Working Tourist: NOLA

Initial impressions were that "it smells like pee" and "I haven't seen anyone normal yet."

We were staying at the Holiday Inn on King Street which I was a bit disappointed about because 1) I wanted a cute boutique hotel but the Chase points site was being a b**ch about what was available and 2) based on the map I thought it was going to be kind of out of the way. Everything in the French Quarter is really close together though, so concern #2 wasn't an issue. Night 1 we wandered around and of course stumbled onto Bourbon Street. It's hard to miss - loud and people-ful! It was exactly as I was expecting, just a mess of drinking. I can't imagine what a disaster Mardi Gras is... In two off-season days we saw a girl flash for a hot dog, flashing for beads of course, sidewalk peeing of course, a guy get punched out by a bouncer and left on the sidewalk (very near to horse crap too, ick. Note: don't wear open shoes on Bourbon St). One of the best was a police horse freaking out about something and (literally) butting into a guy. He acted like he was going to start something for a second but then decided that "it's cool." Not sure what he thought he was going to do in the first place?? The horse will crush you. All of this is I'm sure completely standard and tame compared to what goes down most of the time.

From this it probably seems like I didn't enjoy New Orleans which is not the case. I really liked it a lot. The people watching is great! The scent gets better after the streets are powerwashed. The thing I really liked, and not in a drunk way, was that you could walk around with drinks at any time. It was nice to get a drink then continue sightseeing without trouble.

During the day we did the standard French Quarter touring as well as drove over to the Garden District to see the historic mansions. People were starting to decorate for Mardi Gras which I really enjoyed. The colors are so much fun! I might start decorating for it myself. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to do - the WWII museum and film were reported to be excellent but the timing was bad - but we will get back eventually. We ate some beignet, muffaletta, gumbo, jambalaya, red beans, crawfish, king cake... I gained like 5 pounds... We went to the Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel where mixed drinks were supposedly invented. Sazeracs aren't really my thing...

Overall it was a great relaxing stay. I think I love NOLA :)