Tuesday, April 19, 2005

New Orleans Trip

Wow have I been busy. As most of my frequent visitors are aware I just started a new job a little over a month ago and I have a side business that I started in January. Well this month was tax deadline as well as the end of the first quarter so I have been swamped. I know that I have been neglecting my site but I am going to try and get back up to date.

It has been close to a year since Luke and I have been out of town. We usually try to go about three times a year for a weekend trip at least. Well Luke has been wanting to go to New Orleans before it got really hot so a couple of weeks ago I told him if we were going we had to go now.

I booked a room at the New Orleans Grand Palace hotel and we packed. I had planned to take off half a day on Friday but when I got to work my boss said he needed someone to pick up a check two hours on the other side of New Orleans so off I went. We made it to our hotel about 3:00pm and checked. While we were checking in we found out that the French Quarter Festival was going on that weekend. What a treat. The hotel on the other hand was no treat. When we got to our room it was filthy. We went downstairs and told the people at the desk that our room was not clean and there were no towels and that we were going out for a while could they send someone to clean it. We arrived back at the hotel about four hours later to discover nobody had been to the room. I went back to the desk and they said the maid was gone and they could move us to another room. Well, we moved a floor down and got a suite so that was great.

The hotel was out on Canal street past the interstate but the trolley runs out there now so we bought a day pass every day we were they so we could travel back and forth. The next morning we got up early and began dressing. When I was about half way through drying my hair the power went off. I called the office and they said they would send someone up. Half an hour later I gave up and put my hair in a clip and told Luke let's go get breakfast. On the way out I stopped by the desk and told them we still needed the power turned back on. Later that afternoon we returned and there was still no power. I went to the desk once again and was told that we would have to move again across the hall. This was getting crazy.

To back up a little bit. We were only suppose to stay Friday night and Saturday morning we told them that we were going to stay and extra night.

On Saturday we went and ate breakfast at The Corner Oyster Bar and Grill. It was good but it took a long time to get our food. What was crazy to me was how many people were in there drinking at 9:00 in the morning. After that we went to the French Market to shop. Luke and I both got some great sunglasses. We had lunch at a little place that we had not been to before. I can't remember the name but it was really good. After that we decided to ride the ferry across the river to Old Algiers. There is not really a lot to do over there except the Mardi Gras Museum so we just rode back. The quarter was packed with people in town for the festival. It was a lot of fun. We went to our favorite restaurant for dinner The Gumbo Shop.

That night we went down to Bourbon Street. I am not a big Bourbon Street person but there is one bar way down at the far end that most tourist don't venture to. It is the oldest bar in the United States. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop has the best Hurricane's in the world. We stayed there for a long time and Luke had his picture made with one of the guys that plays there all the time. Come to find out this guy played with Fats domino for over 20 years.

The next morning we slept in as last as we could and then got up and check out of the hotel. The lady at the desk said you are prepaid and I said ok and we left. I was prepaid for the first night but not the second. Normally I would have said something but after all the trouble we had I kept quiet. So we got the second night free. We loaded up the car and left it in the parking garage and headed back to the quarter. We went to get coffee and beignets for breakfast from the world famous Cafe du Monde. We strolled around the French Quarter for a while longer and headed home.
























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