Spring Break in New Orleans: Day 2

It's my birthday!!! Today I turn the big Three-Oh. Yep... yours truly is now 30 years old.

So today we woke up early in the morning. Let me tell you... getting me out of bed early is no easy feat (just ask Henry). Yet, Henry was impressed that we were checked out from the hotel and on the road by 9am. We drove for about an hour and stopped at an IHOP past Beaumont, Texas for breakfast. I had a ham and cheese melt and Henry had an omelet. As we placed our order, Henry told the waiter it was my birthday, so he offered free cheese on my side of fries. Big whoop-dee-freekin'-doo. When the check came in, the waiter surprised us by omitting my order from the bill. Now that's what I'm talking about!!!

We drove again for another 4 hours and approached New Orleans at around 3pm. By 3:30, we were in our hotel room ready to explore The Big Easy. We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott (Thanks, Erik!!!), a couple of blocks away from Canal Street.

We got acquainted with the landmarks and made our way first to Canal Street and then to Bourbon Street. Holy crap. It's like Austin's 6th Street only more adult oriented. Now I know why they call New Orleans the Big Easy... if you know what I mean. ;-)

We took a right on St. Peters street and ended up at the St. Louis Cathedral. We went inside and were in awe at the artwork on the murals and ceilings. The paintings were so lifelike and had inlaid gold and silver leaf. Truly amazing. Oddly enough, ambulant voodoo shops and palm readers were outside the church doors ready to make a deviant of you.

We walked past the Plaza de España and into Cafe Du Monde for the obligatory cafe au lait and french begniets which definitely live up to its fame. We walked up the plaza past the canon monument, down the moon walk and further over to the French Market. We found the riverfront trolleys that go between the hotel and the French Quarter and learned that they sold 3-day passes... only to discover that they only accept exact change and we had none. So we went back into the French Market looking for a shop to break our high dollar bills. We stopped by Sally's Praline Shop and bought $40+ dollars worth of prailines... Yes... $40+ worth of sugary treats just to get change to buy trolley tickets. We made our way back to the trolley tracks and waited for the trolley to arrive. After a few minutes, we got ready to board the trolley and buy the 3-day passes when the trolley driver said, "Uhm... yeah... the 3-day passes are sold down at the next stop." What the hell does that mean? We walked down to the next stop, looked around for a ticket machine and found nothing. We had to ask a local where the tickets were sold: Up some alley stairs, left into a mall entrance, down the electric stairs, and find the ice cream shoppe on the right. Fifteen minutes later, we found the damned ice cream parlor and bought the tickets, only to realize we didn't need exact change at all. Oh well... We went back outside to the trolley station and rode with our pralines back to the hotel for a short break.

Later that evening, we went out on a quest for dinner. We walked up Julia Street to St. Charles Avenue and took a trolley through the Garden District. The sun set quickly but we still were able to appreciate the beautiful homes adorning the street. We ended up at the trolley's last stop Carrollton Avenue, where we met four other people who, like us, were heading back to town. Among them was a woman who was raving about a daiquiri bar across the street from the trolley stop where they sold 40+ flavors of daiquiri slushy. We were like high school teenagers all on a mission to get booze. It was fun. Henry and I each bought a 32 oz. bucket of strawberry margaritas which we enjoyed (minus the brain freeze) all the way back downtown.

We boarded the trolley again and headed back to Bourbon Street in search for dinner. Needless to say, most restaurants close their doors around 10 pm to give way to bars and shows. We found the Bourbon House, a nice corner restaurant that was still open and willing to seat us for a late dinner. Two waitresses introduced themselves and took our order. Henry ordered a Hearts of Romaine salad and I got a Bourbon Shrimp appetizer plate. We waited for a short while and when the food came out it was delicious. As we were eating, we noticed long elapses of time between refills and when we finally got the waitresses' attention, their attitude left a lot to be desired. Henry was fed up with their attitude enough that he got up and asked for a manager. Shortly thereafter, our main entree came out and the waitress asked how everything was. We politely expressed our dissatisfaction to the waitress, to which she gave an excuse about how late it was... blah blah. Henry rebutted that it makes no difference how late it is... For the amount of money we're paying, you'd expect the same level of service whether we arrive at 8 pm or 11:30 pm. The waitress gave attitude and said she'd pass the comment on to the manager. By then, Henry told her not to bother; that he had summoned the manager already. Moments later the manager stopped by our table, introduced himself as Armand, and asked what the problem was. We explained to him that the food was outstanding, but that our experience was soured by their lack of service. He quickly agreed that we should expect the same level of service regardless time. We also informed him that we were there celebrating my birthday and that the "perfect birthday dinner" was becoming more of a hopeless disaster. He apologized and offered to make it up to us.

He whisked back into the kitchen and brought us back some Bourbon Vanilla Gelato with nutmeg as a complementary after-dinner cocktail. Delicious! Moments later, he walked out of the kitchen with a platter full of goodies: A warm brownie with white and dark chocolate chips, a slice of New York style cheese cake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream with strawberries, all served on a plate with "Happy Birthday" written with chocolate. Very creative and elegant. After dinner, the waitress gave us a forced apology as she handed us the check. You can tell she'd been disciplined. Take that. In the end, my birthday dinner turned out to be a truly interesting, memorable event. We headed back to the hotel thereafter.