If there is one way not to start a vacation, it’s to only her four hours sleep.
Mike and I were dropped off at the airport sometime around five thirty by Melanie. We may have had a few drinks until midnight so we weren’t the most energetic folks in the airport!
A nice turn of events did occur when I went to the washroom and then we hear both Mike and my name on the intercom announcing final boarding call! I am used to the largest jets taking time to fill up but this one heading to Charlotte, NC wasn’t large at all (but I swear it had 18 people with golf clubs heading to Myrtle Beach).
We arrived into New Orleans and fell into the first tourist trap of paying for the airport shuttle when we found out later that a taxi would have been cheaper! After an hour of dropping everyone else off we ended up at the Maison St Charles where we left our luggage at the front desk as they didn’t have our rooms ready yet.
Mike and I headed down to the French Quarter Music Festival and took in the sights of NOLA. We headed up Decatur Street and got a picture with the Bluesmobile from the film Blues Brothers. The crowds in the street were infectious, but the jeans sticking to our legs were not! We grabbed a beer and a roast beef po-boy and took in some tunes from the Zydeco stage. Then we realized that we would be better off heading to the waterfront stages to get some breeze.
The afternoon was quite chaotic with the amount of people down at the festival to see Doctor John and the Nite Trippers. We started watching him stage left but were stuck in a crowd of people so we decided to get the heck out of there. We settled into a spot where we were far from the stage but at least we could hear a lot better! The crowds in NOLA are very fun and definitely did not remind me of those in Ottawa. Doctor John was a good time and we hung around downtown for a bit before heading back to check into the hotel. We didn’t want to arrive too late and be locked out on our first night!
With beer in hand, we made the 30 minute trek home in search for more beer. Upon seeing a Circle K gas station I said “If the movie Dazed and Confused taught me anything, it’s that you can find beer in a gas station!” Sure enough, there was a cold room full of it and I made the mistake of buying Sam Adams beer at twenty bucks whereas Mike got the Coors at half the price!
We settled into the room and saw a bunch of RCMP officers in the courtyard of the hotel. Turns out we were in company of a rugby team from Vancouver. They were quite a hoot over the next few days, as rugby players generally are.
Down the street, we ended up at the Saint Charles Tavern which had some great food. I had an étouffée which reminded me of Mikes jambalaya whereas he had the jambalaya and it was a bed of rice with tomato sauce but it wasn’t soupy at all. I think Canadians have mixed the two up over the years.
We were dead tired by ten so we hit the sack only to get a call from Lynn wanting to see us. We declined as we wanted to get more than four hours sleep for our first big day in NOLA!
