Beads, Beignets, and Hurricanes

First impression of New Orleans:

• Scary
• slummy
• stinky
• poverty is w-a-y below the poverty level
• Just simply a ghetto-ass place that totally scared me shitless

But then we figured it wasn't fair to judge this smelly-ass shithole by the first glance, especially since Olivia and I got out at the wrong exit and we got freakishly scared because everything looked like the project and we had the hardest time getting back to the highway. But no. Gotta give it the benefit of the doubt...

Second attempt:

• Still stinky
• Still slummy at parts
• Hot as hell but...
• Garden District was, of course, gorgeous!!
• Bourbon St. was awesome
• The Jazz was spectacular
• Oooh! Ahhhh! The good eats! Food was almost always de-lish!

The food that I ate in those 3 days:

• Oyster Rockefeller - French Quarter
• Beignets - Cafe Du Monde
• Olive bread, raspberry croissant - Cafe Boulangerie (I think...)
• Fried Alligator - French Quarter
• Crawfish Etoufee, po-boy - Mother's. Note:Olivia ate jambalaya, and I thought it was really good. But she said my etoufee was amazingly awesome and much-much better than hers
• Fried shrimp & oysters, the best green beans, and the best breadpudding in my life - Mandina's
• And I also had a really good, juicy peach, kettle corn, and boiled peanuts from the Farmer's Market

*Note to self: remember to lose the 5 pounds you gained in those 3 days...*


Beignets piled up with sweet powder sugar and a cup of cafe au lait. Mmmmm...life is good!


Jackson Square. There are a lot of artists selling their paintings around the square. One lady's painting stole my heart. She said she used "Italian Technique" using palette knives. It was just beautiful and totally capfure the life in the French Quarter. But it was also 400 bucks.


Olivia just met her new baby-daddy. Met with Raymond the first day we hung out on Bourbon St. He was totally into Olivia. I kinda felt like a "lightbulb" at times but after I got my Hurricane in one hand, hey, who cares!


Pat O'Brien's. 3 bars. Need I say more? well, all right. One is a piano lounge. One is a regular bar, and the last one is an outdoor with a fountain. And as you can guess, I took a picture with the fountain.


Mississippi River. At night, they have jazz playing from the ferry in the background.


There are a lot of this kinds of stuff in the French Quarter, people acting like statues. But this guy was especially good and his pose was just funny, so I had take a picture.


The trees in the Garden Districts are H-U-G-E! The roots are even bigger!! They looked like giant feet!


And this is just one example of the mansions in the Garden District. Pretty huh? Ann Rice just sold hers for 3.5M. Wish I could have that kind of moo-moo...*sigh*

But that's the end of it folks! Next month I'll be off to Montreal, and we'll have a different story for ya!