Who Dat in Nawlins?

Two weekends ago, after 8" of snow the weekend before, Marlys and I took a trip to New Orleans. Someplace I had never been, and up to that point had no real need to see. I take that back one of the guys I use to work with (Scott C.) used to go there for the jazz festival and I had though that that may be a good reason to go, but I never really worked on it as a place to put on the list.

Anyway we had some points that needed to be used up on our timeshare ownership (Worldmark) or we would lose them, so after Marlys' exhaustive search for a three day trip, Nawlins seemed to be the place.

I though...what the heck I could then say I had been there.

We flew Southwest and didn't check in until we got to the airport so we were way back in line to board and couldn't sit together. This worked out becuase Marlys sat with a vacationing SW pilot and his wife from who she scored us a ride to our hotel/condo, which believe it or not we found out they were also staying at when we gave them the address in the rental car.

New Orleans is a great place to visit, beyond the French Quarter and the entertainment, the places to eat, music and historical/haunted walking tours it made for a outstanding weekend.

We chose mid-October to avoid the heat, humidity and touristas. We succeed on two of the objectives as the weather was perfect. Being a tourista we were everywhere.



Central Grocers

 We arrived Saturday afternoon and since we had not eaten all day we headed to one of the stops Marlys had on her list of places to eat; Central Grocery, which is located in the French Quarter.



This place was actually a old Italian grocery store. Except it sold sandwichs and beer.

Just about everyplace in New Orleans sells booze and you don't even need to go inside to get it, as they have window bars that are open to the street.

We got there just in time to get the last muffileta of the day, which is their noted sandwich. We also got a local (kinda) beer called an Abita Amber.

Marlys and the muffeleta

Both were excellent as Marlys' expression can atest.

We stayed in the Garden District, which we were to learn the next day, was started by the folks from the northeast that moved in after the Lousiana Purchase and were a little taken a back by the rather risque lifestyles of the resident French and Creole of the French Quarter.





Street Car

The way to get around from our place was the St Charles Streetcar line, which runs down the middle of the street on the boulevard. Easy to get on and off as long as you have the exact change for the fare. This was my first time on a streetcar (cable cars are different). The windows are open, the breeze comes through, they are fairly noisy as they rattle along, but damn it was neat. We road them a number of time over the weekend, but we could pretty much walk whereever we wanted to go, other then the taxi home on Saturday night after we did the Burbon Street Stagger.

After the repast af the Grocery we headed into the French Quarter. Marlys wanted to hit a place called Pat O'Brian's which she had been to 30 years ago. Pat O'Brian's is noted for there Mint Julip's and Hurricane's. We each got one and sat in the piano bar for about an hour and were underwhelmed by the pianist. This was about the only bad music we heard all weekend.

About 6pm we walked out onto the street and folks were waiting for the start of a Haunted History walking tour of the French Quarter. We needed a walk by this point, paid our money and joined the crowd.



If you haven't done a walking tour, do. Between this one and one we went on Sunday morning in the Graden District we learned a lot about the area, the people and the culture.

The Haunted History tour ended about 8pm at a place called Laffite's Blacksmith Shop, which it originally was, but is now a...bar. From here the Bourbon Street Stagger commenced.

Unknown Band

As we made out way down the street between the stops at the before mentioned windows, trying to catch the thrown bead necklaces from the second floor balconies, we would stop in to hear the music, which was great.

I can't remember the name of the pictured band or the place we were in, but they were really good. Lots of 70-80's rock and it was loud enough that Marlys had ringing ears for the reat of the night. After our ears were numb we headed out.

Another Unknown Band

Literally, I think it was the next block we stumbled (not figuratively) into a blues bar, where again the band was so good we stayed and seemed to tip them for a long time.

About this time I was feeling like we should start to mosey toward the abode and ran into a real find, a Krystals, which for those of you who are White Castle gourmand's know is the southern relative. After a box of four we took our only taxi of the weekend (Other then the trip back to the airport).

The next morning, we went for a walk around the Garden District as part of a walking tour that had two participants Marlys and moi. Nancy the tourguide was great and had all of the scuttlebutt on most of the residents.

When we were done, it was back to the east and the warehouse district (between the central and garden districts) to hit another place on the must eat list named Mother's, which is noted for its poboys. We had ones called "debris" because it is made of the roast beef that drops into the gravy while roasting. Needless to say they were really messy. The mayonase/mustard really made these interesting.

After eating it was off to the New Orleans Blues and BBQ Festival going on in the Business District in I believe Washington Park. This being New Orleans the blues bands were slightly better then those at the Belevedere Blues and BBQ festival in Canon City. The weather was beautiful and beer was cold.

Sunday evening we went a little upscale to the Delmonico. The service and food were incredible.

Du Mont's

Monday the first stop was Du Monts for bengates (french donut) and coffee ulatees (coffee with cream).

Walking out with powdered sugar everywhere, we walked the riverfront and end up at Harrah's, but we didn't drop a quarter.

Its no wonder that the Superbowl seems to be here every other year.

We walked up Canal Street which reminded me of a 60's big city down town with buildings and street cars going up and down the center of the street.

For lunch we hit another place on the eatry list called the ACME Oyster House. I had another recommended debris style poboy and gumbo, both were excellent, but the bread pudding was ...I can't describe how good.


Monday night we went to dinner at a place we found during the Garden District walking tour call Commanders. Again an incredible place, very old school.

Tuesday if was back to Colorado and as I write this we are forecast to get a little over a foot of snow tonight through tomorrow.