By the time you- my readers- read this, it will most likely be Sunday and I’m already at home, or maybe be finished by Saturday, or before I return home from New Orleans. It’s Thursday, as I start to write this post. I’m thinking I should write a little by little during the day so that the memories are still fresh in my mind. Enough about how I’m writing this. Let’s talk about the trip.
I’m actually not sure about what I’m feeling about this trip. No specific emotion comes to my mind. Am I enjoying it? Am I upset? Do I love it? Do I want to go home? Am I afraid? What do I think about this? Don’t get me wrong, I’m really grateful that my parents gave me this and that we’re somewhere for spring break. But… I can’t describe how I’m feeling. I could say that I’m enjoying it, but it feels wrong. I’m not hating it or upset either. I’m…neutral. To be honest it didn’t register clearly in my mind that we were going somewhere for the break. Usually, I would be excited and would be ready at least a week before but this time… I don’t know. I just kind of went with it at the moment. But then it started to sink in. On the way here, during the 8-hour-long road trip, I understood that we were going to New Orleans. It’s been about a full 24 hours since we’ve been here and I’ll share some of my experiences.
Yesterday, once we arrived, we rested for about 2 hours and then walked around Bourbon Street. I didn’t realize it was Bourbon street until my dad told me, and I was surprised. I did not expect for it to be crowded, filled with a strong stench of alcohol, cigars/smoke, and a faint pungent smell of what apparently is weed. Not to forget, the loud, blaring music and cheers from people on balconies and on the streets, partying. I don’t have a problem with that. Well, the smells were a problem, it otherwise it was fine. People were having fun and were leaving me – and my family- alone so I didn’t have a problem. But, there was something/somethings that were very uncomfortable and disturbing. I don’t want to really mention it, but I’ll just say it wasn’t very appropriate. This threw off my first impression of the city. I have to admit, I was starting to think negatively after that. Did that really happen? Oh my god is this what it’s like? I hope not. Oh god, I wanna be at home. Should I just fake being happy? For my parents? No. I shouldn’t. I at least shouldn’t let it get to the best of me. ( I learned later that this is how Bourbon Street is, at night. It’s not the safest or best place for kids at night.)
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| Walking along Bourbon Street |
The best part of that night, though, was dinner at GW Fins. It had amazing food. The Lobster Dumplings for appetizers were incredible. The sauce that went with it was perfect and was really good. It was really creamy and went nicely with the lobster. I had the Parmesean Crusted Sheepshead which was pretty okay. I didn’t really like the charred taste from the beurre blanc or the taste of the sheepshead, but it was tasty.
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| The Parmesan Crusted Sheepshead |
We later had a Creme Brule with fresh fruits at the restaurant and took “home” a Salty Malty Ice Cream Pie. It was basically a regular pie with a pretzel crust, topped with caramel whipped cream and chocolate-covered pretzels. Even though it had partially melted when we ate it at the place we were staying, it was really good. ( It had also rained later at night but wasn’t that big of a deal.)
I still didn’t forget about what happened that night, so the next day- Thursday- began with the same negative thoughts. In most of my pictures from Thursday, I’ll have this weird, unhappy-like expression of me trying to smile. I guess I wasn’t really in the mood in-between times. Now as I look back at them I mentally slap myself for being such a dumbhead. It was a really nice day and it was really fun but I was being a dumbhead and had a bit of a sour mood. I tried to be happy, but it didn’t really show.
Anyway, on Thursday we had breakfast at Cafe Beignet and it was…not that great. The space was pretty but the food didn’t really have any taste. I’m not sure if that makes sense. It was bland.
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| Picture of Cafe Beignet taken at night |
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| Breakfast at Cafe Beignet |
After that, we just walked around and hung out at Jackson Square. We saw the St. Charles Cathedral, walked around Jackson Square, and went on a lunch cruise. The cruise included lunch with a tour along the Mississippi River. Lunch was of fried(?) fish, rice with red beans, andouille sausage, Jambalaya, and a side of Potato salad with Bread pudding for dessert. I can’t eat pork so I wasn’t able to eat the sausage- apart from a small piece I was allowed to try- but otherwise, the food was delicious. Even though rice with beans isn’t very tasty, it fits well with the menu. Best thing I ate, the fish. It was a bit hard to cut, but it made up for the taste. It was cooked well and was really tasty. I don’t remember exactly how the Jambalaya tasted, but I do remember eating the chicken from the rice and leaving the sausage bits. I’m not sure if it was made traditionally or a more quick-recipe kind, but, it was really good. ( That’s really all can say, seeing that can’t recall the taste properly.) One thing, though, potato salad is cold and tastes weird. Oh and, the bread pudding was kind of okay. I was pretty surprised when eating it. I thought it would taste like bread, and never had it before, but I was pretty shocked to taste something much more interesting than bread pudding-ised. ( Is that a word? I don’t think so.)
