There are a lot of cities I have been to and haven't been to. There are expectations, some are below expectations, some meet them, and some exceed them. I would say New Orleans far exceeded expectations. So much so that I thought I would be spending the entire weekend at Harrah's, and other than the first night, I hardly spent any time there at all. I will tell you what though, it was a long ass day of travel, especially on Southwest which made me stop in Phoenix and Houston, with one plane change and one small delay. When I got to New Orleans, Dannel thought that perhaps I should get some rest, but no, I was ready for a beer and to check out the French Quarter. I immediately embraced the fact that you could purchase a beer and drink it out on the street, so I had an Abita Light (New Orleans #1 beer) and a Bud Light Lime in a paper bag. Like the officer doesn't know whats in the paper bag. Our hotel, the Pere Marquette, was adjacent to Canal street and across from Bourbon Street. Even on a non descript Thursday Night, Bourbon Street was crawling with people, I wouldn't quite call it Mardi Gras like, but it was cool nonetheless. We popped into a few places, and Dannel was on the tail end of his night. That means my night at Harrah's was about to begin. I got into a game of 1-2 no limit right away, and much to my delight, they comped drinks on the floor. This compensated for the fact that rather than rake pots, they charge $6 every half hour just to play. That is $12 an hour, so you better darn well win some pots, even if they are small. I decided to drink fast enough to keep up with the rake, and boy did I. I played very well, and started up over a hundred dollars. I cannot tell you the exact hand, but I suffered a bad beat, and possibly went on tilt? I found myself out of chips, re-bought for another hundred, and promptly lost that too. Damn it ATM time. So I sat down with one last $100 and went on the run of almost a lifetime. I was catching cards, getting paid off, getting free Coors Lights, and loving life. I got involved in a Monster Pot, where I had top pair, top kicker, and there was an obvious spade draw that everyone three players were drawing too. Two bets of $15 were met by my raise to $60, with both players calling. The turn brought no spade, and I raised all in for another $180. The guy to my right thought and thought, eventually folded, although he cursed me under his breath for about 15 minutes. I found myself with over $500 in chips in front of me, it was 6am, and I wasn't seeing straight. Time to cash in. I did see straight enough to find myself at Brother's Fried Chicken, for what was probably the best drunk chicken strips and spicy fries with BBQ sauce I have ever had at 6am.
Day 2
After a close call at the poker table, it was time to give the casino a rest, and check out the French Quarter. Both for curiosity's sake, and to get the lay of the land for the race, which is I guess the reason we are here, right? I met Dannel, Hans, and Kat at The Bayou, which is some kind of New Orleans restaurant. Hans was insistant that I loaded up on carbs, so I obliged and ordered a Hopitulous IPA! I used it as an excuse to steal alot of his fries. They were good. I found a great band just a few blocks off of Bourbon, it was a ten piece, 20's era brass band. That is not my expert musical opinion, just a guess. I enjoyed spending the day walking around the French Quarter, trying the famous Hand Grenade Drink from the Tropical Isle, and getting to bed reasonably early because of the race tomorrow.
Day 3
Today was the Great Urban Race, and I will spare you much of the details, because I wrote about it quite thoroughly in my other blog, but I will say the entire day was quite the Adventure.
My last memories of the evening were hanging out on a balcony at the Tropical Isle, drinking hand grenades, drinking beer out of our eighth place trophy, and thinking to myself, that I had better head back to the hotel, otherwise I would not make it!
