The best part about the vacation was that, because we were working while we were there, we didn't have to pay for the flight, hotel, or food for half of the trip. If you're going to take a vacation, be sure you do it on somebody else's dime!
Now, the real best part of the trip had to have been the food. I can't even begin to describe how good the food was down there. We went to some top notch restaurants - Domenica, Court of Two Sisters, Mr. B's Bistro, Besh Steak, Brennan's, Frank's, Charlie's Sea Foods, Cafe du Monde and Bacco... and McAlister's Deli, but I don't think that really counts.
I decided that I was going to try something new at every meal, and it was quite an experience: roasted goat, turtle soup, red snapper (along with some amazing grits.... seriously, if grits actually tasted like this each time I ate them, I would eat them all the time), 38 oz "cowboy steak" (a bone-in ribeye), fried oysters, muffuletta, whole crawfish boil, po boy, and giant (whole) grilled shrimp.
What was really cool was that while we were at Charlie's Sea Foods, we met the owner/chef Frank Brigtsen, who is a friend of the people we were visiting for the afternoon. Why is this so cool? He is a James Beard awarding winning chef - that's like a culinary Oscar. He was, simply put, the nicest, most gracious man... not to mention, he could cook like nobody else!
We did do some other things besides eat on this trip. We took a guided tour of the French Quarter. Our guide was very good and he gave us some great insight into the history of New Orleans and the French Quarter. We also were able to see his father's house, which is right in the middle of the French Quarter. Very fascinating.
We took a stroll down Bourbon Street, which was awful. I know that it's one of those "things to do" when you are in New Orleans, but it is disgusting and heartbreaking. Half-naked girls stand in the doorways trying to get you to come into their bar/strip club. People are running around acting like idiots all over the place. One place, called Big Al's World Famous Love Acts, had a guy standing outside trying to get people to come in, and as a way of enticing the passers-by, he held a sign that said, "No Cover." Clearly, he meant there was no cover charge to get in, but certainly there was no cover on the people inside as well. My only thought, which I tweeted afterwards was - "so many broken people looking for the wrong kind of fix." In honor of Mr. Gump... that's all I have to say about that.
After the conference was over, we still had a couple of days. On Saturday, Katie's friend Tre picked us up and gave us a local tour of the area. She told us a lot about the rebuilding that has been going on. It seems like on every corner there is something new, or something that is in the process of getting torn down.
On Monday, we had planned on doing a walking tour of the Garden District, but that fell through, and we spent the morning/afternoon walking around the French Quarter some more. We went through the French Market, where I purchased a gator head to go next to the mounted piranha in my office.
One big deal while we were down there was that New Orleans was inaugurating its first white mayor in decades. The outgoing mayor decided to hold on to a lot of money during his tenure, and decided to spend it now that he was leaving office. Because of that, nearly every single street in the town was getting worked on, which made traffic quite a chore. Thankfully, we didn't have to navigate it ourselves.
Obviously, the other big thing going on was the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It was on the forefront of everyone's minds because if it comes too near the shore, it is going to have a major impact on the fishing industry, which supplies the seafood for nearly half of the United States. On our flight out of New Orleans, we passed over the area where the oil spill is going on, but there was too much cloud cover to see it. Apparently, though, it is bad enough that we could have seen it from the plane.
All in all, we had a great trip. Unfortunately, the miscarriage that we have been expecting decided to happen while we were there, so that certainly put a damper on things, but we tried to not let it get us down. New Orleans is certainly an experience, and quite frankly, the food is incredible. It's not cheap, but it is fantastic.
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