Advertisement
Published: March 7th 2009
Enjoying the ducks and full moon
Sitting on a bench in New Orleans enjoying the scenery(Warning: we have a lot to write about, we had that good of a time)
Following the fun times we had in Baton Rouge, Kati and I were excited to head down south to see the big easy, New Orleans! The drive was short from BR, only about an hour or so. We rolled into Nawlins around 7 and went straight to the French Quarter for dinner. It was like nothing we had ever seen. The feeling and sites are hard to describe, but when you came into the area, you heard jazz bands playing down the street, the smell of beignet’s filled the air, and street performers were entertaining down every small narrow street. We were ready to dive right into the local’s favorite dishes. We sat down at a café along the street and ordered red beans and rice for me, and jambalaya for Kati. We also saw that a liter of the house wine was only $5 so we decided to order that along with our meal. Now we have never tried these dishes were really unsure of what to expect. Our wine came and it was huge, but sadly we now understood why it
Our First Oysters
With world famous oyster shucker "Uptown T" was so cheap…. there was no alcohol in it. Our dishes came and Kati loved her jambalaya, but my red beans and rice just was not that delicious. Oh well… We walked around, found the world famous Café Du Monde, and sat down to eat some delicious beignet’s (a powder sugared fried doughnut). We had these everyday at some point, and I’m sure they are really healthy. We left and went to meet our New Orleans couchsurfing host Mike. Maybe one of the coolest people we have met. Mike had a room for us with our own bathroom, a key, and a sensor to let us into the garage to park. Mike is 30 and works for a demolition company that moves him around the country. He had to wake up the next morning at 6am, so he didn’t come out with us our first night, but it was the only night he didn’t. Kati and I were tired as well, so Kati agreed that she would go to the huge Harrah’s casino in the middle of downtown with me for an hour or two and not get too crazy our first night. We went to the casino and played
craps where Kati was getting the stare down from a drunk old rich southerner who was cat calling her, and then only 20 minutes later was telling the pit boss and his boss to go “f themselves.” He was promptly thrown out, even though he was tossing hundreds around like Pacman Jones inside the strip club (that is a terrible metaphor, sorry). We had a great time there and decided to get a good night’s rest…we were going to need it.
The next day (Wednesday, March 4th) Kati and I returned back to the French Quarter for lunch. We have been using a road trip advisor called “Lonely Planet” that was recommended by our friend Dana and it has been really helpful in our planning. It recommended another locals favorite diner “Johnny’s Po Boys”. Basically it’s just a massive sandwich with something fried as the meat and topped with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Kati ordered the fried shrimp and I got ballsy and ordered the fried “gatuh” aka gator for those of us that can speak English. It just really wasn’t my style. The gator was super chewy and just wasn’t all that appealing. Well worth the try though.
We walked around and saw the sites of the French quarter: the shops, the St. Louis Cathedral, the Mississippi River and the ships that surrounded it. We did this for a couple hours and saw there was a huge WWII museum that is well known. It was great and really interesting as well as educational… so at least we could say that we didn’t just come here to party and drink. We left there and came back to meet up with Mike who recommended that we go to a local place outside of the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter. The restaurant was “Pascal’s Manale” and it had seen it’s fair share of celebrities and athletes, clearly made visible by their picture on the wall. The one I noticed most was the picture of “Stifler’s Mom” from American Pie the movie hanging on the wall. As we walked into the restaurant, we grabbed a drink from the alcohol bar, and walked a few feet over to the oyster bar. There we met the world famous oyster shucker “Uptown T” and had our first oysters ever. We made our own cocktail sauce and were ready to get adventurous with this
The Tuba
The tuba player from "Soul Rebels," maybe the sweetest tuba player of all time and maybe the best band of all time oyster. “Just put it in your mouth and enjoy the flavor” Mike told us. So we all cheered our oysters and let it rip. It wasn’t bad, but not anything to write home about (except I’m writing about it now….. so…anyways). Kati and I had no idea what was in store for us with the main menu. Mike told us that there was no need to look at the menu, he was ordering for us. So, without discussion we ordered the bbq shrimp. 10 minutes later out came our waitress who bibbed Kati and I (really, she put a nice large white bib around us, we didn’t even have to do it ourselves. TALK ABOUT SERVICE!) Our meals came out soon after. Two huge bowls of whole shrimp (head and all) were put in front of us, both bowls having at least 12 huge shrimp. We have never seen shrimp this big and after our first bite, this was easily the best shrimp we had ever had. It was unbelievably delicious. Messy, but delicious… therefore the bibs were necessary. Sadly that experience had to end, but tonight we were headed to Bourbon Street with Mike who had to wake up
at 5AM the next day.
