New Orleans in August - A Vacation of Extremes

We had a bit of a rocky ride down to the Big Easy.

With Tropical Storm Fay throwing off effects of her fury in all directions, the flight down from Chicago to New Orleans was pretty bumpy.  Even so, we landed a little ahead of schedule and after freezing our way out of the airport we caught a cab to the French Quarter.

One of my favorite things about New Orleans is the warmth and friendliness of the people who live and work there.  I was instantly reminded of this by our cab driver - a charming gentleman who talked to us for most of the drive.

Our arrival to the Prince Conti Hotel was about four hours early.  We came into the lobby and asked the woman at the front desk if they could hold our baggage until check-in time, but much to my surprise she told me she was going to go ahead and put us in a room right then and there!  The room was lovely and clean - we dropped off our bags and headed out...

First, we stopped into Monaghan's Erin Rose Bar which was on the same block as our hotel.  This bar is known for having the cheapest drinks in the Quarter - and somehow the majority of tourists haven't discovered this place yet.  (Maybe because it's not on Bourbon Street.)  The bar tender was friendly and charming and although we only stayed for one drink we enjoyed the warm atmosphere and vowed to come back again.

We then walked down Bourbon to Iberville where the Acme Oyster House is.  Like my last time in NOLA (October '07) there was a line out front but again that moved pretty quickly and soon we were enjoying the food of New Orleans.  Raw oysters and seafood gumbo for me...I was happpy to once again be in my second home where the food simply makes your mouth water.

After lunch, we headed back down Bourbon again - this time all the way down to St. Phillip Street where we stopped into Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar for a Voodoo (grape) Daiquiri.  Also, it was a good excuse to get duck of the heat and sun for a bit.  Chicago summers are generally pretty hot and humid - especially in August, but the summer of 2008 had been pretty mild so neither of us were ready for intense heat - we simply weren't acclimated like we normally would have been by this time in the year.

After leaving LaFitte's we walked down to the French Market, and then over to Napoleon House on Chartres Street for a drink.  The history of the place is pretty cool (Nicholas Girod, mayor of New Orleans in the early 1800's, offered his building - his residence to Napoleon in 1821 as a refuge during his exile, but alas Napoleon never made it there to take Girod up on the offer), but other than that I wasn't terribly impressed with the place.  After such nice people at the Erin Rose, the Napoleon House was kind of a let-down.  We then headed back to the hotel to rest for awhile and get settled before dinner.

When we did finally head out in search of food - we went no farther than half way down Conti Street where we skimmed over the menu in the window of the French Quarter Deli & Grocery.  It didn't look like much from the outside, but we both found things on the menu that we wanted to try so we decided to give it a chance.  Boy, were we glad we did - they were amazing!  I had their hot roast beef with gravey po boy and it was mouthwateringly good.  I can't wait for my next trip down to NOLA so that I could get another one.  :)

After dinner, we walked down to the Riverfront as the sun was setting - it was cooler out now, that was a relief, and very peaceful walking aside the Mississippi River.

(...to be continued...)