I went to New Orleans last Tuesday morning with my mom and two of her older sisters. I think it's fair to assume that even without saying, the trip was a good amount of fun. WARNING: This post is very image-heavy...One of my favorite parts about traveling is that I have this unique opportunity to people-watch. People-watching is and always has been one of my favorite things to do. I can sit for a few hours in a bar, quietly creeping on the characters who walk in and out. While there are most certainly quite a few things that people do or wear or say that I don't agree with, I appreciate every person's right to express themselves in whichever form or fashion they so choose. The people of New Orleans...nay, the people of Louisiana are not shy to go all out when it comes to expressing their inner selves. Quite frankly, if you live in a place similar to New Orleans, I don't really blame you. The city is wild. It's feral, impossible to tame, unique and altogether a whole 'nother world. I know people who have lived in the city their entire lives but still manage to find new things every time they go exploring. New Orleans is a never-ending conveyor belt with new, special things dropping on it at all times. One of the most incredible things about the city is how it and its people have (in many ways) bounced back after the storm. Needless to say, I find the local "wildlife" fascinating.
I'm not terribly sure if all of my readers are too terribly interested in getting every single detail of our trip, so I think I will just summarize as best I can. We started out early Tuesday morning and made pretty good time. We got to our destination, a restaurant we hadn't tried before called the Cast Net and enjoyed a pretty hefty fried seafood combination lunch (the oysters were PERFECTLY fried). We left after lunch, finding our way to our hotel on Toulouse and managed to check in early.
The group (which, by the way, consisted of myself, my mom and two of her older sisters) took a few minutes to rest, then we headed out to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter to do some shopping and veritable site-seeing. For dinner, we stopped by Acme Oyster House and each ate a dozen oysters on the half-shell while listening to the incredible stories of a man who had been shucking oysters for Acme for the past 32 years. Needless to say, we were captivated.
After the captivation lasted for a while, we headed back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for a night out. I'll cut out the rest of the night and just say that alcohol happened. That, after all, is really what you want to hear anyway.
Wednesday morning was designated for cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe Beignet. Let me stop and tell you: If you are ever in New Orleans, want beignets and a good cup of joe and you want to avoid the tourist trap that is Cafe Du Monde, PLEASE go to Cafe Beignet. You will get a lot more for your money, and this includes quality as well as quantity.
While we ate breakfast, we were accompanied by these adorable little finches (see pic: right). We threw some crumbs from our beignets out for them for a little while before figuring out that they would actually come up and take some out of our hands. So sweet! I couldn't help but to grab my camera and take a couple pictures.
We met up with Julie, a friend of ours and a native of New Orleans, and drove down to Magazine for some brief window-shopping. Afterward, we drove down St. Charles to see all of the old houses and hear their amazing stories. At the end of our little tour was lunch at the Camellia Grill. Goodness gracious me, there are not enough descriptive words in the English language to describe my elation. Chili cheese fries, people. Chili. Cheese. Fries. Case closed, I'm sold, and I will definitely be returning.
The rest of the the afternoon was spent visiting Julie's childhood home before we began the four-hours-long drive out of Louisiana and back to Texas. After such a wonderful trip, I can only hope that I will be able to return very soon.
