Day 56: 7/12/15 (New Orleans, LA)
35 miles
We slept in a little bit this morning and had some
bacon and eggs for breakfast. We spent
the morning just hanging out and planning our day because we were waiting for
the mall to open. Rico was in desperate
need of a haircut, especially since the wedding was just a few days away, and
we had located a salon in the mall. We
also found out that this mall was one of the locations of a candle shop where
Rico’s parents had brought back some delicious smelling candles. We headed over at noon and scheduled a hair
appointment because there weren’t any appointments available right away. As it turns out, the candle shop closed and
the next closest store was an hour away so we weren't able to purchase any candles.
From there, we headed
into New Orleans and walked down Canal to the waterfront to purchase some tickets
for the Natchez Jazz Cruise. We had
about 20 minutes before boarding so we walked over to Jackson Square to admire
all of the artists’ work. There was one artist
who had some amazing work that we really liked.
Rico asked for the pricing of a couple of paintings which ended up being
875 and 425 – just a litttleee bit out of our price range. At one of the
corners is Café Muriel and Anne took us in to see their fancy dining room and a
seemingly lustful lounge area with red lighting and circular couches. On the way back to the boat, we ran into the
CVS to grab a drink to take on the boat.
The cruise was 2 hours and you get to hear some of the history of the
city and the Mississippi as you ride.
There was also a band playing some Jazz music on the lower deck so that’s
where Anne was for the second half. About
halfway through the cruise, Jillian saw one of her friends from her Master’s
program. He was on vacation with his
family and, small world, we ended up on the same cruise and the same deck. I’m not sure what possessed them to choose
New Orleans in July for a vacation, but it was fun seeing someone from home. We ended the cruise by checking out the
engine room and then meeting Anne to listen to the jazz. We jumped on the dance floor for the last
song and had some fun.
Right off the boat, we saw a street "performer" who was dressed in a white tux and an Unle Sam hat and he was like a statue walking a dog (see picture below). We saw him earlier and Rico mentioned how he had taken a photo with him when he was visiting 14 years ago. Jillian made him jump in and recreate the same photo. We wish we took a picture of the original because Anne had a copy at her house! Once that was done, we headed to Acme Oyster House to try some oysters for the first
time. On the way, we found the Crescent
City Cooks store (a place where we took cooking lessons during our last visit) so
we stopped in and got some hot sauce and spices. Shortly afterwards we arrived at the oyster
place. Anne is a seasoned oyster eater
so she advised us along the way. We
ordered some chargrilled ones because we wanted to ease ourselves into the
whole thing and not go right to raw. They
came out cheesy and buttery and garlicky and were just so good. We really liked them so we decided to hop to
another place and find some more.
On the way to the
next oyster restaurant, we found a hot sauce tasting bar and popped in. There was everything from BBQ sauce to pepper
jelly to pickles. We went around trying
a bunch – well mostly Rico did since Jillian isn’t the biggest fan of hot and spicy. Rico ended up trying their 2nd
hottest sauce (the hottest one they had without having to sign a waiver). His mouth was pretty much ruined
afterwards. We were still planning to
visit the tabasco factory, so we held out on making any purchases. The second oyster place we ate at was the
Royal House which had a nice balcony that overlooked the French Quarter. Anne went to check out some shops while we
dined on some more oysters. This time we
tried a duo of oysters rockefeller (spinach stuffing) and oysters royale
(seafood stuffing). They were alright,
but we enjoyed the chargrilled ones better.
Once we were filled on oysters, we walked down Bourbon Street and
grabbed a couple of drinks – we are almost certain that the liquor bottles are
watered down. We couldn’t help but stop
in at the Cats Meow which is a fun karaoke bar.
On our way back down Bourbon, we caught a few Mardi Gras beads that were
thrown from the balcony.
We walked back
through Jackson Square to get some beignets from Café Du Monde. We just grabbed some to go so we could go get
some po boys too. We drove over to the
restaurant and somehow ended up going in two different entrances. Jillian ordered a sandwich at the bar and
Rico order a sandwich in the dining area so we ended up with two…oops! We took everything home to eat and it turns
out the sandwiches weren’t all that great.
We tried researching who had the best po boys, but clearly something has
changed since that post was written. After
dinner, we watched a little bit of tv before heading to bed.
Fact:
Lesson:
If you want a good
sandwich, don’t trust the internet – ask a local instead
Eat Well; Travel Often
Rico & Jillian
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