started trying to sell us an "extra" pizza he had for $5, and I forgot that Zach ordered 2 things for himself, so I didn't think to remind him to give us the pizza. Anyway, he rode off into the night and we had to call the restaurant to ask them to send him back with the pizza we ordered and PAID FOR. Zach sat outside until about 4am waiting on the guy and he never came back, so we pretty much got totally ripped off there.
On Sunday, poor Zach woke up throwing up more violently than I've ever heard anyone puke in my life. Like, so bad it woke me up. It sucks because he never got drunk, not even tipsy, and it was most certainly the combination of the hand grenade, the white Russian he had at the hotel bar downstairs, and the chili cheese fries and wings. I felt so bad for him. His voice is really hoarse today and his throat has been killing him :c After throwing up, he felt so much better, though, so that's good. We packed up and headed home at about noon yesterday, and that was the trip!
Of course, something had to go really wrong, and after a long, hot trip, we came home to a 95 degree house and the air conditioner refused to blow cool air. We sat in the sweltering heat for a little while before calling our buddy Brian (who went to NOLA with us) to mooch off of his conditioned air and watch some TV. We left the air turned off the entire time, assuming that it may have frozen up and needed some time to reset. Nope. It was still hot when we got back, so I fiddled with it for a while and got it to blow cold air for a while. I don't know how long, though, because we went to bed and when I woke up, it was out again. :c I really really really hope they get it fixed before I get home today cause this heat is truly oppressive.
Anyway, that was New Orleans! If any of my pictures turn out to look good, I'll post them but uh. pretty sure all my pictures are really shitty lmao :P
One of Zach's coworkers and his boss wanted to go down to see Ron Paul speak, but mostly it was an excuse to go to NOLA so whatever. I've been a few times, but always with my family, so I've never really been "cut loose" down there. We had a blast!
We left at 5am on Friday, on about 2 hours of sleep lol. After our 5 and a half hour drive, we got to our hotel, The Ambassador, but check-in wasn't until 4pm so we went for lunch at the Bon Ton Cafe. Zach had his first taste of crawfish etouffee, and I wussied out and had fried catfish, but it was pretty damn good fried catfish.
Also, a disclaimer. We are southern. We eat shit like this EVERY DAY. Louisiana cuisine may be super impressive and omg amazing to northerners who don't know about the miracle that is fried EVERYTHING and SEASONING, but we do. I'm used to it lol
The first thing that struck me was the intense heat. It was supposed to be around 101°F in Mississippi this weekend, but the ridiculous humidity down there from all the swampland and the river was crippling. After we left the Bon Ton Cafe (which is a reasonably fancy restaurant. We were all in jeans, t-shirts, and flip-flops, sweating everywhere lol) we had a few hours until our check-in time at 4. Still, we were far enough away from all the good shopping and stuff that we didn't really want to walk so much, but the hotel WOULD NOT let us check in a little early so we walked around in the heat and I had a migraine and it was pretty awful. We finally got into the room and collapsed on the bed and slept until like 9:30pm.
When we got up, we decided to go check out some grub, but we were both gross from walking around earlier, so we really didn't get to leave again until about 10:30. We asked in the lobby if there was anywhere still serving that late, and she pointed us to a couple of restaurants that really didn't sound that good, so we decided to take a walk until we were able to find something. We...never found anything on the street in our hotel's neck of the woods, so at around maybe 1am we walked into Harrah's and found a Fuddrucker's in the far corner that was still serving. I hate vacationing because you think you need to get as much of the local cuisine as possible, and local cuisine is usually expensive :\ Fuddrucker's was like $30 for two burgers and some fries, though, so I guess everything in NOLA is just expensive :x
I've been to New Orleans with my family several times, but Zach had never been, so mostly I wanted to let him go wherever he wanted and see everything HE wanted to see. On Saturday, we got up and trekked up the 8 or so blocks to the French market. Actually, we walked over a couple of blocks to catch a street car (if you call them trolleys, they tell you to go to San Francisco :c ) and paid $1.25 each to ride up like, MAYBE 3 blocks, where our street car operator informed us that due to railway (FAILway, amirite?) maintenance, this was the end of the line and we'd have to pay to catch a bus if we wanted a ride to Jackson Square. HARUMPH.
I don't think Zach was impressed. He didn't really want to go in anywhere, so we just kind of walked up and down the street x_x He was looking for a music store, but the only one we found didn't open until noon and it was only like 11:30, and we were totally worn out by that time. We walked down to find somewhere to duck in and get a bite, but nothing really appealed to us. We ended up probably nearly dying of dehydration and heat stroke, so we finally just walked into the first place that looked sufficiently air conditioned. I had a soft shell crab po' boy, which was awesome, because there's just something about eating a WHOLE CRAB battered and FRIED on a SANDWICH. Omnomnom.
