New Orleans - Day Two

Our hotel is nice but it sure isn’t quiet at all. Apparently, there are several conventions taking place at the Sheraton this weekend. One of those conventions involves teenagers and they all seemed to be staying on our floor. Lucky us. They were so loud during the middle of the night that I had to call the front desk to send an “agent” up to send them to their rooms. Needless to say, we did not sleep well at all. By the time we did fall asleep, it was well into the wee hours of the night - something like five or six in the morning! Darn teenagers. When we woke up and got ready, it was two in the afternoon!

Our first stop of the day was the restaurant called The Famous Gumbo Pot. Zac ordered the Seafood Gumbo and I got the Gumbo Ya Ya. Both were delicious! After lunch, we went down the street and decided to get some beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde. Beignets are essentially French doughnuts and they were so good, especially with the powdered sugar on top!

We went to the French Market after our visit to Cafe du Monde. We got some souvenirs and then headed to Preservation Hall - one of the most famous jazz halls of all time.

Since we got a late start to our day and we had booked a Ghost/Vampire/History tour at six, we had to hurry back to our hotel room to change into cooler clothes and speed back to meet up with our tour guide. The tour turned out to be just the two of us with our tour guide; it was like we had a private tour! It was actually very nice and our tour guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining.

After the tour, we were told to go up to Frenchman Street to find some good dining for the night. Frenchman Street is several blocks up from the famous Bourbon Street. We stopped at a place called The Marigny Brasserie. Zac had the wedge salad with bleu cheese dressing and the Frenchman po-boy, which had fried green tomatos with shrimp on a French baguette. I ordered the Mahi Mahi special, which was Mahi Mahi marinated in coconut milk and rum served with linguine tossed in a garlic butter sauce and garnished with some green beans and fruit salsa. Mmm......

We walked back to Royal Street toward Bourbon and had to snap a picture of the statue of Jesus illuminated with a huge shadow cast upon the Catholic church in New Orleans. We kept walking and stopped at the Musical Legends Park to hear some jazz tunes and enjoy a couple of drinks. We then went back to our hotel to rest for a little bit before heading back out to Pinkberry, a delicious yogurt and fruit mix shop. Zac ordered the original flavor with blackberries, raspberries, and strawberry yogurt bits. I got a half watermelon/half mango yogurt with raspberries, yogurt bits, and mochi. Yummy!

We went to Harrah’s of New Orleans afterward and tried our luck at the casino. Then, we headed back to our room and went to bed. Ahhh......a nice way to end our last night in the Big Easy. Panama City Beach - here we come!