New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans around 1 PM on Memorial Day, May 25th. This means that we missed the moment of thought and silence at 3PM. I notice this around 3:30 on Bourbon Street after ordering my first beer on the way to the cathedral. Yeah, there is so much sin in that sentence I fear my Catholic grandmother reading this. Hey, I stuck to my guns at least about finishing the beer before going into the church at least! The St. Louis cathedral is the oldest in America and what I expected. It was beautiful, wonderfully constructed and a classic Catholic church. I was secretly hoping I might stumble across something to be an architectural rival to the amazing European cathedrals, but alas I was still taken with the classic beauty and peaceful energy it offered. Cristy took a video of a man falling asleep in the pew doing the whole body nodding/falling. Sure, she is going to hell too, but this was funny stuff man! We almost couldn’t contain ourselves. He was wearing beads and probably hadn’t showered in a week. Oh well, that described me too not that long ago! Except not falling asleep drunk in a church I mean.
We had lunch at Café Pontalba that had been recommended by Nano. I also suggest the combo of Gumbo, Jambalaya and red beans & rice. I further recommend Voodoo Juice for a drink! We continued walking around Jackson Square, taking lots of pictures of everything. NoThai is not impressed, he says it feels just like Telaveve. Having never been there (hehe), I’m even taking pictures of the surrounding buildings because I think the balconies are amazing. We make our way to the market just before they are closing and we convince NoThai not to buy his girlfriend a crocodile head as a souvenir (sorry Dana if this is something you would have liked)! We head back to our hotel, the Prince Conti Inn (very nice for the cheap price) to rest a bit before getting ready for the night. We followed my fathers advice and drank our way down Bourbon Street (hey, dad said so)! We stopped in booty shakin’ clubs (where I danced on stage for a free shot), the oldest bar in the country (an excellent candle lit piano bar that makes you think you have stepped back in time). We poked our heads in to listen to some jazz, blues and karaoke. We even went into an uhm, adult bar where an entertainer was rude to us (after declining private entertainment, we were informed she was trying to make some money here)! We walked around the art district to window shop between drinks before NoThai called it. I turned over my room key and Tippy and I headed to gay town where we found a men’s dance club to crash with our estrogen. More of me dancing on stage and then we headed out to demand hand grenade’s from the proprietor that had already closed. They obliged and we were again on our merry way. It was about 3:30 when we made some friends that directed us to where we could find lady bars (but they were closed), and reggae bars (which were a bit of a trek). We decide maybe we’ll stay another night and do that tomorrow but for tonight, a bathroom and some greasy eggs are the only things left to be accomplished. We happily find Cody (the guy I was stage dancing with) at the diner and we promise to e-mail him pictures.
We load up the car the next morning and check out a bit before 11am and head to the aquarium. It was good, about what I expected and I think worth the $15. We went to Café du Monde and had beignets (over rated) and then our last stop was the cemetery. I took lots of pictures here too. I was surprised to see the hurricane damage so prevalent here on some, but completely untouched by others. We drove around the surrounding neighborhood west of the city to see more local flavor. Again, it was strange to see how some buildings had been restored, completely rebuilt or still dilapidated right next to each other.
New Orleans concluded, we headed north to Michigan as it was decided to forgo Florida for now. It was a very long drive, Cristy and I sharing driving duties. I got dropped off in Plymouth before NoThai was deposited in Southfield. Driving through Kentucky a bit after sunrise was my favorite. I've always thought Kentucky is so beautiful.