The Big Easy

Went to New Orleans for the first time about 2 weeks ago – man what a town! I loved it, great place to visit, I highly recommend it. I was there for my friend Lewis’s wedding. It was a damn good time, had a chance to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen for a while; Beef, Skiles, Megan, Renee, Chuck, Basia (sorry if I spelled that wrong), Daryl, and of course Lewis (and his fiancé/wife whom I met). Bama, Dirk, and Jodi where there also (course I see them all the time).

Believe it or not, I spent a lot of time in bars there. I know that’s totally uncharacteristic of me, but what can I say. Went to Pat O’Briens, which apparently is supposed to be famous, I didn’t think much of it. Noisy, crowded, and expensive – don’t bother unless you’re in to that scene. Also got to go to Rick’s Cabaret and watch some of the wives make people question their sexuality (it’s a strip club and they were getting dollar dances). Finished Friday night off at Ryan’s Irish Pub, which was a great place, good selection of beers – I called it a night when Lewis’s friend Andy bought the 3^rd round of Irish car-bombs.

Got a lot of pictures at Lewis’s wedding on Saturday, it was on board a steamboat on the mighty Mississippi, pretty cool. After that we went to the Crescent Moon Brewery and had a few lame beers (click here if you want to see how I rated them). Then went on to the Famous Door where the wives got on stage and tried (unsuccessfully) to steal the mic from the rapping DJ.

After that we stopped at the 544 Club where things got funky. There was a booty-shaking contest. Beef got video of it, which you can see here. Then my brother and I embarked on a project to get pictures of him with this mean lady in a yellow sweater (she kept hitting people that would walk by her) without her knowledge. We got a few, but she eventually got wise to what we we’re doing and she came running at me when I had the camera on them. Thankfully she didn’t hit me. After all the fun there we stopped briefly at The Dungeon where I thought my brother was going to get in a fight with a very rude and very fat bouncer – thankfully he gave peace a chance. Oh, and then we met a pirate.

Sunday night we hit a bunch of bars off of Bourbon Street (basically local places where the drinks were about half what you paid on Bourbon). We ate dinner at Coop’s Place and had some really awesome pasta – it had crawfish and homemade tasso (a type of Cajun pork sausage). After that we stopped at the Hooka Café and smoked some flavored tobacco. Beef smoked most of it (big surprise). Then we did a whole lot of bar hopping – D.B.A., Snug Harbor, Spotted Cat, etc.

In addition to all the drinking, we also managed to see some sites. Had a chance to walk through the Warehouse District on Friday, went to Jackson Square and walked around the French Quarter on Saturday, went to Café Du Monde and the Audubon Aquarium on Sunday. Click here to see all our pictures from the trip.

~ by Dixon on May 8, 2007.