New Orleans: The Big Easy

Well, my wonderful husband decided to take me on a fantastic trip on my days off this last week. We went to Biloxi, Mississippi to visit some friends. Before going to Biloxi we landed in New Orleans, Louisiana, and we decided to spend the day there.  Our plane arrived three hours late, so we didn't have a lot time to spend there.  It wasn't really necessary to spend a lot of time, we had a very small agenda,  I wanted to get my fortune told, have a drink, and buy a voodoo doll. We did all those things.

It is a fascinating place, historically speaking. There are lots of really old things to look at, but it's not as cultural as I thought it would be. Most of the streets are full of the same vendors, selling the same goods.  There is a lot of masks, voodoo dolls, and drinks with crazy plastic take home souvenirs.

The cemetery was interesting, but it closed at 3pm and we missed it. So we headed downtown to Bourbon Street.  It's amazing that anyone gets in there at all. The streets are very narrow and they hard to navigate down because there is so many one way streets.  The cemeteries are above ground because of all the flooding and from the highway it looked like a little walled off city with tiny little brick houses. I suppose that's what it is, houses for the dead.

I got my fortune told by a fortune teller at Marie Laveau's voodoo parlor. It was pretty insightful. The fortune teller seemed to know a lot about me, and made fairly accurate assumptions about my health and gave me advice on my job. Looked at my palm and said I have ankle problems. Which is true. Overall, it was pretty uneventful. He said I would never be divorced, I shouldn't swim in water unless it's clear and I can see the bottom, my brother has a girl friend which he will marry and my sister was married a long time. It was all pretty strange, but I'm glad I did it.

We ate lunch at a place called "Spirits" which was on a TV show called "Bar Rescue". The history of the building was interesting. As it turns out it used to be a barber shops in olden days and it was pretty successful, until the owner, Edward, had a tragic accident at the age of 33. There is a barber chair that you can sit in and take a shot of alcohol. It's a pretty cool place. You can get a drink in a light up skull as well. It's called "The Resurrections". It used to be in a very large glass, but it was ridiculously expensive and it cost the bar a lot of money to serve it.

There is a drink that is specific to New Orleans as well, it's called "Hand Grenade". The Hand Grenade tastes like melon and some sort of bourbon, or whiskey. I thought it was pretty gross and I did not like it at all, but a lot of people do like it. It comes with a little plastic Hand Grenade as a souvenir.

Overall it was an interesting place. There were a lot of street performers, porno places, alcohol, and jazz. The Jazz permeated the air and it was everywhere. It makes you want to dance, coupled with the alcohol you may find yourself doing just that while you explore.