The Big Easy

We rose a little later than we would normally due to the festivities of the night before,  some of us a little slower than others.  After a breakfast of waffles we hit the streets of New Orleans.  The major attractions of the Big Easy are centred around the French Quarter, so that's where we headed.

We headed down Royal Street, all the shops along here were either antique shops full of chandeliers or jewellery shops so Vickie really enjoyed the window shopping.  The next stop was to head to the river, here we saw some people laying down some lino and doing stretches, which I assume was in preparation to do some break dancing.  I was pretty keen to stay and watch, but Vickie had other ideas, she had spotted people gathering for a wedding so that's what we went and watched.

We thought we were just going to see the wedding party arrive before going into the church but it turned out they were actually having the ceremony in the park.  I couldn't think of anything worse, not only was it about 30 degrees there was also about 100 strangers watching, not to mention a marching band going past.  They seemed to be enjoying it though so I guess that's the main thing.  After Vickie had her fill, we thought it was time to have a coffee.

New Orleans is known for it's chicory coffee and the number one spot for it is Cafe du Monde, so we got in line.  After 5 minutes and the line not moving we gave up and continued down the street, based on all my previous USA coffees I'm confident we didn't miss anything.  We were getting hungry though so the quest for lunch began.

On the way to find a suitable establishment we came across a shop selling hot sauce,  there was loads of different types and you could try them all before you purchased.   Near the entrance there was one claiming to be the hottest sauce in the world and you had to be at least 18 years old, being the inquisitive person I am I gave it a go, and my god it was hot.  I would have literally only had one drop and within seconds my entire mouth was on fire, it was okay because in a couple minutes my mouth had gone numb so I couldn't feel the pain any more. I bought a couple less painful sauces with amusing names and once I had regained some feeling in my mouth we found a place to eat.

The local must eat is something called a Po Boy, which is just a jazzed up sandwich really but it would have been rude not to have one so I went for a fried shrimp version.  It was good, but I have had better sandwiches.  The place we ate at was near the French Market so we had a look around in here, before heading back to the hotel via Bourbon Street.

I expected it to be fairly quiet during the day, but I was wrong.  All the clubs and bars were as full as the night before, and in the full light of day it was not pretty.   We had a quick drink at what the guidebook said was a must do, Lafitte's Blacksmith bar.

The plan for the evening was to find a restaurant playing some jazz, our friend Goggle told me that there was a place nearby that okay food and also had some jazz playing so that's where we went.  It turned out the food wasn't that great and although there was some jazz they didn't play for very long.  Unsatisfied with the Jazz we went looking for a lounge bar that might have some. The problem was that the local university was playing football and it turns out that college football is a pretty big deal, so even where jazz was advertised it wasn't playing.

After a martini and some college football action it was back to the hotel and bed in preparation for our drive up the Mississippi tomorrow.

Beer of the Day:
Crescent City Brewing Wiess Beer - Pint Draft - Really light in all areas, underwhelming example of hefeweizen and a bit musty on the finish.