Day 6 - Maw Nawlins - Part 1

Sorry it's been a couple of days since our last post. We've been pretty flat out busy, and we've just spent 19 hours on a train without any interwebs, so this is the first chance we've had to update. We're in Chicago now (as of about 2 hours ago) and we're just waiting on a couple of the RFX/Paradox crew to come and take us out for... whatever they have in mind. Should be fun.

So, where were we? Ah yes, Nawlins. Friday started with a "jazz brunch" at the Court of Two Sisters, which is a quite impressive place that serves some great buffet-style food (catfish, gumbo, shrimp, crawfish, grits etc.).

 

Theoretically, they have a jazz band there that plays while you eat, but frankly, we were a bit disappointed in the jazz trio they had lined up. The two guys and a girl were great when they played, but instead of playing 45 minute sets and breaking for 15 minutes (as the waiter told us they should be doing), they instead sat in their seats for 20 minutes, followed by 30-40 minute breaks. In the 20 minutes when they were where they were meant to be, they played 2-3 songs tops each time. Luckily, the food was tasty, and the breakfast cocktails kept coming, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Since the band failed to sit in their seats long enough for a photo, just pretend this is them.

After brunch, we again wandered down towards the French Market, picking up a tasty poop-stick on the way. I probably need to explain that. "Poop-stick" is a word Ell and I picked up somewhere as slang for "cigar". Not sure if that's because of the look or the smell, but there you go. Anyway, it was one and it was tasty. Seems ambling around honking on to the soggy end of one of these beasts is the done thing in New Orleans.

Now, here I know I owe a couple of people an apology... I had intended to pick up a box of cigars for consumption in Missouri but, um... well, I forgot. Will see if I can find some affordable alternatives elsewhere.

Along the way, we found a couple of amazing art galleries (with amazingly high prices to match), a few street performers and just... stuff. This guy, dressed in silver, bore a sign that read "Coins make him move. Dollars make him dance!" We gave him a dollar. He failed to dance, but he did pose nicely.

It turned out there wasn't much going on at the French Market, so we made our way back towards the hotel for a rest before heading off for a paddleboat cruise later in the day. As it turned out, the company we had booked with (the Creole Queen) was having problems with their boat and wanted us to switch to the following day. Since we'd be leaving at lunch-time on Saturday, that was no good, but fortunately they were able to rebook us onto their competitor's boat for the Friday. More on that later.

Now, the Aussies reading this will know full-well that the AFL Grand Final was on Saturday afternoon Melbourne time, which turned out to be 11:30 US Central time. For those who don't know what this is, it's our national sport's big final match for the year, or (as described by an American) the "Aussie Rugby Superbowl Thing". That's close enough. Anyway, our team was playing in the game, so we really (REALLY) wanted to watch. Not easy to do in a country that thinks the game is some form of rugby or, worse, soccer. Shudder.

Originally, we'd been told that the match would be broadcast with a 2 hour delay on ESPN2 here in the US, which would have been fine because we had that in the hotel room, but it was changed at some point to be live on ESPN Classic instead. Our hotel room didn't have ESPN Classic. A few phone calls made, and we discovered Ryan's Irish Pub on Decatur Street that had ESPN Classic available, and would be prepared to let us watch there.

So, at this point, the plan was to head off on a paddleboat cruise, then maybe hit the casino for an hour or so, then head to Ryan's for beer and football. Doesn't get much better.

I'm going to have to leave this here, as we have to leave in a minute, but either Ell or I will come back to it later. Assuming the boys leave us capable.