stripethree

So I finally have time to put to blog what I remember from our trip to New Orleans. The lack of memory is not because of the gap in time between last weekend and this posting, which is mainly due to my waking up before the sun, driving an hour and fifteen minutes to work, and being wiped after running around getting acclimated to the new project this week. The lack of memory is the fault of New Orleanss itself, specifically Bourbon street, and, well, if I want to put my finger directly on the cause, hand grenades are to blame. No, not the exploding kind, unless you go with Teds explanation of how they feel in your head the next day, the drink kind. Delicious, dangerous, and consumed in excess.

This sort of felt like the beginning of a Real World series, as Summer and I arrived in New Orleans first, coming from Tucson, and waited about a half hour in the airport for Pat, who flew in from North Carolina. Our four Maryland friends would meet one another at the airport about three hours later and grab a cab and meet us downtown. Pat, Summer, and I dropped our bags at our hotel, the Prince Conti, and proceeded directly to Bourbon Street for overpriced pizza slices and adult beverages. The Blue Hawaiian was delicious and potent. We strolled around, found Jesus, saw a guy dressed as a hand grenade, and decided wed partake in said hand grenades before our friends arrived. We marveled at how wonderful it was to walk the streets with booze and how bar after bar had a to go window for all your beverage needs. Once the fearsome foursome from Maryland arrived, having already had some drinks on the plane and in the airport, off we went to make sure they caught up properly. There was an 80s cover band (yes, we sang), Pat taking more shots than Matt thought he was paying for out of the shot girls pants and shirt, boobs, Big Ass Beers, and of course, the patented CPDubs drunken group tackle.

Friday some of us got up and got some beignets for breakfast, walked over to the very brown Mississippi River were we were serenaded by a quite creepy old jazz man. He was short, but really, that wasnt a good enough excuse to sing starting directly to Michelle and Summers boobs. So we made an escape and ended up walking around the city for a while the rest of the group emerged and grabbed some food. We wandered around the neighborhoods and found the pirate bar Matt was looking for and a restaurant with a very animated waiter and delicious po’boys. After lunch we headed back to the hotels for much needed naps.

We got all cleaned up and looking pretty (well, the girls at least) for dinner at Fire of Brazil. Oh dinner, glorious dinner. We went to a Brazilian steak house and to keep the explanation short, each person had a business card in front of them. Red side up means youre good as far as food and green side up means bring me meat. Lots, and lots, of meat. All you can eat meat, sliced in front of you, directly off the skewers it was cooked on. There was steak, and chicken, and bacon wrapped chicken, and bacon wrapped steak, and quite possibly the best beef ribs ever created. We ate, and we drank, and I think even though we were civil, we out lasted out welcome, as they stopped sending us more meat except for when I was able to get our waiter to send us more beef ribs and steak. It was brought up amongst us that since we were seven strong all with hearty appetites and all thoroughly enjoying the endless meal that we might have eaten more than the restaurant cared to serve us. That doesnt make it any less delicious.

Seeing as how we were very, very full, we took it relatively easy afterwards. Which means we went back to the Pirate Bar and drank some more followed by more hand grenades.

Saturday we got a late start on the day and had screwdrivers before breakfast (I said a late start on the day not the drinking). We went to a place Matt knew for breakfast and it was fantastic. You can order a Bloody Mary while waiting in line and a biscuit or sandwich with debris. What the hell is debris? Im glad you asked: it is the meat that falls into the gravy while a roast is cooking. Think of it as tender, shredded roast beef and one of the most delicious things someone ever thought to serve. My mouth is watering again, excuse me I must figure out how to make something similar. We contemplated asking for cups of it to go, but we were full of biscuits, pancakes, sausage, and whatever else we had ordered and devoured.

Then we went and bummed around Jackson Square after walking around town a bit more seeing the sights.

Saturday night Bourbon street was more crowded that Thursday or Friday and the party was literally, everywhere. People up in balconies screaming for boobs (the women up there included) and the ability to stand in the middle of the street and hear at least four different songs playing at different bars at once.

We went on a walking ghost tour, which had the potential to be kickass, but dropped the ball in some respects. The tour guide told the stories well, but that’s really all there was, walk up to a house, tell us dozens of people died horribly in it, move on. We probably could have read the stories somewhere, but it would have been much more interesting if we could have gone inside some of the buildings. On the other hand, Id say the majority of the tour participants, our group included were already semi-drunk or on their way there. The tour guide, knowing what most people come to New Orleans to do, wisely had a mid-tour stop to use the restrooms and of course, get a drink.

Sunday everyone except Summer and I left at the crack of dawn to head back to the east coast. This left the two of us to meander around downtown and window shop. We walked in and out of art galleries and various shops with masks and beads plastered all over the wall and took pictures here and there. We got lunch at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, walked back into the park and relaxed for a bit.

Then we got some cheesecake at a dive diner slash bar near the hotel, said goodbye to New Orleans, and started our journey back to Tucson. It was a glorious trip, once that had us all thinking about doing something like this somewhere once a year. Another trip next year would be awesome, as that is about how long it might take for each of our livers to fully recover.

I took a ton of pictures on this trip, all of which are here. If you just want to see the daytime touristy stuff go here and if you just want to see us crazy at night, try this.