I was so excited to be arriving in the Big Easy and was not let down. We arrived on Saturday night and was able to get Scott into his apartment right away. He's in a gated sr. apartment complex on the campus. It's really nice... 4 singles, a living room, dining area, kitchen with a dishwasher and 2 bathrooms and is completely furnished right down to the end tables! The closets even have closet organizers in them! There's a park-like lawn area in the middle of the complex where people hang out and grill etc. Very nice.
We went to VooDoo BBQ for dinner. The smell of BBQ from even down the street calls your name! The food was great especially the corn pudding.Sunday was a fun day. We started the morning at the New Orleans School of Cooking. We listened to the stories that Anne, our leader, had to tell and watched her demo how to make Gumbo, Jambalaya, Bread Pudding and Pralines. We got to eat everything. Anne is a very funny, tell it like it is kind of tough woman. At first we thought she was a man! We really enjoyed ourselves there. I will post the pics and more from the N.O. S.of C on my cooking blog within a few days...http://mamazukecooks.blogspot.com/
PJ having his 2nd or 3rd helping of yummy GUMBO
At the end, Ann sits back down again to have a few laughs and to finish her Abita Beer that was served during lunch.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at Walmart and Target getting everything Scott needed. While in Target in the school supply isle, my eye caught something but we walked out of the isle. For some reason, I HAD to go back and find out what that was. I was very surprised at what I saw. There was this spiral notebook with a surfer on it that looked EXACTLY like Scott! We HAD to buy it, and a folder that matched!
The remnants of tropical depression Fay began to invade us. It POURED and POURED! It was actually funny to see the other parents in their deck shoes (no socks of course!) and new sneakers or even heels in ankle deep water! Not us! We planned with old sneakers and old sandals! What I thought was pretty amusing was that a TON of girls, mostly freshman, had these really colorful, pretty rubber boots on. I had never seen these before. I think we must have easily seen about 50 pairs and not one was the same as another pair! They were, fruit, zebra prints, flowers etc. You name it, there's a rubber boot of it! I have to say, those girls planned right because they do get a lot of heavy downpours and flooding.
We ended up going to Cooder's Corner for dinner because we were in the area and didn't want to drive around. Scott got an Alligator Sausage Po Boy. I had a bite and boy was that good!
On the way to Scott's school we passed a fun looking place, The Bull Dog, that had the coolest water display on their patio. After dropping Scott off at school, PJ and I stopped there to get some pictures. It was all made out of beer taps. I LOVED it!!!
PJ and I went to the French Quarter to walk around. It was pretty empty, probably because of the weather. We brought Flat Jim (Jim Kerr from Q104.3 had a contest where you print out Flat Jim, like the Flat Stanley that Elem school kids do their project of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley, and take him with you where ever you go on vacation, in the yard, where ever. You take a pic of Flat Jim having fun. So what better place for Flat Jim to have fun but on Bourbon Street at BIG ASS BEERS!
We found a place that we were trying to find last year but couldn't. It's called Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar (http://www.atneworleans.com/body/blacksmith.htm) on the corner of Bourbon Street and St. Phillip Street. It was built sometime before 1772. The interior was really neat as there was the original fireplace, brick walls wood floor etc. It is mostly lit by candles which is nice. It's nice because it pretty quiet as compared to the rest of Bourbon Street.
Monday was spent going back and forth from one office to another trying to settle the loans, and complete paperwork. That was an EASY 4 HOURS! At one point, I sat on the porch of one of the buildings and got bored and took a pic of myself being that I'm never IN any pictures!
When we went back to the parking garage, we found out that we had a nice FLAT!
It was a long day. We ate at BUSTERS SOUL FOOD and got these HUGE plates of ribs. They were really good! The menu stunk as there was hardly anything ON the menu to choose from!
As you can tell... New Orleans is ALL ABOUT THE FOOD!!!Tuesday we went on the Honey Island Swamp Tour. VERY fun. We got close up to the aligators as the guide was feeding them hotdogs and marshmallows. He took is in small inlets that led to areas with trees that were covered with moss and the water was covered with vegetation so it looked like a leaf carpet! I felt like I was in the Wizard of Oz with the apple tree scene. Kind of creepy!
