Days 4 & 5 - Nawlins: The Big Easy!

Well it's been a whirlwhind couple of days since making the Washington post but we are still REALLY enjoying everything.  The trip from Washington was pretty straight forward, although I managed to score a couple of nasty blisters while marching through Dulles to get on board the plane.  There was a big storm happening around the Louis Armstrong International Airport just prior to our landing, so we had to take the scenic route for a little while.  After cruising the New Orleans skyline for about 10 minutes we managed to land safe, sound and relatively dry. As soon as we grabbed my beaten to death suitcase, I whipped out a pair of flip flops, because those blisters really are quite nasty.  While I was rifling through the suitcase there was a four piece band playing 'When The Saints Go Marching In.'  There was no mistaking which airport we were in.

Gobb says: The four-piece band was not actually inside her suitcase. That would be silly. There's barely room for a trio in there. Speaking of which, Ell's suitcase is so badly busted by now that we're going to have replace it before we leave N'awlins. Stupid clumsy baggage-handlers.

We wandered outside and got a taxi to take us to the hotel.  The weather here is much like Darwin, about 33 - 35 degrees and very humid.  Everywhere has refrigerated airconditioning though and when you go inside, you completely forget what the outside weather is like.  Driving through the place in the taxi we were on the look out for signs of Katrina and, even though you see a few little things here and there, the place has recovered remarkably well.  There is still a lot of re-building going on and the odd house here and there that hasn't been fixed up, but if you weren't looking for it you probably wouldn't notice it.  The locals have an air of proud survival when talking about her and there is definitely a hint of reverence in there as well.  The number one cocktail here is called a Cat 5 Hurricane.  All in all, it's amazing the way this town has recovered.

We arrived at the hotel, which is just beautiful, and were escorted up to our room by a friendly fellow named Al.  Unlike other places, where our bags have been bought up after we got to the room, Al pretty much gave us a tour of the hotel, showed us where everything was and marked out a map of a number of things that we said we wanted to check out.  He was such a nice man and pretty much a classic example of what the folks here are like.  While we were unpacking and making ourselves at home there was a knock on the door and we received a very welcome bowl of fruit and a lovely card. Stu and I were both somewhat puzzled at first, not knowing where it had come from, but found out that the card was signed from Eddie, Gemma and Richie.  Such a lovely thought and we are very grateful for the gesture. Thank You!

After about half an hour in the room, and some yummy fresh fruit, we decided it was time to go out for a walk.  The hotel is on Royal Street, which is full of antique shops and art galleries and we had a bit of a browse around there before deciding it was time to head to Bourbon Street.  Now before I tell you anything more about Bourbon Street I have to say this.  There is a local rule that what happens on Bourbon Street stays on Bourbon Street and it is even printed on T-shirts and everything.  For those of you that have never encountered Rue Bourbon, you must put it on your list of things to do, but it isn't for the faint hearted.

We were walking down the street pointing here and looking there and noting things like the shops selling frozen daquiris, which are a tasty but sometimes lethal treat in this climate.  Then we came across a small shop front selling take away beers and other drinks.  Well I've never seen such a thing before.  We weren't sure if you were actually able to walk around with the drinks or if you had to just consume them right outside the shop.  Writing to you about that now, having spent an epic night out on Bourbon Street, seems somewhat naive but we were completely blown away at the time.  Just down the road, a couple of shops away from that place, was a place called Bourbon Rocks.  Now Bourbon Rocks sell 3 for 1.  We went in to find out what this 3 for 1 is all about and it is simply this.  Pick any standard spirit and get 3 shots for the price of one and they put it in a takeaway cup.  At this stage we were still a little bit iffy about the notion of walking away with the takeaway drinks so we sat at a table for a little while.  After seeing a number of customers walk in, order and walk out again we decided if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for us.  So we ordered another round of bourbon and coke and left Bourbon Rocks.

We then went to a couple of T-shirt stores and bought some souvenir T-shirts and then went to a place called Mango Mango to check out these frozen daqiris.  After a daquiri and a slice of pizza we decided to walk back to the hotel and put the things that we were carrying back in the room.  This means that very few photos were taken of our night on Bourbon Street, because we left the camera behind at that point, but to tell you the truth I think we should all be a little thankful for that.

We left the hotel again and went and had dinner at a place called Red Fish, followed by a number of hours at a karaoke saloon singing songs and drinking more 3 for 1's which later in the evening became 2 for 1s.  We stayed on Bourbon Street until about 2:30am.

