So, for the first adventure of 2011, I decided to bring my lovely girlfriend home with me for Mardi Gras. We arrived late on Saturday, March 5th. It had been raining heavily for the past day or two, so the air smelled damp and fresh. It's difficult for me to describe that smell in words, but "fresh" definitely seems fitting. It rains pretty frequently in New Orleans, and each rain brings with it this rejuvenating sense of freshness and rebirth. I love it.
After our plane landed, we went to claim our baggage and then took a shuttle to the Budget rental car lot. I was amused to find that our rental car was the exact same car that I was given in Utah while my car (Bling) was in the shop: a white Hyundai Sonata. You know, I've never been a big fan of Hyundai, but I will say that I like the Sonata. It's pretty slick. Aside from being white (my least favorite color), I can't really complain about our rental car; the gas mileage was amazing, the interior was comfortable, and we were even graced with XM radio! Oh, the rental car was really new, too; when we picked it up, it only had about 200 miles on the odometer. Nice.
Once we had acquired some slick wheels for our adventure, we headed off to my buddy Fader's apartment in the CBD. She lives in a nice apartment building on Terpsichore. We didn't have any trouble finding it, and even got to show my girl the Superdome on our way there. Since we arrived late, we didn't do much that night; we sat up and talked with Fader for a long time, getting all caught up on everything. Then we (not so gracefully) set up our air mattress and went to sleep.
On Sunday, we went to "brunch" with Fader at Nacho Mama's. To start the day off right, we all ordered some drinks. Brunch was great; I was also happy to hear that Juan's Flying Burrito was still around. After brunch, we parked in a residential area and walked up to the parades. We also met up with some other friends, Astrid and Harry. We were going to meet up with Leslie, but she and her man left right before we showed up. Oh, and we were standing behind some very stinky little boys for the parades. Argh. After awhile, Harry informed us that he was dying of hunger, so we trekked back to Magazine St. and decided to eat at Reginelli's. My girl and I split a really tasty sandwich. Once we had satisfied Harry's hunger, we walked back to the parades and watched for awhile. Once we had caught enough beads, we headed back to the apartment. We were still hungry, so I decided to take my girl to Dot's Diner. It's not the fanciest place, or even the best diner, but it holds a lot of great memories for me and I really do love it... which is a good thing, because they were VERY crowded (thanks to the Mardi Gras season) and we had to wait two hours for our food. Oh well. Needless to say, we went back to the apartment and crashed HARD after that.
When we woke up on Monday, we showered and got ready to attend a funeral. My good friend Ana's mom had passed away just a few days prior to our arrival. Since I love my friend, I wanted to support her by going to the funeral. So, after primping a bit, we were on our way to Baton Rouge! Thankfully, we had XM Radio to keep us entertained. Oddly enough, there was quite a bit of traffic on the way to Baton Rouge. Oh well. The funeral was nice (well, as nice as those things can be), and it was really great to see Ana. Her mom was a good person; she will be missed by many. After the funeral, Ana wanted to have a drink and unwind for a minute before heading to her sister's house for some family time. So we went to this random place in downtown Baton Rouge. It had a "surfer" theme, or something. My girl and I shared some pork sliders, which were pretty good. I enjoyed the sweet potato fries and the frozen margarita that I had. We all hung out for awhile, then Ana went off to attend to some family things and Anne and I got ready for the trip back to New Orleans. First, we stopped at a local Albertson's to pick up some essentials. I was excited because we bought a king cake (YUM) and some Zapp's potato chips. It's the little things, really. Then, I took Anne to a Waffle House. She had never been, and Waffle House is... well... it's WAFFLE HOUSE... so, it was a must. When we got back to New Orleans, Fader was ready for some fun. We invited our friend Leslie to meet us, and we all went to Down the Hatch. After a few Irish car bombs and some cheese fries, we headed across the street to the Half Moon. Our friend Alex came by, along with his lady, and we all hung out for awhile. More Irish car bombs were enjoyed, as well as a few shots. We were all pretty sauced by this point; unsurprisingly, we also had the munchies, so we wandered off in search of food. Harrah's breakfast buffet was closed (bastards!) and even Dot's Diner failed us in our quest for food (it was Mardi Gras day, so they were closing for the festivities). Dejected, we settled for McDonald's and went back to the apartment. We got home around 6:00AM. At some point, Fader had stolen one of those "caution: wet floor" signs; I would forget about this until I saw it in the back seat of my car later that day. Once upstairs, we all crashed.
Then it was Mardi Gras day!!!! ...and we were all a bit hungover. Oh well. We enjoyed the festivities. Later that day, I brought my girl to Lebanon's for an amazing Middle Eastern feast. Everyone was tired after the excitement of Mardi Gras day, so we decided to have a quiet night at the apartment. I didn't feel like being in the French Quarter with all of the idiot tourists and crowds. Seriously, it gets so crowded down there, sometimes you feel like you can't breathe. Even if you're not claustrophobic, it's a nightmare. We didn't miss anything.
Wednesday was our first day of adventuring in the French Quarter. First, I treated my girl to some coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Then, we went to the French Market and did some shopping. We also walked down Bourbon Street and I pointed out some places of interest. It was fun to show my girl where I spent a lot of my college days. Before we went back to the car, I also brought her to the river so she could see the mighty Mississippi. She also got to see a bit of the steamboat Natchez. After adventuring in the French Quarter, we met up with my friend Brooke at Superior Grill. I hadn't seen Brooke since 2005, because she moved to Hawaii for awhile after Hurricane Katrina. She recently moved back to New Orleans, so I was excited to see her and catch up. We talked a lot about work, our friends, and the city. After a few hours, we went back to the apartment. Fader wanted to take us to Rambla, but they were closed (again). Guess they considered Ash Wednesday to be a holiday worth closing for, eh? We settled for a pretty good dinner at The Rum House followed by a pint of Abita Amber at The Bulldog.
Thursday was bittersweet; we knew it was our last day in New Orleans, and there was still so much that I wanted to see and do with my girl. After we woke up, we went to The Creole Creamery. I didn't feel like doing the Tchoupitoulas Challenge, but I did want to enjoy some good ice cream. I tried three different kinds: butterscotch and English toffee, cookie monster, and king cake. They were all AMAZING! Then, I took my girl to Loyola University and showed her around my old campus. It brought back a lot of memories. After our trip down memory lane, we went to the French Quarter and ate lunch at Landry's. My girl had been craving some good seafood; she wasn't disappointed with Landry's. We spent some time running around the French Quarter and buying all the souvenirs that we hadn't bought on the previous day. We also bought a hand grenade and a frozen hurricane, the two drinks I insisted my girl had to try. We went back to the apartment after that. Ana stopped by New Orleans on her way to Florida; once Fader got home from work, we all went to Rambla. They were finally open! The food there was amazing; we had a great time. After that, we just did our laundry and packed for the trip back to Utah.
Friday, we woke up and got ready to head back to Utah. Since our trip back to Utah was an adventure in and of itself, I'm going to write about it in a separate blog post. Suffice to say, we really enjoyed our trip and I can't wait to go home again. I was homesick before we even left!
I really love New Orleans, and I'm so happy that I got to share my love for the city with the woman that I love. I didn't get to show her everything that I wanted to, but that's okay... we'll be back, and we'll have even more adventures.
All in all, it was a FANTASTIC "first vacation" together!