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| Cruise Lunch |
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| Boarding~ |
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| Me and my dad attempting to eat a Beignet without being messy ( *whisper* we failed) |
We later walked around Jackson Square a bit more, missed going to the French Market, got a foot massage, and went back to the hotel. We just decided to go get some McDonalds for dinner. ( I know right, amazing.) The biggest achievement of that day, to me, was how the negative thoughts in my head reduced. By the end of the day, I was convinced that New Orleans wasn’t that bad of a place. Yes, I was uncomfortable from time to time, yes it was a new environment, but that didn’t mean it was all bad. We got a new hat for dad! We went on a steamboat cruise and saw amazing things, ate delicious food, and got our pants stained with powdered sugar! We visited Jackson Square and visited St. Charles Cathedral. We even saw a magic show just in front of the cathedral and had a good laugh! So many wonderful things happened that day, and I realized that I was wrong for thinking so negatively.
Friday. The next day was Friday, and oh boy was it fun. We had breakfast at The Ruby Slipper Cafe, and I REALLY recommend eating there. Their food is amazing and really good. I ordered French Toast Bites- I was in the mood for something sweet- and it was delicious. The description makes it sound really sweet with the French Toast bites fried and tossed in cinnamon sugar, served with cream cheese icing and praline sauce, but in reality, it wasn’t that sweet. It was very light and you would only really taste the sweetness when you first eat it. My parents ordered Egg Benedicts, and they look SOOOOOOOOO good. ( They also tasted amazing. I loveddddd it)
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| Eggs Benedict |
If you want a light, yet filling breakfast, I recommend The Ruby Slipper Cafe. Their menu has a lot of exciting options, and I bet they all taste as amazing as what we had on Friday. Anyway, we went on a guide around the Garden District. Garden District: Pretty and old. There’s a lot of history dating back to the 18-1900’s and just looking at the houses is amazing enough. Such simple yet amazing designs each hold a unique story about the past resident. ( No spoilers!)
After the tour, we went to eat lunch at a restaurant which I forgot the name of. Katie’s something. Not that great customer service- it was really slow- but really good oysters. We only ate oysters there. We were in and out in less than an hour. I preferred the Spinach cheese oysters over the garlic ones, but they were both really tasty.
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| Oysters for lunch |
However, we had EVEN BETTER oysters at Red Fish Grill. Well, my dad did. He ordered BBQ Oysters while I and my mom shared crab. I can’t explain how amazing their food was. I love crab, I didn’t know I was craving crab, and I got crab. Even though all I actually could do was crack open the shell, extract the meat out, and dip it into butter, it was really good. I became a crab-cracking master that night! We also had cauliflower-rice and crawfish balls with the platter. I’m not that interested in crawfish or cauliflower-rice, but it was pretty tasty. I have to say, the BBQ oysters were tied with the crab. They were also pretty amazing. Even though blue cheese tastes like nausea to me, it was really good. The oysters were pre-shelled and you tasted the sauce and actual BBQ taste rather than the oyster itself. It was like the oyster was a base, and everything else was the main part. I’m not complaining. I really liked it.
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| Me enjoying some crab |
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| Crab platter to the left, BBQ oysters to the right |
Everything was really savory. In the end, we had Bread Pudding, a house favorite. They brought over two plates of it- one with and one without soft serve- and poured the chocolate sauces on it IN FRONT OF US. I have a video of it but it’s not very good quality. Just imagine two brownie-like cakes in a medium-sized cup-bowl thing, one with a bunch of vanilla soft serve, topped with almond bark, with white and regular chocolate drizzling over it. Yum, right? We then left and took one final picture of Bourbon Street. Here it is.
You can’t see my face, but this picture shows me happier than how I was last time we took a picture on this street.
My Overall Opinion:
Blog Format:
Miscellaneous:
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| Guess who~ The fish bag is the perfect touch. |
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| Some pretty houses near the Garden District. ( I put on a filter) |
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| Me chilling while wearing my dad’s newly purchased hat. 😉 |
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| On the way back home to Texas. I had carried my iPad and keyboard with me in case I had some inspiration for my story. This is one of my INSPIRATION moments. |
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| Quite a big tree, isn’t it? |
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| Me and my mom near the Garden District |
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| Us at The Ruby Slipper Cafe |