Weekend houses where the rednecks fish and party!
We drove to Picyune Mississippi to visit PJ's Aunt Dee in a nursing home. She was always our favorite aunt. She's now in her 90's. Well, Aunt Dee didn't have a clue who we were! The one thing that made her very happy was that Scott told her that he knew that she grew up on Desire Street, and knew the house #, in New Orleans. So on Thursday, we decided to find her house. Well, as it turned out, the house she grew up in was in the 9th Ward!! It was still bordered up from Hurricane Katrina. She had moved out of that house about 70 years ago so i'm sure the neighborhood wasn't so bad!
Scott went to dinner with his friends so we went to Bubba Gump and sat on the balcony. The food was good and the view was great!
Chatting with Alyssa on the cell
After Bubba's, we walked around the French Quarter. We ended up at Pat O'Brians. We really liked the atmosphere last year when we had dinner in the courtyard. This time, we wanted to try a HURRICANE. They were pretty but honestly, they weren't that 'special'! It's a nice place though to just sit and relax. They don't have ANY indoor seating so in nice weather, you're under the stars with tropical plants surrounding you.
While Scott was in school, PJ and I decided to go on a tour of Houmas House Plantation. http://www.houmashouse.com/
It was a nice place with a weird guide but I wasn't that impressed. I did however like the plantings of the Live Oaks (that's the name) on the front lawn.
Spiral Staircase
After class, Scott took us for a walk through Audobon Park which is across the street from his school. It's a beautiful park... all catering to some sort of fitness. They have a golf course and bike/walk/run/roller blade paths that are wide and LABLED so you don't crash! The walkers stay on left lane which is divided in half for coming and going and the right lane is for bikers and roller bladers because they're faster.
On our last day we had to hit the CamillaGrill. It's a 'secret' requirement that you MUST eat here before graduating. It was featured on the Food network. Delicious and HUGE burgers!! Scott ate 1/2 of mine and almost all of my fries!
Our last stop was to the Creole Creamery (http://www.creolecreamery.com/). Scott had eaten their Tchoupitoulas Sundae on May 9, 2008, and we wanted to see if his name was put on the plaque.
Our last stop was to the Creole Creamery (http://www.creolecreamery.com/). Scott had eaten their Tchoupitoulas Sundae on May 9, 2008, and we wanted to see if his name was put on the plaque.
"The Tchoupitoulas Challenge
Do you have what it takes to be a member of our Tchoupitoulas hall of fame? Anyone who is able to finish a Tchoupitoulas sundae with no help will be immortalized on our hall of fame plaque."
Do you have what it takes to be a member of our Tchoupitoulas hall of fame? Anyone who is able to finish a Tchoupitoulas sundae with no help will be immortalized on our hall of fame plaque."
His name was on the plaque and is also on the web site! The Creole Creamery was also featured on a Food network show as having some of the best and most unusual flavor ice creams.
Some other things that we dis was take Scott to Harrah's GAMING. It's ikllegal to have a casino so they call it a GAMING place! I found $10 on the grass before going in. We each got $10 to bet. Yup, we're big spenders! I walked around checking out everything. There was a lot of people in this one section and I kept going back to it trying to get a seat with no luck. I ended up loosing my $10. I went to go look for PJ and Scott and I noticed there was a seat in that crowded section. I sat down and really contimplated betting more $. Heck, I found the $10 earlier so I used that. On my 4th turn, I won something but didn't know what because i didn't understand the game. All I knew was that it kept dinging. Then I noticed it! I won $54!! I cashed out and was happy!
We also went to Dot's Diner one of the days. I had given Scott a $10 gift certificate last year from Restaurant.com. You had to spend $20. He took a girl who ordered a bagel and water. So Scott ordered a TON of things just to get to the $20! The people were so impressed, they gave him a shirt! So he wanted us to try it because the food has a great reputation and it cheap. That it was! They even have a GAMING CORNER!
Some houses near Scott's school. He's in the Garden District so the houses are like mini (sometimes as huge) plantation houses! I love the look of the long windows with shutters.
Some other pics...
Scott on Bourbon Street
We rode the street car
No comments:
Post a Comment