Day 4: Exploring New Orleans
Food, beads, and crashing a chemistry conference
Today we did the most touristy stuff we could think of in New Orleans.
We started off early. Our campsite offered an 8:30 shuttle to Jackson Square, and we were the only ones on it. We got an interesting spiel as we rode from the driver, but I decided to take what he said with a grain of salt after he told us the streetcars got electricity in the mid 1700s 😂
We went to Cafe du Monde as soon as we were dropped off, and the hot beignets were delightful.
I made Shane take his first bite into the powder-laden goodie on video:
We walked through Jackson Square afterward, which is such a pretty square named after such an ugly man.
We also took of picture of Shane where he almost suffocated on New Year’s Eve in college, when a crowd pressed him into a pole trying to let an ambulance through for someone who got (accidentally) shot. Take that, Final Destination!
We got tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus, which I always like riding early on to get a sampling of cities we travel to. So after we got our fill of Jackson Square, we spent some time riding the tour bus and seeing the different parts of New Orleans, while trying not to freeze.
Shane took a ton more pics and video than I did, and I’ll try to get some of those uploaded later.
We got off the bus at the convention center, which I was familiar with from a conference several years ago. We decided to go in to find a bathroom, and there was a conference going on — the American Chemical Society’s conference, themed The Many Flavors of Chemistry. And I totally got a picture with Profesor Molenium himself.
After Shane and I crashed the chemistry conference like the nerds that we are, we ended up grabbing lunch at Cochon, which ended up being a happy discovery. It bills itself as Southern and Cajun, and it turns out the head chef is a James Beard winner. I was also delighted that it had small plates, so we could order a bunch of stuff. Our lunch:
fried alligator with chili garlic mayonnaise
wood fired oysters with chili garlic butter
fried boudin
house boucherie selection, pickles, mustard & crackers
louisiana cochon, braised green beans, pickled pears, pork jus
It was all so good — Shane even liked the oysters! (He doesn’t love seafood, but every time I make him try something at a fancy restaurant, he likes it. I think he’s just a secret snob about seafood! 😂)
We both fell in love with the sweet pickles and the pickled pear on the main dish, and I loved the chow chow made with cauliflower. The gator was good, but still not as good as the gator bites at Aunt Catfish’s in Port Orange, Fla.
After lunch, we waddled back to the bus and rode to the French Market, where we walked around it and the French Quarter until it was time to catch the shuttle back to the campground.
Some tidbits from the tour:
There are beads hanging from trees all over, but it’s considered bad luck to take them or pick them up off the ground.
Nic Cage has already pre-bought his tomb in the same graveyard as Marie Laveau, and it is shaped like a pyramid.
If you go to a parade where you know they throw things, and you get hit by a painted coconut, it’s your fault. There is case law.
We were both exhausted when we got back to camp, so we ran a couple of quick errands and grabbed Wendy’s to bring back. And in New Orleans, even the Wendy’s seems to be haunted.
Here are some other random photos from today:
Wow! Can't wait to see where you go today!