Stepping into the Past

For anyone who says America doesn’t have history the way Europe does, I recommend they come to New Orleans. I have been to a few cities on the East, but none of them felt like they had preserved their history as well as New Orleans, especially the French Quarter. I can’t imagine how amazing this city was before Katrina hit, because I was already impressed as is.

We started our last full day in “Nawlins” at Café Du Monde – famous for their Biegnets (fried dough covered in powdered sugar) and coffee. It was packed! I can’t imagine the line/wait on a Saturday when everyone comes out for brunch. The beignets were delicious, but very very messy! I’m glad KT warned me not to wear black, otherwise I would have looked even worse.

Once we cleaned ourselves off a bit, we did a walking tour that was in my Lonely Planet: USA & Canada on a Shoestring book. We walked around the French Quarter learning about the history and trying to survive the humidity. After walking by the old house of William Faulkner, the oldest surviving French Colonial Building, Ursaline Covenant, and more, we headed to the St. Louis Cemetary.

Because the watertable is so high in New Orleans, bodies don’t stay buried for long. Early settlers realized this after a few storms starting making the bodies resurface. So, they started making above ground cemetaries with vaults & masoleums. The only other cemetery I’ve been in like this was in France and architecturally they are very similar. A huge difference to me though was the skyline in the back. In Europe, it was like stepping into the past, but here it was nice to see the juxtaposition of the old and new.

After the cemetery it was too hot to keep sightseeing, so we just went back to Kenny’s place and played Mario Kart until the gang was ready to hit Bourbon Street for our last hurrah. Of course, just as we step outside a huge thunder/lightning storm starts. We waited it out and luckily it was all over after about 30 minutes. I’m so not used to rain like that! It came out of nowhere and just started pouring!

Bourbon St. was crazy and so much fun. It’s just bars and clubs for blocks down this one street. It was pretty busy, but definitely wasn’t packed since it’s the off season and it had just rained. I can only imagine how insane it gets during Mardi Gras and Spring Break.

After we got some drinks, including a Hand Grenade, we headed over to Frenchmen, which is a less touristy version of Bourbon. This street was even busier! I guess since there aren’t many tourists out now, it would make sense that the local bar area would be more lively. We wandered around there and eventually headed back. Overall, it was a great night and definitely a highlight of the trip.

New Orleans is so far my favorite city we’ve been to, but we have so much left it’ll be hard to stay at the top. The French Quarter was beautiful and quaint. While it’s a tourist attraction, it never felt like it was maintained for that purpose. I think I would have loved NOLA even more if it weren’t for that darn humidity! We usually could only hand a few hours of sightseeing before we had to head back to take a cold shower and bask in some air conditioning.

Today consisted of a 9 hour drive from NOLA to Bowling Green, Kentucky. We passed through Mississppi (where I was born!), Alabama, and Tennessee. That's 5 states in one day! We’re visiting KT’s brother for a couple days before we head over to Elvis Week in Memphis, TN. Apparently, there are usually around 100,000 people there for the event! It’s going to be madness, but I’m really looking forward to it.

Visiting Old Memories

Today was one of the few days on this trip where I will be reminiscing about the old days.  Today I took Kristal back to my old neighborhood where I showed her my old house and then we walked over to my high school.  It was great to see how the school had changed but for the most part to see how the school had stayed the same. A lot of the faculty had much turnover after Katrina, but it was great to see the librian that I knew, good ole Mr. Prescott, and share a few minutes with him to catch up on old times.  I showed Kristal all around the school, including the state trophies that I had a hand in winning in Tennis my Sophomore-Senior years. 

After that, we tried to head over to a great po-boy place called Domilise's, but it just so happens that it is closed this week while the owners are on vacation. Lame! So we ended up going to Popeyes because I wanted to make sure that Kristal could see how big a difference there was between New Orleans Popeyes and Los Angeles Popeyes.  We got some good old fried chicken, and oh my god the biscuits were even better then I remember. I think we might go back and grab some for the next part of the journey.  

After that, we went over to the Convention Center to go see Mardi Gras World. This is a warehouse where they build all of the floats that are going to be in the Parades comeMardi Gras. We got tons of pictures of all kinds of floats and decorations. From King Kong to Drew Brees to Pikachu. You name it: this place probably makes it or something close to it.  Its really an awesome place and a must see for anyone who comes to New Orleans and can't make it for Mardi Gras season.

We came back and chilled at Kenny's place for awhile, enjoying the awesome AC.  We got dinner at a popular local place, where I got a shrimp po-boy and Kristal got a BBQ beef po-boy.  It took her almost 5 minutes before she was able to bite into the actual sandwich, as she had to eat all of the stuff that fell out of it and find a way to wrap the sandwich up so that it didn't slip out of her hands. After that, we went to a local bar for trivia, where the categories included 80's TV, Revenge of the Nerds, Candy, and Horror Movies. We didn't fare too well but it was fun overall. After some Mario Kart, we finished up the night.

I'm pretty excited for tomorrow. I'm taking Kristal down to the French Quarter where we will grab lunch and the famous beignets at Cafe Du Monde.  After that, we plan on hitting up Bourbon street with Kenny and Katie as our last hoorah to the city of New Orleans. Thanks for reading.

We're in the NOLA, Baby!

Today was another long driving day. We left Austin bright and early at 8am and then headed to New Orleans as fast as possible to ensure we got a taste of the nightlife tonight. The drive was uneventful, full of green pastures, waterways, and even some marshes. We finally succumbed to fast food and got Chick-Fil-A for lunch, partly because it's delicious, but mainly because we didn't want to waste any time at a sitdown place and searching around on Yelp.

After just under 9 hours, we drove to the outskirts of New Orleans and found KT's friend's place. While Kenny was still at work, we decided to kill an hour at the nearby Race Track. The first thing I noticed once we left the car was the wall of humidity that hit. This is going to be a constant annoyance, but I'm sure it'll be worth trekking out anyway to see all the sites.

KT lost $4 while I wandered around the floor. It was a new experience to be in such a large crowd and have KT be one of only 4 white people; I didn't realize how large the black population was around New Orleans until now.

Soon after losing his money, KT got a call from Kenny saying he was back and we were ready to set up shop for the next 3 nights at his place. We headed out to dinner with Kenny, his girlfriend Katie, and a couple more of KT's friend's from high school. We ate at a local favorite restaurant with $3 beer served in goblets and lots of New Orleans/Italian food. I don't know if I'm going to enjoy most of New Orleans food since it all includes sausage, shrimp, or crawfish. But, I'll try some Gumbo and Po'Boys and see what works!

After dinner we went to a bar walking distance from their house. You had to buzz to get in to this place because of a drunk stabbing a year or so back. Also, this bar was founded by the son of the director of the movie "Ray." It had a great atmosphere and a popular mens' restroom thanks to all the vintage playboys lining the wall. 

Tomorrow we're going to visit Tulane, see the Mardi Gras floats at Mardi Gras World, and see KT's high school and old house. Check for an update tomorrow!