Ok. So we're back from New Orleans, and I've finally been walking like a normal person again for a few days now. I think I might even be caught up on sleep. How is it that vacations, however brief, always seem so completely exhausting? At any rate, I think now's as good a time as any to document the travels.
So, all things considered, I think the trip was quite successful. There was a pretty large group of us, and we naturally all had different ideas about what we wanted and didn't want to do while we were there. That really could have caused drama, but everyone was pretty relaxed, we did a lot of planning beforehand and considering the sheer magnitude of the event most central to our journey, I think everything came out roses! As many of you know, the whole reason we ventured westward was to see the Police reunion concert for H's birthday, and for those of you who know her, you know this was, well, kind of a big deal. So the fact that we made it there and back without any of the rest of us being sold into slavery for better seats or back stage passes is just short of miraculous, if you ask me. ;o)
Also on the miraculous tip, Team Amanda's Car as one of the brothers Auvil dubbed us somehow managed to leave town only about 30 minutes later than our 10 am target. I don't know how that happened, as it generally takes Chris and I between 2 and 4 hours to get out of town going anywhere farther than Destin - for the day. But we did it, and accomplished all our goals, too. We made good time getting to New Orleans, and if it weren't for one fateful bathroom stop in what may be the worst place in Mississippi, and shall remain nameless to protect the innocent, we might have had time for a nap before H, lower case- h and J checked in next door.
We stayed at the Bourbon Orleans on the corner of Bourbon St. and Orleans St. Our suite was pretty cool, two-story, with a bed and bath loft area upstairs and a wetbar and living area downstairs that opened onto a balcony over Bourbon St. This was good and bad. It was really cool being able to watch all the drunk people down on the street and not be down there amongst it all. But then, there was also no escaping it. You could close the french doors, but you could still hear the music. Chris, Dave, and I were right next door to the other gals, so we called the front desk to get them to unlock the bars separating our balconies, giving us one huge balcony and easy access to each other's rooms. Then J came out with champagne for everyone, and we had a toast before heading off to the meeting spot for the tour we had reservations for.
So we went on the Haunted History Tour. My advice? Skip it. If you see it coming toward you? Run. It was terrible. A complete rip-off. One web-site said amongst other things that we'd get to "tour residences" where hauntings supposedly have occurred. Horseshit. What they really mean is, you give a guy 20 dollars per person to take you on a walk and tell you stuff you could have looked up on the internet. You never get to go inside anywhere. I'm a reasonably intelligent person, but about 50% of the time, I couldn't even follow what this guy was talking about. He was not interesting, he was not a very good public speaker, and he jumped around from subject to subject. It was confusing. If you want to look at haunted places, look online before you get to the city. I learned more in 20 minutes online than the 2 hours I spent trudging around after this kook. Make a list of interesting places, then get a map, and walk around yourself. If you're not with a group of twenty people, you can actually go inside some of these "haunted" hotels and look around, instead of just gazing sweatily from the hot, smelly sidewalk. Total racket.
After going back to the hotel, we had dinner reservations at Dickie Brennan's Bourbon House Seafood and Oyster Bar. We walked there, and made it just in time. We got a nice table in the window, J selected a nice bottle of wine for the table, and we ordered about 3 million appetizers. I'm not kidding. At least 3 dozen oysters were ordered. Two or three bowls of soup. Deviled stuffed crab. What was funny is that little h ordered most of it, at the same time she ordered her food. It was a little funny. I guess you had to be there. My entree was the Redfish on the Halfshell. If you go there, order it! It was phenomenal. But make sure you get the lump crab meat topping. It comes in some kind of wine sauce and costs an extra 10 bucks, but it's worth it.
MMMM!
After dinner, Chris and I went back to the room. I woke up around 2, and Chris was not in bed, so I went down to find him. He was out on the balcony by himself. This was right after The Drunk Guy. Chris had seen a guy coming down the street, and at first had thought he was retarded or handicapped in some way. He was walking weird and holding his arms all strange. But as he got closer, he realized the dude was just that wasted. He commented about how it was a little disturbing to see, once he realized that he knew how that felt. I had to laugh because I knew too. But I still made him describe it. The big, fast steps where your feet are trying desperately to keep up with your body, which is always a foot or so ahead. How your legs sometimes wander off to the sides. How you may get within 5 feet of a streetlight, so you reach out to grab it to steady yourself. But you miss. Because it's still 5 feet away. Yet you bump into people and walls and poles that, I don't know, you somehow just didn't see? This kid was so drunk, yet so determined to keep walking that strangers he literally ran into started helping him along. Song blasting from the bars at the time? "Take your drunk ass home" So not kidding. Only on Bourbon Street.
