videos had no impact on my get-up-and-go yesterday. Actually, after I got off the computer, the day went to the dogs... for real. Maybe I'll talk about that tomorrow, after the trauma has worn off
or the bruises show up. For now let's talk about awesome things. We went out on Thursday and had a couple of drinks and by the end of the night I was trying to book a hotel in New Orleans. I say "trying" because I was using Priceline and no hotel in the French Quarter or Warehouse District were accepting $59/night for a 4+ star hotel... greedy SOB's. (Speaking of $59/night, I'll tell you about Thursday night's room another day) Anyway, we decided we'd leave Friday and come home Sunday. While Cosme was at work on Friday, I was trying to get a room. I finally found one to accept our offer. The Marriott on Canal Street took me up on $99/night which is still better than hotel.com's $170/night. Then I found out parking was $46/day so we basically broke even, in a way. Oh well, it could've been worse. On the plus side, we stayed here last time and I remembered they sell Pepsi products so I was prepared and brought a few drinks along.
We arrived later than planned but that was okay. And I wasn't sure why but the check-in clerk told us she gave us a room upgrade. Anyway, I made Cosme walk me over for beignets as soon as we put our bags down. Since all the restaurants were closing up, we had to do room service which was okay with me. That just meant we were waiting for our dinner to arrive at midnight.
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| Saturday morning view from the hotel room. |
The next morning we walked down to the French Market. I decided a few years ago that I wanted to start collecting things that could be displayed when we go places. Last time we were here I checked out the artists set up on the walkway at Jackson Square but I didn't find anything. This time I did. I saw some paintings and knew they were me. The colors were a little light but the style was
me. The artist was busy and talking to another interested buyer so we walked off to see other things.
We stopped in at St. Louis Cathedral and then went on for breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the room to cool off, change shoes, oh yeah, and drop off those Pralines I bought. After resting up we went back out for more walking. We stopped at the Cigar Factory and I went back over to the artist set up at Jackson Square. This time he was painting and guess what. He had another painting that wasn't up there earlier. It wasn't framed like the others but the colors were SO me. I bought it.
I was so happy. Now I'm excited to get it framed. I've been looking online to see how I want to go about it. I still have some figuring out to do.
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| This is at the cigar place. That chair just looks comfortable and I like the whole vibe it gives off. |
After that we went for a late lunch at NOLA. We had to. We can't go to New Orleans and not go to NOLA. It was awesome. The only problem was after NOLA, I was miserable. Between the pocket bread, bbq'd shrimp and my shrimp and grits, I could barely handle the small bite of the crepe we ordered for dessert. We went back to the hotel to rest again but that turned into a 2 hour nap and then I didn't want to get up again. That was fine though. The heat and walking wore us out big time. Isn't that the whole point of a vacation though? You get to do whatever you want? Well, I did exactly what I wanted. While I would've loved to have looked around at a few more stores, I really didn't need to. I already found the painting I wanted to find the last time we went and since everyone in the family has been to New Orleans (
except Eric but I figure he'll be going soon enough), I didn't see the point in souvenirs. ("Hey, here's a tshirt from
my trip to Nola. Remember that time
you went?")
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| Sunday morning's view |
We headed out pretty early, because that's how we roll. We really like visiting New Orleans but it's one of those places where it can get old fast. We're not really into the whole Bourbon Street scene. Sure, it can be fun but it's the other people that can ruin it for me. We saw and ate what we came to see and eat and then we headed out. It was a great trip.
There was a guy staggering down Canal Street on our way out of town. The back of his dress shirt was wet, one pant let was tucked into a boot while the other wasn't and he didn't look like he had a clue which direction he needed to be heading. Considering it was already 7:30 in the morning, I'd say his Saturday night was pretty wild... making me feel that much better about turning in early.