When we finished our food, we walked back up to the music store and it was the shittiest music store I've ever been in. There were like four guitars on the wall and a drum kit in the corner, and that was it. The douchebag behind the counter didn't even bother to say hello to us, so we left in a huff. Wasted time and walking to go into that place, so we were pretty mad. We walked back to our hotel and collapsed again.
We had dinner reservations at Delmonico, one of Emeril's restaurants in NOLA . I've...never been in such a fancy restaurant x_x I am deeply saddened that I didn't get any pictures of the food, because it was beautiful. I thought it would be in poor taste to whip out my camera, though, so there you go. We had a ton of food, including a giant cheese, sausage, and fruit plate, rabbit crepes, risotto, barbecued shrimp, Moroccan spiced lamb, and the best steak I've ever put in my mouth. Our waiter was really cool and totally not stuffy. He joked with us and we had a really great time there. We spent like $150 on our meal, and that's not including the food that Zach's boss was cool enough to pay for. Our total bill for the table (5 of us) was $600 or so. Yeesh.
After dinner, we walked to Zach's boss' hotel room to relax for a bit before going back out. He was on the 17th floor of a really nice Westin almost right on the riverfront. It was really neat to be able to see pretty much the whole city from the hotel. We were going to walk up to the roof to check out the full view, but it closed at 10. Sadface. Still, the view from his room was AMAZING and we spent some time picking out all the sights we had seen so far from that high up.
We left his hotel and walked along the river, heading to Bourbon St. to check out the debauchery. We sat for a while on a really neat little dock where the water was splashing up to our feet. Huge barges and tiny tugboats were going up and down the river, and we were pretty much mesmerized for a while.
We got to the corner of (what I like to think of as the official) French quarter, at Cafe du Monde, and there was an old guy who had 2 huge telescopes set up. He was asking for $2 to take a look, so Zach and his boss took a peek at Saturn and the moon. Then we started heading for Bourbon. We saw this guy (not my picture) and Zach asked him to play Stairway to Heaven, which he NAILED. He was so great. He was very theatrical and sang to us, and then told us a story about Jimmy Page and Robert Plant leaving him a $100 bill in his tip cup one time. "The sonofabitch requested his own song!" Loved it. He was awesome.
Bourbon Street was pure chaos. Kyle (Zach's boss. Tired of calling him that) bought us a couple of hand grenades (uh, that's a drink lol) and we moved down the street pretty slowly. At the middle intersection, there was some kind of hold up, as the mounted police on their GIANT HORSES pretty much tromped through the crowd. It would have sucked to get stomped on. Luckily, we avoided that. Kyle was pretty drunk and insisted that he overheard someone saying that some guy hopped up and punched one of the mounted cops in the face. Hum.
We went into one of the sex shops on the street, which was hilarious, and eventually wound up at the Krystal's at the end. We walked back toward the hotel and Kyle and his girlfriend decided they wanted to take a walk through Harrah's, because oh my god, have I mentioned how hot it was down there? D:
So we walked through Harrah's, then split up to go our separate ways back to our hotels. It was around 2am, and we found a place that would deliver food that late and that was pretty cheap considering, so we ordered a pizza, some chili fries, and some wings. We caught the guy outside our hotel and he handed us our food. I should have been suspicious when he started trying to sell us an "extra" pizza he had for $5, and I forgot that Zach ordered 2 things for himself, so I didn't think to remind him to give us the pizza. Anyway, he rode off into the night and we had to call the restaurant to ask them to send him back with the pizza we ordered and PAID FOR. Zach sat outside until about 4am waiting on the guy and he never came back, so we pretty much got totally ripped off there.
On Sunday, poor Zach woke up throwing up more violently than I've ever heard anyone puke in my life. Like, so bad it woke me up. It sucks because he never got drunk, not even tipsy, and it was most certainly the combination of the hand grenade, the white Russian he had at the hotel bar downstairs, and the chili cheese fries and wings. I felt so bad for him. His voice is really hoarse today and his throat has been killing him :c After throwing up, he felt so much better, though, so that's good. We packed up and headed home at about noon yesterday, and that was the trip!
Of course, something had to go really wrong, and after a long, hot trip, we came home to a 95 degree house and the air conditioner refused to blow cool air. We sat in the sweltering heat for a little while before calling our buddy Brian (who went to NOLA with us) to mooch off of his conditioned air and watch some TV. We left the air turned off the entire time, assuming that it may have frozen up and needed some time to reset. Nope. It was still hot when we got back, so I fiddled with it for a while and got it to blow cold air for a while. I don't know how long, though, because we went to bed and when I woke up, it was out again. :c I really really really hope they get it fixed before I get home today cause this heat is truly oppressive.
Anyway, that was New Orleans! If any of my pictures turn out to look good, I'll post them but uh. pretty sure all my pictures are really shitty lmao :P