Saturday morning. Woke up a little after 8. Got dressed and met up with everyone to go to Cafe DuMonde for beignets. Yum. So glad they don't have those here! Afterwards, did some shopping, found a birthday gift for H. It was too funny. A shirt that said "POLICE. GET ON THE FLOOR AND SPREAD EM. NEW ORLEANS." Or something very close to that. So we decided that would be her concert tee. It started raining, which sucked, so we went to the Cabildo Museum. It was only six bucks. But it was rather disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting, but that wasn't it. It was a little boring. A lot of reading. Not as much cool stuff to look at as I thought there'd be. Turns out I'm a tougher audience than I knew. If you're going to go to a museum, the WWII museum is much more interesting. Chris and I went to that last year and enjoyed it. Next we had lunch at some place across from the museum. I'm blanking on the name. I didn't think the food was that great, it was reasonably priced for New Orleans, but they automatically include gratuity for all parties, and the service was wholly unremarkable.
Next was the casino. Harrah's. This was the one place I really wanted to go while we were there, as Chris and I had such good luck last year. It has really expanded since we were there. Much more of everything. We played some video poker, got some free drinks, and tried to work up the nerve to hit the blackjack tables. It was really crowded, being the middle of the day, and all the low limit tables were full. We eventually found two seats and a 15 dollar minimum table, and played for a few hours. I was getting awful cards for the longest time. I was down to my last 15 bucks when i finally hit a blackjack, and then I steadily came back until I doubled up the 200 I bought in with. Chris did well the whole time. We should have left then, but we played some more, and I lost a little, but still left about 70 ahead. Nothing like last year when we left with 800 bucks. We still made a few hundred, which really helped with the cost of the trip. We got a cab back to the hotel. It was the crappiest cab I have ever seen. Dave literally had to sit next to a spare tire. There was a hole in the dashboard where the radio should have been. It was unreal. But somehow it made it back to the hotel. Time to get ready for the concert!
So we took a cab to the concert, and got there and inside and to our seats just as the opening act was starting. There were SO many people there! Our seats were phenomenal. We were on the floor 8th row, towards the middle on the Sting side. We were SO close! From the moment the Police took the stage, the whole arena was on their feet, and it pretty much stayed that way the entire 2 hour show. It was so great! I don't know if I've ever been at a show with that much crowd energy. It was really exciting. And the show was great. What made it even better was to look over at H and her sister every once in a while. You can't look at someone that sublimely happy without feeling a little of it yourself. I have never seen anybody rock out quite the way H rocked out that night. I'm pretty sure it was historic. I couldn't see J and Dave. Here are some pictures from the NOLA paper.
After the concert, there were no cabs to be found so we had to walk a good long ways. I hadn't thought of this, and didn't wear my walking shoes. Huge mistake. Soon I had blisters that were bleeding on my feet, and I just couldn't make it anymore, so Chris and I grabbed the first cab we saw and went back home. If you go to New Orleans, make sure you take a pair of truly comfortable shoes. Because you will be walking. A lot.
We ordered in Italian from a place called Rotelo's that delivered. It was convenient, and good at 2 am. I still had a headache, so i laid down and passed right out. The others played music and sang on the hotel balcony. We slept in and requested a late checkout on Sunday. Another thing, if your hotel offers any rewards program, sign up for it. We saved over a hundred bucks on our late checkout by signing up for Wyndham ByRequest. We also got free internet access, which is how we found food while we were there. Lots of hotels offer little perks like that, so check it out.
Anyway, that's about it. I drank very little which I think contributed to my enjoyment of the trip. I was already fighting a migraine, all I needed was a hangover on top of that. None of us really got out of control, we all got along, and I think things went pretty well. My one regret is that my stupid camera never made it out of the bag. We kept forgetting it. So we will have to ask the others for pictures. Turns out they are much better travelers than we are. So hopefully we will reminisce vicariously through them.
As for the hotel, we probably won't stay there again. The bed wasn't very comfortable, and the sofa bed that poor Dave had to sleep on was truly tragic. The foot of the bed rested on the floor and it had no sheets whatsoever. It was nowhere near as nice and relaxing as the Windsor Court, where Chris and I stayed this time last year. We didn't have a balcony, but the room was about the same size, and we paid less. And everything was nicer. Much nicer. And quieter. I guess maybe we're just getting old. But maybe old ain't so bad. At least it comes with a comfy place to sleep.
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