Gobb says: OK, I just need to add here that Bourbon Street is completely insane. Really. The entire street is one big frat party from end-to-end. Honestly, we weren't even intending to go partying on Bourbon Street, but once there... well, we couldn't help it. In the interests of keeping this blog family-friendly, we've left out a lot of the gory details, but... just WOW. If you've never been here, then it's something I highly recommend, just for the experience.

The next morning we were understandably reluctant to get out of bed.  But we made it out and headed off with Gray Line Tours to the Jean Lafitte Swamp and Bayou Tour. We caught the Gray Line bus at the docks, a couple of blocks from the hotel, and went on a 30 minute bus ride through New Orleans to get to the tour place.  Again there were still a few weatherboard homes in various stages of disrepair due to Katrina, but nowhere near as many as we had expected.

There had been a storm while we were on the bus and a whole lot of rain came down but by the time we got off the bus at Lafitte the sun was out again.  Standing there in swamp land, in the bright sunshine, after a storm, having been on Bourbon Street until 2:30am... it was very steamy and I'm sure most of you can imagine how we felt.

We boarded our tour boat and bought a couple of bottles of water and sat with the camera poised waiting to see some gators.

We were not disappointed.  We saw big gators, baby gators, gators with tails missing and gators jumping out of the water because they have some kind of marshmallow habit that they just can't beat.  We found out that even though marshmallows are the preferred treat of any self-respecting gator (other than clumsy boat passengers of course) they were also quite partial to Cheeto's.

Our tour guide would see a gator on the bank or further up in the water and whistle and call "here boy." Sure enough the gators would swim up to the boat.  He also gave us a warning that if any of them try to climb up on the boat we were to just push them back into the water... YEAH RIGHT!!! Fortunately they didn't try to climb up so we didn't have to test the bravery of any of the passengers on board.  The closest we came to having a gator on board was when the guide lifted the tail of a 12 foot male up so people could have a touch.  Well at least that was until he told us that there was a young gator on board the whole time and passed it around for everyone to pat and hold.

We didn't just see gators though, we also saw turtles, a variety of water birds and were introduced to young Roxy Raccoon, who also comes when she's called.

Once we had seen at least a little bit of everything, our guide stopped guiding and turned on the zydeco while cruising back to dock.  There we were in a boat, cruising up the bayou, listening to zydeco... life is good :-)

A replica trapper shack

After the tour finished, we jumped back on the bus and headed back to the French Quarter.  We wandered around a few streets and picked up some bandaids and disinfectant, because those blisters I mentioned earlier appear to be thriving in the New Orleans climate.  Eventually, we happened upon an outdoor cafe that had a live band playing.  Deciding that it was about time we had something to eat, we pulled up a pew and ordered some Nawlins classics.  Stu had a shrimp and oyster Po' Boy, while I ate a cafe sampler of shrimp, oysters and crawdads.  We washed this down with a Louisianna Lemonade while the band played songs like Mack The Knife, Summertime, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter and even Basin Street Blues, which had me totally stoked.

Pay no attention to the piano player behind the pole :-)

By now it was time to head back to the hotel and have a bit of a rest before we went to dinner.  This is exactly what we did.  Dinner was at the Omni Royal's Rib Room.  Guess what they do there... Stu and I both ordered the 11 ounce chef's special which is a cut from a whole rib rack that has been slow roasted.  It is then bought to your table on a grill plate, sizzling in cajun butter.  It also comes with a baked potato but I'm yet to meet the person who can eat both the rib and the potato.  It was hard work finishing off that piece of beef and I was wishing that I had only ordered the 8 ounce, until I realised that the only difference between the 8 and the 11 was that the 8 has no bone in it anymore and therefore is probably just the same amount of meat.  Anyway, with bellies full and sleepy heads, we returned to the room and pretty much passed out.

Just a little something we stumbled across in a shopping centre while walking around.  This one is for the Paracites playing at home.

Today we are heading to a jazz brunch at The Court of Two Sisters and after that we'll go for a walk around the French Market.  Tonight we are scheduled to go on a riverboat cruise up the Mississippi on the Creole Queen and then we'll be back in the room to watch the AFL Grand Final, which starts at 12:30am here.  I'm ignoring the fact that the home time of New Orleans for American football is the Saints.  GO CATS!!!!!!!!