New Orleans May 30-June 1

We arrived at our bed and breakfast around 5:00. We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast on Esplanade Avenue called Ashton’s Bed and Breakfast. It’s a nice home in the Greek Revival style of architecture. We pulled up in front of the driveway, went in, and met one of our hosts, Patrick. He gave us a tour of our room and of the house. Our room, and the whole house, had 15.5 foot ceilings. They were quite impressive. There was a huge porch in front with rocking chairs and tables, a living room inside, a breakfast area and kitchen, and courtyard in the back for us to use. Our room was painted blue, had a ceiling fan mounted on the ceiling with an ornate medallion, had an old fashioned tub, beautiful moldings, canopied bed, and a little sitting area. It was very nice. The breakfast room had sodas and waters for us to take whenever we wanted. They also had cookies, chips, and fruit available. Most importantly, they had my favorite candy out…dark chocolate almond Hershey bars and soft peppermint balls. Yummy. After our tour, Ed and I changed and headed downtown to the French Quarter. We walked about a mile or a little more to the start of Bourbon Street. We then headed down Bourbon Street and saw what New Orleans had to offer. Young kids tap danced for money on the streets, tons of drunk people were in the bars, live music played in the bars and in outside patios. We went to dinner at a place called The Red Fish Grill, which was owned by Chef Brennan, an alleged famous chef in New Orleans. There were lots of seafood options on the menu in addition to steak and pork chops. Because there wasn’t chicken, I had a salad and French fries. Ed ate red fish with crawfish with sauce, potatoes, and tasso (ham). He enjoyed his meal thoroughly…definitely comparable to The Big Easy Saloon in Paoli, PA. We had some sort of dark and white chocolate bread budding that you had to order when you ordered your meal because it took 20 minutes to prepare. It was quite delicious. After eating, we strolled around and decided to get some drinks on Bourbon Street. Ed drank a hurricane to see what that was all about and I had a strawberry daiquiri. We sat in an outdoor courtyard and listened to two guys play some Dixieland style music. They were quite terrible. Ed pounded down his drink, grabbed Jeanette’s drink, and we headed for the road. We then wandered the French Quarter looking for Margaritaville in search of some girly drinks (think strawberry daiquiri mixed with pina colada…AKA hummingbirds). We saw St. Louis Cathedral for our first time. It was dice. We then walked by the Mississippi Riverfront. We heard some local jazz bands playing inside bars as we passed by. We finally found Margaritaville and were thoroughly disappointed as no one was there. We did use there bathrooms and then headed off. We found the area we were thinking of eating in the next night and checked out some menus. After scoping out the next night’s dinner, we grabbed a taxi and headed back to Ashton’s B&B. When we got there, there were many guests and Patrick and Karma (the owners) sitting and talking on the front porch. We chatted for a little bit and then headed to bed.

We woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee. One of the reasons we selected this B&B was because it got excellent reviews on tripadvisor.com. The past guests raved about Patrick’s cooking. We were quite excited to see what he had in store. The first morning, breakfast began with a fruit bowl consisting of strawberries, cantaloupe, and peaches. This fruit bowl was accompanied by delicious coffee bread. After the first part of the meal, we were served the main dish. It was poached eggs served in an artichoke on a bed of spinach, covered with hollandaise sauce. Ed liked it; except the egg was a bit slimy and he felt bad asking for hot sauce to masquerade some of the “eggy-ness” of the meal. I ate as much of it as I could. It was pretty good, although I tend to only like hard boiled eggs.