How to describe Bourbon Street? 10 blocks of alcohol, strip clubs, jazz bands, tourists, locals trying to sell their rap cd’s to the tourists, daiquiri stands, and gambling all shoulder to shoulder. It was sensory overload. Which one to do first? Well that was an easy answer and we’ll see if you can figure out. Was it A. Buying a drink B. Buying 2 drinks C. Buying 3 drinks or D. just look around and head back to the apartment (D is always the joke answer.) We went to a bar with a 6 man band playing and ordered ourselves 3 drinks. We rocked out to the band for a while. Here we learned that our host Mike had some mad moves on the dance floor and had me beat. I have to keep it side to side in my box without trying to get to technical with it. The band was great, but there was much more to see. We walked bar to bar ordering 3 for 1 shots of whiskey and beer. It was great. We danced and drank all night. Towards the end of the night, we had to step inside one of the 70 strip clubs to see what it was about. Let me just say my first thought when seeing all of these strip clubs in one place was “I wonder if they get any good looking girls to work in these places?” My question had been quickly answered with the first gander inside the club. They were having a hard time finding good help I guess…. It was a ton of fun and really interesting. We ended our night at a karaoke bar where we sang our rendition of “the humpty dance.” After as many drinks as we had, this was not a good song to pick and needless to say we butchered it. We left around 2AM, went to get some quick beignet’s from Café Du Monde and arrived back at Mike’s. What a tremendous night.
Like my pops says, “you can’t wallow with the pigs at night and soar with the eagles in the morning.” We woke up late the next morning and took our time getting out of bed. Feeling not so fresh and so clean. Kati looked over at me and said “we need to go for a run.” Maybe the worst idea I had heard the whole trip, but she forced me out of bed and went for a run on a beautiful morning around the neighborhood. It did help and we both felt much better after our 20 minute run. I know it doesn’t seem very adventurous, but after my not so healthy or tasty Po’ Boy yesterday, I went to my trusty neighborhood sub shop “Subway” for a delicious and healthy meal. Kati and I left Mike’s and went to City Park to sit by the lake and hang out for a bit before Kati’s eye appointment. (Kati’s eye is doing great and is almost completely healed, just another few days before it’s taken care of) The doctor we saw was possibly the funniest and cutest (kati’s words) old man we have ever seen. Probably not a day younger than 70, he had a thick southern accent and couldn’t complete a sentence unless it had the words “actually” and “ya see” in it. His outfit I know will catch on eventually as he had on his flowered suspenders matched with a flowered tie. I think I saw it at the ARC thrift store down the street. (Sorry now I’m just being mean, but it was hilarious). We told Mike that we would come back and cook dinner for him so we went back to his place, did laundry, and cooked some Wahoo that he had caught earlier in the year on a fishing trip in the gulf coast. We sat and ate and drank for a few hours telling stories and talking about family and friends from back home. Mike told us about a really great band that plays Thursday nights at a small bar where the locals go and is away from all the touristy places. The band was the “Soul Rebels” and the place was “Le Bon Temps Rolue’.” The Soul Rebels were comprised of a tuba player, 3 trumpet players, a saxophonist and a couple of vocalists. They were FAN FREAKING TASTIC. It was quite possibly the most fun concert or live show we have been to. It was so different and so upbeat and energetic. The crowd there was really diverse, and all were there to enjoy themselves and jam out to the music. We had so much fun (I need a book of adjectives because I will run out of words to use.) Mike again came back out with us and again proved himself a worthy dancer. We created a couple handshakes and drank Abita beer. We were there until 3 or so and came back home. Mike wasn’t waking up for work….
Today we cleaned up our room, packed our things, Mike made us a CD, gave us some food and we were on our way. Kati and I have made yet another great friend and know we will be in touch with Mike for some time to come. We cannot say enough good things about the whole couchsurfing idea. It has really been a tremendous experience. Kati and I grabbed some lunch back at the French Quarter, had to put down a few beignets and we are off to Birmingham, Alabama! We hope that you are all well and we think about you all the time (well I can’t lie about that, we think about you when are in the car driving, but all the other times we’re too busy ☺.) We miss you all. See you after Alabama!
M&K
Advertisement
Tot: 0.155s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 13; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0324s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Erika Copeland
non-member comment
Butt cracks and couches
Hey guys!! I'm glad your enjoying your road trip! It sounds like an amazing time and I'm jealous. This blog this is awesome..I gotta set up my own when I move to S. Korea in the Fall! Im glad couchsurfers.com is going good for you. I think I gave you the idea, but you might have got it before..but either way that's awesome! I have really good friends on the East Coast from SAS who would probably be down for you to stay with them especially in Pittsburgh or New York. So keep me posted! Also..love the butt crack shot in your photo up above..it looks very intentional..but maybe not! And go to some great electronic shows..one in Miami is coming up and think of me! Also..if your back in April there is a huge music festival coming up in Boulder! Its a 3 day electronic music fest! Get tixs!