Day 4
We woke up probably way too early for a Swamp Tour, but I was excited about it. We would get to see much more of the city that was damaged by the hurricane, and go for a boat ride in a swamp. I would say that is worth the fifty bucks. We got in the bus, and the bus driver had the classic southern accent. I could listen to the guy read the phone book and it would be riveting. His estimations for how high the water came up in certain places were actually quite comical. We did see some damage, but it was not as bad as I thought. We did see a rocket at a Nasa station that I guess landed on the moon? Not sure, I was pretty tired. The bus ride did Dannel in, he definitely didn't feel well by the time we got to the Honey Island swamp. Our boat drive was Captain Claude and he immediately started talking about football, so I knew I was going to like the guy. The boat tour was pretty much what I expected, minus seeing tons of alligators. It was fun, cold, informative, and funny all at the same time. His description of a muffaletta made everyone want to try one. He finally pulled out a pet baby alligator at the end of the trip and let everyone take turns taking pictures with it. Well everyone but me, I wasn't going near the thing. As we were heading back to town, we were negotiating for some Saints tickets, as we had the Panthers in town, and who didn't want to see the Saints in the Superdome! Well Dannel apparently, so I headed out on my own to try and obtain a cheap enough ticket to get me in the stadium. Well, after quite a few failed negotiations, I found someone with a ticket for $100. That was literally the best price I had seen. The person next to him told me that he paid $20 for the ticket. WOW do I wish I had paid 20, but I negotiated down to $75 and was perfectly happy. The ticket was a sheet of paper, so I crossed my fingers that it was actually authentic. New Orleans was a sea of black and gold and people drinking beer in the streets and doing the WHO DAT chant. I felt out of place not wearing a jersey, but I made it CLEAR that I was not there for the Panthers, although I did get a good amount of pictures of the Panther players because they were warming up in our end zone. Strangely I have now seen the Panthers three times. I have only ever seen NFC teams! Anyways, the guy who sold the ticket ended up still sitting next to me. I guess he got pissed at his girlfriend, and they flew all the way out from California! He was a hardcore Saints fan, and I wasn't going to argue. The atmosphere was electric as the Saints were 7-0, but they started off down 14-0 after some electric plays by Deangelo Williams. I told them not to worry. As the Saints got back in the game, the Who Dat chants got louder and the place was whipped into a frenzy. My new buddy Omar bought me a couple of beers, and the Saints came back to win. Brees did good, not great, but just enough to win. It was amazing and I was awestruck being in the Superdome. Who wouldn't be? And of course, the French Quarter had a major after party to celebrate. It seemed like everyone in N.O. had Saints jerseys on that day, including Hans and Kat! I got maybe a 10 minute nap, before Brittany and her friend Kay showed up to do some French Quarter partying! Dannel, Mr. Lame-O of course stayed in the room. We pretty much went to, well I can't say all since there are so many, but a lot of bars in the Quarter. The first stop of course was the Tropical Isle to get some hand grenades. Always a good start to the night! We listened to music, danced, had pizza, drank, drank some more, had shots, listened to more music, and repeated the process over and over. All in all a fun and blurry night on Bourbon. And did I mention EVERYONE, including the bands and security guards, all were wearing Saints jerseys!
Day 5
Everyone was gone, but me and Brittany, and finally we had a nice shopping day and had lunch at Margaritaville. That was good alcohol soaking food. So were the beignets at the Cafe Du Monde. Absolutely as advertised. And buried in powdered sugar. I went into every single cheesey New Orleans gift shop in the city, and bought way too much pointless crap, but it was fun. After a good two hour nap, and some packing, we decided to give the quarter a last go. Brittany was disapointed that we couldn't get into the cemetary, but we did find a bar with Monday Night Football much to my delight. It was Steelers Broncos and Brittany was a good sport. As we were trying to find a restaurant, we passed by a singing couple, and there daughter. I have told this story a million times so I will spare you the details, but it was the sweatiest half hour and the worst dollar I ever spent. We found a little diner, had a decent meal, struggled through a couple of beers and passed out again. I had about a 3 hour turnaround until my flight!
All in all New Orleans was amazing and I can't wait to go back. I would definitely put it in my top ten favorite cities. So much to do, so much to see, and so much left over for next time. I will be back in October of 2010 so that is exciting! Hope you al can come along this time.
