Nope. As soon as we got off the plane, they canceled our flight. We were asked to line up at the gate to be reseated on the next available flight. I looked on my iPhone and the next flight had 6 seats. There were WAY more than six people in that line. There was no way that AA was going to get me to New Orleans before dark.
So, I checked my iPhone and Southwest had a flight leaving in a little over an hour. I ran to the garage, and hightailed it over to Love field. I made it in 15 minutes. What??? I was in a hurry! I get to the ticket agent and she can't sell me a ticket because it's less than an hour until the flight leaves. So I buy a ticket on the next flight and sign up for stand by on the earlier flight. I have about 20 minutes until the flight leaves and the line to get through security is three rows deep.
I get in line and I figure I should let people know so that they won't worry. When I dig into my backpack for my phone, it's not there. Crap! I left it in the car. There is no way I have time to run back to the car and get the phone if I want to try and make this flight.
When I get through security, I run (uphill - I kid you not!) to the gate and FINALLY I catch a break. There's room on the flight and I still have 10 minutes to spare.
When I get to New Orleans, I have my sister paged but I get no response. I try to figure out how to make a credit card call on the pay phone but it's been so long I get frustrated and give up. The guy at the baggage claim felt sorry for me and let me use his phone. I called my mom and told her to call my sister and to call John and let him know I was okay.
I finally hook up with my sister and we take the shuttle to the hotel and she's laughing the whole way.
We stayed at the Inn on Bourbon Street. This place was an awesome location. It was right in the middle of the French Quarter.
Our room at the Inn on Bourbon Street.
We were starving so we headed out to find someplace to eat. This place worked out nicely. We got our first hurricane. We shared because we hadn't eaten and we didn't want to get plastered. I know I look terrible but did you see what I'd been through?
That's my sister coming out of Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo. She had to have her palm read or something.
I, on the other hand, hung out at the gay bar across the street. They made the best cosmopolitans! That's where I met this guy. He was so sweet. He was 80 years old and he and his wife used to come down to New Orleans pretty often. Their plan was to get a place here when they retired. After she passed away, the guy decided to just buy something. Now he drives here every weekend from Nashville.
We were walking around town looking for a bakery that the older guy had told us about but we never did find it. I saw this statue and the shadow and I thought it looked really cool.
The next morning we tried to go to Cafe Du Monde to have beignets and cafe au lait. We got there at 10:00 and the line was out the door. We decided to come back another time.
We found a restaurant in the Farmer's market that had live music, lots of water and decent food. Plus the price was pretty cheap. This is my sister enjoying her coffee and breakfast.
This is St. Louis cathedral in Jackson Square. It's gorgeous.
These goofy guys in Jackson Square painted themselves silver and would dance to whatever music was on their boom box. What a way to make a living. That couldn't have been good for their skin.
We decided to take a cemetery tour. The guy on the right, Ernie, was our tour guide. It was a walking tour and Ernie was awesome. He was hilarious.
My sister waiting for the tour to begin.
Parts of the film Easy Rider were filmed in St. Louis cemetary No. 1. This particular statue is the one that Peter Fonda was hanging on like it was his mama. After this movie was filmed, the Catholic diocese forbid any other movies to be filmed in the cemetery. The people in the movie really took advantage.
This is the tomb of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen. People come and make a wish and put three x's. Then when the wish comes true, the come back and make an offering and circle their three x's. There was only one group of x's that was circled.
This was really interesting. They call the vaults here 'ovens' because, apparently, it's as hot as an oven in these things. So the deal is that they bring the body here and entomb it in the vault for 1 year and 1 day. The heat pretty much turns the body to dust. After one year, they take out the coffin and dump the body into a hefty bag and they put it back in the tomb with the rest of the relatives. That's how generations of families can all be entombed in one vault.
After we walked around the city for a couple of hours, we stopped at this place to have a cheese board and a drink. This was a milk and bourbon combination that tasted just like a milk shake. It was really yummy!
One of us couldn't keep our eyes open...
That night we had reservations for NOLA. This is a restaurant that is run by Emeril Lagasse. The food was awesome.
Me & my sister stuffed after dinner. In the entire time I was here, I didn't order one dessert. Not one!
After we changed from dinner, we went walking up and down Bourbon street checking out the bars. This place is where we ended up. They had a great 70's band. They did some Janis Joplin, BTO, CCR and Journey. They were great!
The next morning we got our bums out of bed early and went to Cafe Du Monde and had our beignets and cafe au lait. It was good stuff.
My sister went back to the hotel and I just wandered around. This is the Beauregard-Keyes house. Very cool.
This is a self portrait. I had the camera across the street. For some reason I had this picture in my mind and I wanted to take it. It took several tries before I got over there prior to the timer going off.
I know that pirates are bad. But I have this odd fascination with them. Unfortunately (or, perhaps fortunately) there were no pirates in this alley.
This place is a restaurant but back when it opened, it was a coffee house and slave exchange. People would meet here to bid on slaves and conduct other business. It was also said that Jean & Pierre Lafitte would meet here to plan their escapades.
The old Absinthe House. It was here, back in the 1800's that they would serve absinthe, which is now illegal. They supposedly still have the marble fountains that would drip the water over the sugar cubes. I also read that it was here that Andrew Jackson met with the Lafitte brothers to plan their defense in the Battle of New Orleans.
This boarded up old building was between two nicer rehab'd buildings. I would loved to have gone in to look around but they nailed the boards closed quite nicely.
This is the our Lady of Guadalupe. It's a sanctuary where people light candles and offer prayers. It's located right outside the St. Jude church. It's a really cool little grotto. From the street, all you see is her back and she's behind bars.
This is Jean Lafitte's blacksmith shop. It's a building that's been around since the 1800's and it's survived all the devastation that has plagued the city. The lady in the picture wanted the guy to take her photo. When he went across the street, he found his camera in his drink. Then he was kind of surprised that it wasn't working.
One of the fountains around Jackson Square. I thought it looked kind of cool.
So on the second day, I met my sister back at the hotel around lunch time. We decided to try this place for a sandwich. They were serving brunch buffet when we got there so we thought, what the heck? I figured brunch was about $25 a person. The food was mediocre at best. The bill was $77 dollars. We both almost fell out of our chair. For that kind of money, we could have gone back to NOLA!
I cursed this place everytime we walked by. Biggest rip off in the city!
After lunch, my sister went back to the hotel and I decided to wander around some more. I decided that I must have a drink, a hurricane no less, at Pat O'Brien's. So I went in and found a place in the courtyard to sip my drink and read my book. It was great until I felt two big juicy rain drops hit me. (I checked, they were really rain drops). So I headed back to the hotel.
I met my sister coming out of the room. Apparently, the maid finally made it to our room. (It was 5:00 for heaven's sake!). So we sat outside by the pool under an umbrella and enjoyed the downpour. It was awesome.
It was a rough start but we had a fabulous time. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Any takers?
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