I landed in New Orleans, and it was like any other airport. Got my 4Runner and headed over to the Superdome to set up shop in the NFL Replay Booth used by the Saints. What a dump. I understand the tradition and the lore of the Superdome, and it's had some rough moments (see: Katrina refugee camp) in its past, but for such a famous stadium, it is pretty unkempt. The replay booth itself was cramped and stuffy. But installation went smoothly and I was out in about an hour or two. Time to hit the town. Except that didn't happen at all. I went to my hotel and stayed there for the rest of the night...not knowing an available soul in the entire city and not feeling adventurous enough to rough it solo.
So the fun had to wait until Jay arrived during the monsoon on Thursday. Apparently, the levees broke again (too soon?), because the 10 mile drive to the airport took about an hour due to highway flooding and bad drivers. Whose idea was it to settle on a swamp and turn it in to one of the most desirable party hot spots in the nation?
Regardless, Jay and I headed back to the 'dome to test out all the equipment, which all worked fine. We were out by 6 and headed back to powder our noses before really hitting the town Thursday night. Jay's friend Colleen (unfortunately, she's a UVA grad, but we let that slide) met us outside of Harrah's and we walked to Acme for dinner. Raw oysters for an appetizer, and a shrimp po' boy for the main course. Delicious. I love Cajun food more and more every time I go there. For the sake of parents who might be reading this, I will conveniently forget to include the number of drinks we had throughout the course of the night. Mostly because I couldn't remember if I wanted to, but also because they would be ashamed of me. We'll just say it was enough to enjoy myself.
From Acme we hoofed it to Pat O's (O'Brian's for the non-locals) to get some world famous Hurricanes.
The drink says "Have fun" so we did. There is a very cool fountain in the Pat O's courtyard, but the picture didn't turn out very well, so I won't post. We were supposed to meet the game officials at the Pat O's piano bar, but they were nowhere to be found. I think we missed them.
Next, we trudged up and down Bourbon street enjoying the scenery and the atmosphere. We ran in to Memphis fans and FAU fans alike, and always had a different story for why we were fans of one or the other. The Memphis fans were out in much stronger force, and had much more enthusiasm. It wasn't enough for their team, who lost pretty soundly the next day (after some serious injuries to key players, unfortunately).
Eventually, we got hand grenades from an actual hand grenade.
After a few walks up and down Bourbon St., we were shamefully enticed in to a slovenly little dive full of false promises that we never would have even considered in a sober state. Again, parents, please skip this paragraph. We decided the ads for a live sex show were pretty intriguing. Inside was a different story. What...a...slum. There was no sex, just strung out women trying to earn a living from the 3 or 4 people dumb enough to actually walk in there expecting something spectacular. Very disappointing. We promptly left after our required 1 drink purchase.
The dance club was next, which was the most fun in my opinion. Drinks were 2 for 1 and the music was good. There was a good size crowd. All in all, the night was a great experience. We stumbled back to the hotel around 1 or 2 AM 'cause we're old and that's as long as we could last.
The game itself was disturbing. The trio of knee injuries made me sick to my stomach. These were serious--almost McGahee quality--knee blows. Having blown out my knee, I definitely have a special place in my heart for those kids.
Next trip...Nashville on the 29th. Stay tuned.
2 comments:
thanks for the judicious editing. i'm happy to get the picture without the details! glad you all had fun.
mom
look its jay!
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