New Orleans (Pt 2)

This morning, we headed out on the town to hunt for breakfast. After wandering around quite a bit in the French Quarter, we landed at The Praline Connection, which opened pretty much just as we got there. We would have gone to Café du Monde instead, but there was a very long line and we were hungry. At Praline, we chatted and sipped on some Coke as we waited for red beans and rice with hot sausage and fried chicken with mac and cheese and collard greens. I don't really like collard greens, especially prepared Southern style, but the fried chicken order was worth it. I don't seem to recall ordering corn bread, but that came with the meal as well.

One of many doors and many colors

Anyway, afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and I grabbed my camera and headed out alone to conquer the French Quarter. Well, it was not so much conquering as it was shooting. I wandered around pretty much all afternoon taking pictures of everything from the trademark balconies to doors and windows. I actually think I took a lot of pictures of those, mainly because the color schemes were very bold and sometimes even contrasting. It made for amusing abstract shots, I think, but I suppose I'm in no real position to judge.

Particularly interesting, I thought, was the French Market area, which was basically a flea market or bazaar. The tightly packed tables of counterfeit luxury items, souvenirs, t-shirts, and trinkets reminded me of Thailand and its many bazaars. This definitely reminded me of why it is that I like to travel. Besides just photography and learning new things, traveling reminds you that, despite all the differences in culture and society, there remain common threads that link these varying people together. And as this "market culture" indicates, although economics is only recently emerging as the main vehicle of control in the world, it's influences have been around since man began bartering.

Little trinkets sold at the market

Anyway, after the fog or mist started rolling in, I started heading back towards the hotel, snapping some more shots on the way... Then, we headed just a couple blocks away for po boys at Mother's Restaurant. We shared a deep-fried catfish one and a Ralph, which was one with cheese, roast beef, ham, and debris (roast so tender that it apparently just falls apart in its on drippings, which are also included). Overall, really yummy and resulted in me being really full - two things that are never a bad thing, right? After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to figure out where to go next. I don't know if we actually decided anything though because we just ended up heading out and wandering around the French Quarter. We did manage to hit up the Tropical Isle for a hand grenade, which claims to be the strongest drink in New Orleans. I felt maybe a slight buzz from it... maybe ours were weaker than they were supposed to be. At that place, we sat on the balcony for a while people watching. Specifically, we were trying to spot Notre Dame paraphernalia, which is in short supply due to our location in Louisiana, home of LSU.

After an unsuccessful search, we continued wandering through Le Vieux Carré until we hit Café du Monde, where we relaxed on a café au lait each and split a plate of beignets, which is essentially powdered sugar mounded on French doughnuts instead of vice versa, to quietly celebrate midnight, when Jaime officially turned 30... After watching some people making fools of themselves by throwing powdered sugar on others and themselves, we ambled on and headed to the casino, where it was decided quite quickly that we wouldn't stay. We meandered back to the hotel and basically just crashed out after that, leading me to believe that the hand grenade may just be the strongest sedative in New Orleans.