road trip recap: new orleans (part i)

New Orleans!  This is one of the cities I was most excited about, even though K was not.  It was definitely different than I expected, but it also made it onto the list of places I would like to revisit someday.  First of all, it was seedy, especially around Bourbon Street.  I mean, I knew that was kind of its M.O., but I also thought that was kind of only on Mardi Gras.  Disclaimer: It seemed a lot seedier on Bourbon Street at noontime than it did in the evening (when it was dark and [most] people hadn't puked yet).  Again, it was also just kind of sad to go outside of the tourist districts and see how most of the city just hadn't been rebuilt after Katrina, or was still seriously struggling.  Disclaimer #2: We went cheap and stayed in a sketchy Super 8 outside of town, and if/when I go back I will definitely splurge on a quirky little B&B in the Garden District.  Having to enter/exit the city every morning/night was a big buzz kill, and I think we would have enjoyed our time a lot more if we'd had easier access to entertainment.

Moving on!  Our first day in New Orleans was spent walking around the French Quarter (where we visited Bourbon Street during the early afternoon).  One of our favorite things to do in a new city is just to walk around all day taking pictures, and there was more than enough to keep us occupied that first day.  We actually started out sort of by accident at one of the Saint Louis aboveground cemetaries, which was pretty cool to see (what is it with visiting cemetaries? IDK).  One of the goals on my road trip bucket list was to have a Hurricane at Pat O'Brien's--check!  That is quite a drink.  I did end up keeping the glass.  It ended up drizzling while we were sitting in the courtyard, but K held our umbrella like a gentleman and all was well.  When we were finished with our drinks it was still raining and our parking time was almost up so we ended up just making it a cheap chore night back at the hotel (laundry, sandwiches, and copyediting), deciding that we would have our fun the next night instead (that's what happens on extended travels... you have to do things like laundry every now and again).