Laissez le bon temps rouler…

Ah, New Orleans! That city can sure get me drunk! As promised, pictures have been uploaded and here are the stories… Be sure to click on the links – many of them are links to pictures!

We left Houston for New Orleans Saturday morning leaving by 8:30 AM and arriving around 2:oo PM – a long 5 1/2 hour drive. We listened to The Da Vinci Code on tape. Kenny has already read it but knew I would enjoy it.

Checked into our hotel where we were upgraded to a huge room, the Chateau Sonesta (thanks Daisy for the suggestion) and went out to walk a bit. We hit Cafe du Monde for some beignets drenched in powdered sugar, walked around the church square (see picture to the left), did some shopping and stopped for some cold cafe mochas. I found a nice scarf to wear over my dress that night, more floaty pens for my collection and I even bought a nice piece of local art for my office at home. We even bought a set of new dinnerware! Headed back to the hotel, took a shower (it is indeed muggy although the heat wasn’t that bad since it was overcast) and got dressed for our dinner date.

We walked to Broussard’s and had a delicious meal with excellent service. After dinner we asked to be moved outside to the beautiful patio where we rounded the meal off with coffee drinks. I had the Cafe Broussard which is a coffee with Grand Marnier, Tia Maria, and Dark Creme de Cocoa.

With the coffee and a glass of wine, I was not necessarily buzzed but I was in a good mood. Kenny and I looked very nice that evening – he was wearing a new sports coat that looks great on him and I was wearing the dress he loves so much. We headed out to continue the evening.

Kenny was told he had to go to Pat O’Brien’s and try a Hurricane so off we went. I had been before during my bachelorette party. We walk in and look into The Piano Bar… a waiter asks us if we want a table. We look at each other and say sure! It was already full so we were surprised. He led us to a table right up at the front, immediately behind one of the two piano players. See us reflected in the piano?

We ended staying the entire night there and had a blast singing and clapping along. Kenny sent half a dozen requests up to the piano players and figured out the tipping system (the more you pay, the quicker they’ll play your request). We were also there long enough to go through several piano players and by the end of the night, Kenny had a favorite because she also enjoyed the Tom Lehrer songs he requested. At regular intervals an elderly black gentleman named Eddie Gabriel would make his way carefully up there. He then would accompany the pianists by playing along and tapping out melodies on a metal pizza plate – he had metal tips on his finger and he would beat out the tune by placing his hands underneath the tray and tapping. He was a lively 94 years old and we were told he had been playing there for over 60 years. This is a blurry picture I took of his reflection in the mirror behind him.

A Hurricane and a Cyclone later and I was drunk!! Kenny helped me by giving me lots of water so I did not get sick. He was very sweet and took care of me. He says I was a very talkative but happy drunk – he mentioned how I kept telling everyone around us how “evil” New Orleans was (for always getting me so drunk). We made it back to the hotel where he helped me to bed (he even took off my pearl earrings for me) and he says I essentially passed out within minutes of settling down.

As you can guess we did not make the cemetery tour the next morning. I was still in bed at 10 AM when all the tours began. That’s OK. The cemeteries have been there hundreds of years. They can wait a little longer for me! Instead, we took our time and checked out of the hotel minutes before the noon deadline. I was a bit wiped out still so we merely grabbed lunch (fried catfish for me) and headed home.

The ride home was long and we were both so sleepy but we managed to finish the audio book. We rolled into Houston around 8 PM, utterly exhausted.

And that my friends was our weekend in the Big Easy (as it is sometimes called)!

Tags: Louisiana, New Orleans