Last night I got the memo with my first warning. To be honest, I’ve been expecting it so it didn’t come as a surprise.
I had been working through the reasons why I shouldn’t shave, but none of them really stacked up.
“Going for the Miami Vice look“ … except we are not going to Miami.
“Going for the Hawaii 5-0 look” … except we are not going to Hawaii either.
In the end the conversation went like this:
MBW: “It’s time you shaved”
Me: “As you wish.”
Now I’m sure that many of you have been worried sick about The Don II – there has been no mention of him for the last few days. I can assure you that The Don II is safe and well, waiting patiently outside 3041 Burgundy Street, Bywater, New Orleans, Louisiana.
This morning was planned to start in the usual way: ablutions, dressed, breakfast, and out the door for the short walk to the French Quarter to catch a New Orleans tour.
While MBW completed her ablutions, I noticed that our host – Danny – has a thing for farmyard animals. There are pictures of them all over the house.
So as we left the house to walk to the French Quarter, the front door at the other side of the duplex opened, and a man came out and introduced himself: “Hi, I’m Danny, your host”.
To say that Danny is … unusual … would be an understatement. While he was dressed in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, his beautifully painted pink fingernails and toenails were a little confusing.
In the interests of full disclosure, below is a copy of Danny’s AirBnB profile photo.
That possibly explains a few things. Or maybe it just raises more questions?
So we had a lovely chat with Danny, and excused ourselves to get to the French Quarter to catch our tour bus. Somehow our booking got lost and we were unable to get in touch with the tour company … I mean, why would you bother answering your phones or returning calls on what is probably the busiest weekend of the year?
So we went to “Plan B” and instead bought tickets on the HOHO (hop on, hop off) bus. The bus does a big loop around and through the city including the French Quarter, Garden District, Financial District, and the Central Business District. Some of the sights that we saw include:
… and lots of other things that I just wasn’t quick enough to capture for posterity.
It was a good trip, allowing us to get our bearings, see the city in a couple of hours, and learn a good deal about the history of the city.
After the HOHO bus tour, we got off and wandered back into the French Quarter for a morning snack and coffee.
I have three favourite new words … Cafe du Monde – home of the beignet and chicory coffee. Unfortunately – like yesterday – the queues to get into Cafe du Monde for either “to go” (takeaway) or table service were out of control, so we went to a nearby Cafe Beignet instead. Coffee and beignets were just as good!
We were scheduled to do a “Free Food Tour by Foot” this afternoon just after lunch, so we went back to the French Markets to grab a quick bite of lunch before the tour started. To keep in the beignet theme, we had crawfish beignets and they were gooood!
We met up with Kayla (our FFTBF guide) and she recommended another food outlet before we headed off, so – because we haven’t eaten enough food, glorious food over the last few days – we got another snack for the road … boudin balls.
Yes, I know what you are thinking and no, I’m pretty sure that they are not. They were a bit like rice balls (or arancini balls MBW tells me) – spicy and served with a wholegrain mustard dressing.
We met up with Kayla again and started the tour – once again learning lots about the history of New Orleans, the meaning and origin of Cajun and Creole food, the architecture, other food history, places to eat, and we had a few more taste tests.
Kayla is the one in the green tee-shirt. Old Mate in the grey tee-shirt wouldn’t take the hint and move!
Antoine’s Restaurant can seat 700+ people twice a day. Waiters have to do an internship, and when people book to eat at Antoine’s, you don’t book a table, you book a waiter. Go figure! Crazy Americans!
After the tour – and because we hadn’t yet eaten enough – MBW and I went on a search for Po’boy and etoufee (like stew with rice in it).
The po’boy was shrimp and soooo gooood! Rice is a staple here, so you have it with everything.
On the way back towards home, we stopped in at the Roosevelt Hotel to look at the Christmas light display …
… stood and marvelled at the mighty Mississippi River …
… walked up Canal Street, which was the original dividing line between French and American settlers in New Orleans …
… and wandered back to the French Quarter.
We were getting pretty tired by this time (6.00pm) after having walked close to 18,000 steps again today, so we contributed to the local ride share economy here once again and caught a Lyft home for coffee, and to pack ready for another big drive day tomorrow.
So tomorrow we head out early to try and beat the Thanksgiving weekend crowds, the Bayou Classic crowds (a football game between two top-rated teams) and the Thanksgiving Day parade crowds … and we head up towards Montgomery Alabama.
Bring it on!
We have absolutely loved the atmosphere, culture, vibe, food and people here in Louisiana and wish we could have stayed longer.
While we had heard that the city is very dirty (it is), there are lots of beggars (there are), and crime levels are very high (we had no issues), we felt completely safe and had a wonderful time.
Shame though that we couldn’t understand most of what the locals said 🙁 … y’all. (If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say y’all …)
Today’s song and post title is Food Glorious Food (from the musical Oliver!).
Ciao
G&KTAKEUSA2019