"Should We Stop for Food Now or Later...or Both?" A Memoir.: New Orleans, LA

Nikki again, straight from I-85N, two hours outside of Athens, GA where we’re headed for New Years Eve. This eight hour drive has been broken up by a stop at both Sonic and KFC, so needless to say, we’re still full. Our long stint in New Orleans was everything we hoped it would be and more!

We arrived on the 29^th around 5 and settled into Morgan’s Tulane apartment (thanks again, Moe!) after our longest drive of the trip. We switched out of sweatpants and into more presentable clothes, and waited for my friend Rachel (we met in Sydney, she lives 2.5 hours outside of NOLA, hi Rach!) to pick us up. We drove down to the French Quarter and waited in a relatively long line for a delicious place recommended to us called the Gumbo Shop. It was, in fact, quite delicious, and a conversation was had regarding me bathing in said Gumbo. Linds got crawfish ettoufee and Rachel got red beans & rice. We fit in so well here. After dindin, we walked all around the Quarter and saw a long line at the 24-hour Café du Monde, multiple voodoo/tarot card/palm reading tables, and most importantly, a bustling Bourbon Street, even on a Sunday night. The Saint’s had just won a game and tourists and locals alike were celebrating properly. After grabbing a hot chocolate and baileys from a very peculiar bar called Nepoleons Itch (‘nuff said), we strolled along the street weaving in and out of drunken fools and laughing at overhead conversations. We spent a good chunk of time in the Quarter and eventually made it back to the apartment in one piece.

Rise and Shine was at 9am. We made it back to Café du Monde just in time to get the perfect spot in the enormous line. Luckily, that place is huge and the line moves relatively quickly. Also, luckily, street performers were there to entertain and keep our minds off the fact that we were not yet stuffing our faces with fried dough covered in powdered sugar. But don't worry. That time came. And it was glorious. Lindsey and I were modest and split three between the two of us. We washed it down with café au lait and hot chocolate, gave our seats up to the next group of hungry tourists, and began our daylight stroll back around the French Quarter. The artists had their art hung up all around Jackson Square and we stopped to look at everything. We must have gone into quite literally every boutique and art gallery, buying a few goodies here and there. The next time we looked at our clocks, it was 2pm and we had no idea where the morning had gone. We decided 2pm was a good time to eat again, so we got back to the car and drove to our predetermined lunch spot.

This spot is called Parkway Bakery & Tavern, and is the place where the Obama’s get their po’boys in NOLA, so it made the most sense that we do it as well. In addition to free parking, this place had the most fantastic golden fried shrimp po’boy I’ve ever had, and I think I maybe have had a bite of one before in my 21 years of life. No but really, it was awesome and messy and everything I dreamed it would be the night before. We left Parkway happy and full, so everything went as planned. We drove from there to Magazine street which is the cutest little street that took a minimum of $150 from our wallets in the form of unnecessary additions to our closets. It was great. After robbing us of our life savings, we decided to go to Oak street where we were told there was more to buy. Fortunately/Unfortunately, we didn’t find Oak street as charming, as there was less to spend our money on. We decided, if theres nothing here to buy to put on the outside of our bodies, we might as well sit down somewhere and buy something to put inside of them. So, that’s exactly what we did.

We found Camillia Grill, a diner with a single counter that snakes through the entire restaurant, and ordered Gumbo, a Cheeseburger, and fried mac & cheese bites, because Morgan suggested them and it didn't matter that we still weren’t hungry. Something to note is that we were at a diner and didn't order milkshakes because we have self control sometimes, okay?! We finished our grease bowls and then, because it was not even 8pm, decided it was the right time to start our night on Bourbon. Whats kewl about NOLA is that its never too early OR too late to start having a good time in the Quarter. Linds started her night off with a ‘Hurricane’ Daiquiri (cherry/fruit punchy/alcoholy) and got it to go in a *~classy~* Styrofoam cup for easy sippage while walking around. I found a ‘to-go’ window, and grabbed a ‘Hand Grenade’ (appley/alcoholy) for the road! (walking, of course) It was then that I decided ‘To-Go’ Windows in New Orleans are God’s way of picking favorites and declaring that NOLA is the winner of all cities. (COME ON BOSTON, STEP UP YOUR GAME!) The rest of the night consisted of waltzing in and out of various jazz bars listening to random bands play random songs for random strangers. We shook our groove thangs and had a great time with our plastic & Styrofoam to-go cups. You also need to know that we got Mardi Gras beads, but you don't need to know what we had to do to get them…

By the end of the night, we were pretty much ‘Nawlin-ers and, in my opinion, you couldn't tell us apart from the locals. We had a lovely seat on a bench overlooking the MIGHTY MISSISSIPI RIVER and pondered life. After the 3 seconds of life pondering, we sang songs from our 5^th grade choirs. This concluded the night before we headed back to the apartment.