After breakfast, Ed and I started our day. We first walked from our B&B all the way down Esplanade Avenue (where many historic homes are located) to the flea market in the French Quarter. We walked around a little bit. There were lots of knock-off sunglasses and pocketbooks for sale. In addition, there were little crafts and New Orleans souvenirs available. After walking through the flea market, we decided to walk to the Garden District. We walked through the entire city by the water to the convention center up through the warehouse district all the way to the garden district on Saint Charles Avenue. We walked through the garden district and saw some really big and cool houses. We also stopped in an above-ground cemetery, which is common to New Orleans because the city is actually below sea level. We then walked back down Magazine Street, which was nicer than St. Charles Ave, back through the warehouse district to the River Walk. We grabbed some pizza and looked at steamboats. We then walked to a candy store that was rated as having the best pralines in New Orleans. Ed got a praline and I got mint chocolate chip ice cream. The praline was really good. It tasted similar to maple candy. Instead of a maple taste, it had pralines. After our afternoon snack, we continued to walk the streets and look at the stores. We tried to go to a Louis Armstrong park, but when we got there, we discovered that it had closed. The French Quarter wasn’t as badly affected by the flooding of Katrina as other parts of the city was, but it still seemed like ¼ of the shops were closed or for lease and about ¼ of the homes had been abandoned. We saw the blue dog that appears in all of a famous artist’s paintings, but we’ve forgotten his name. We saw a wedding leaving Saint Louis Cathedral. As the guests and bridal party exited, a five piece brass band played music while the guests all danced out swinging white handkerchiefs above their heads. They all filed into a park across from the cathedral. It was quite an exit…looked like lots of fun! We then walked back to the B&B around 5. We estimate walking somewhere between 12 and 15 miles in about 90 degrees of heat and humidity. We took showers back at Ashton’s, rested a little, then got dressed, and walked back downtown to Frenchman Street. Patrick told us that this area was less touristy and offered more authentic jazz musicians and a less crowded atmosphere. We had dinner at a Creole-Italian restaurant called Adolfo’s. It was a small, semi hole in the wall, restaurant situated above a bar called The Apple Barrel. Although the service kind of stunk, the food was pretty good. I had chicken parmesan and Ed had Creole mustard chicken. After dinner, we headed across the street to a place called d.b.a. where we watched a local jazz band play. The band consisted of a trumpet player, keyboardist, trombonist, and a saxophonist. The trumpet player also sang. The band reminded Ed of a jazzy version of The Toasters. They were quite good. Ed threw down a few Abitas, Louisiana’s very own brew. The wheat was crap. The jockamo IPA was pretty good and the Turbo Dog was solid as usual. When we first entered the bar, it was pretty mellow, but as time went on, things picked up in there. First, a bachelor party came in. Although they weren’t overly rowdy, one guy was decked out in pope gear. When I asked him if he was getting married soon, he told me the other guy was. We then saw a stray cat mosey up on stage. The bartender finally realized that a cat was in the bar and did his best to finally let the cat out the back door. Then a man walked in with a black lab on a leash, which shows just how laid back this place actually was. The man and the dog proceeded to the upstairs, back room of the bar. A pirate walked in next followed by a group of people wearing pajamas. The pajama party threw around miniature rubber duckies while yelling “duck”. The man and his dog reappeared a little bit later and went into the room with the band playing. Towards the end of the second set, we decided to call it a night and caught a cab home.

We woke up this morning, got our things together, and packed the car. We then came inside where Ed drank coffee and chicory, which we’re not quite sure what it is. We then sat down to eat Patrick’s breakfast creation of the day. It was bananas foster Belgian waffles, some sausages, and a little fruit garnish (strawberries and oranges). It was quite tasty. We met a guy from Canada who was in town for a medical convention. He told us a bunch of places to go in Canada while we’re there on the second portion of the US trip. He asked us if Tim Horton’s had moved to Syracuse yet, which it hasn’t. We then spoke with Karma about the destruction from Katrina, she showed us some pictures, and spoke about the upkeep of her house. She also talked about different renovations that had been completed on the house and what else she wanted to do in the future. The current house has eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms for guest use, one bedroom and one and a half bathrooms for their use. She walked us upstairs to an unfinished part of the house that used to be a grand ballroom. It was another 3000 square feet of space. She showed us some of the destruction from Katrina and told us how she would like to finish this for her and Patrick’s own use. It was really interesting to see…especially since there was original furniture and mirrors up there.

We then hit the road to head towards Austin…a nine hour drive away. Ed told me that he wanted to drive and that he wants to drive the entire trip out to LA to say that he has done it himself. So, I have yet to drive my own car on this trip. Louisiana was nice to look at with all the bayous and rivers. We saw a Cabelas in Louisiana, but didn’t stop.
It really flattened out as we got closer to Texas. Once we got into Texas, it was surprisingly green and had many lakes. The first traffic we’ve hit throughout our trip was in Houston where the road was shut down for an hour due to a multi-car pile-up. We would have turned the car off and left the windows open, but it was 95 degrees out and humid at 4:30 in the afternoon. Too hot! One thing we’ve noticed about the south thus far is the lack of toll roads. It’s quite nice. We’ve gone over many bridges and on many interstates without paying anything. The last toll we paid was in Virginia.

During the car ride, we reviewed some scuba information as we will be finishing the open water portion of our scuba diving course in Austin…thankfully, as it will be 96-100 degrees in Austin while we’re here. We’re definitely not used to this kind of heat!