What Just Happened?!

What a wild ride it was!

As you could see from my last post, we kicked off our trip to New Orleans with an adult beverage. It seemed like the right thing... after all, it was about 10pm and we were about to haul ourselves across the country (on a flight that was surprisingly quick! We barely had time to sleep). This original group of seven was also inaugurated into a new tradition,

which involved more adult beverages and was, really, a bad

idea. It was still fun, though!

We arrived early in the morning to NOLA and went our separate ways to our homes. With a group of 20+, there was no way to contain us all in one house! We dumped our stuff, freshened up, and headed out to Cafe du Monde for some delicious beignets and hickory coffee. This was particularly exciting for me, since, while I had been to NOLA several times, had never had the coffee. It was finally my turn!

It was the first time I had been there, though, since Katrina. I looked around the French Quarter and didn't see much difference from the last time I was there, but we didn't venture much further beyond that. There were a lot of tasteless shirts referencing Katrina, which, while funny, just hints of the anger that is still there. I don't blame them!

Soon, we hit LaFitte's Bar - they claim to be the oldest continuously running bar in the USA - and waited for the rest of our group. Soon, our little group of eight (one had shown up while we were getting beignets) had grown to about 16! It was really a great place to kick off our trip.

From there, the weekend just got better and more insane. There was the food -- first stop: Coops on Decatur. This is a surprisingly divey place, right in the tourist zone, but that's what makes it great. Oh, and the southern cooking!! After a quick nap and change of clothes, it was off to Acme, a famous oyster bar that we HAD to try at least once (no, I didn't eat the oysters, I go for the hush puppies, which I douse in tabasco). Acme was probably the only time we had trouble getting the group together. It was the first night, we didn't all know each other...but we made it work. One table for 12 and another for the balance of 4 of us. So fun!!

Then, the bars...the first night we went to a piano bar, where we were the stars of the show (I

mean, how can you ignore a group of 16 loudmouths), and then to a local place to see a band one of our friends just loved. That didn't last too long, as we were hot and needed a hurricane or two (yes, we fully celebrated our tourist-ness). I am pretty sure we closed down Bourbon Street.

As we did every other night. Our favorite place -- aside from Pat O's, was the Cat's Meow (which I dubbed Cat Club because I like the sound better). It's a karaoke bar, and they could not get us off the stage for about 2 days. No, that is not a typo...I think there was someone from our group at that bar, almost continuously, for the entire weekend. If we lost someone, we'd look there first. Shockingly, we never got kicked out, even after two of the guys completely took out two of the girls, and spilled their very sticky, red drink all over the place.

There was one more meal in there, at the Court of Two Sisters. If you're looking for a HUGE brunch full of Southern goodness, this is your place. It is located right next to Pat O's in the Quarter, but shockingly, it is really, really quiet in there. It was a nice peaceful moment in an otherwise quick-paced weekend.

It's been a week, but none of us have gotten over the fun we've had. And no one can wait until next year!