{"id":1030,"date":"2009-08-11T03:59:36","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T03:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2009-12-11T02:44:30","modified_gmt":"2009-12-11T02:44:30","slug":"new-orleans-vacation-part-1-good-intentions-and-good-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/11\/new-orleans-vacation-part-1-good-intentions-and-good-times\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Vacation Part 1: Good Intentions and Good Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever notice how your head just changes on vacation?\u00a0 At home, I have sense.\u00a0 I know that I need my veggies and fried food is like a once a week thing max and exercise happens when it should and a little whiskey or a little wine is also a once-ish a week thing and certainly not to be mixed in big fruity cocktails.\u00a0 Once I leave town, my head changes.\u00a0 All of a sudden it’s ok that my dinner consisted of fried pickles, cajun fries, and a crab cake po boy one night.\u00a0 Maybe that daquiri or 4 in the big souvenier cups isn’t absolutely unthinkable.\u00a0 It’s that sort of fuzzy logic that makes me glad I usually take short vacations and that my instinct is to IMMEDIATELY snap back to my healthy lifestyle as soon as I’m home.<\/p>\n

So, yeah.\u00a0 WARNING!\u00a0 FOOD PORN AND TALES OF IRRESPONSIBLE DRUNKEN DEBAUCHERY TO FOLLOW!<\/p>\n

Did I lose anyone?\u00a0 Yeap, didn’t think so.<\/p>\n

Day 1: Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plan was to head out at 5am.\u00a0 The alarm went off at 4:30 to which we both groaned and flopped back over (I couldn’t fall asleep until after midnight and Zliten was even later, even though we both really tried to tire ourselves \"\"out that day).\u00a0 Finally we got up around 5:10 and headed out around 6 am.\u00a0 20 minutes out of town, we realized we forgot to leave the door in such a way that our lizard feeder-person could get in the door so we headed back.\u00a0 Finally, about 2 hours late, we were back on the road.\u00a0 That’s about par for the course for us.<\/p>\n

We first drove to Houston and hit some post-rush hour traffic.\u00a0 It wasn’t *too* bad, but I’m happy we avoided it on the way back.\u00a0 Oddly enough, Zliten elected to drive the whole way.\u00a0 I guess he just really likes driving my car or hates when I drive.\u00a0 One of the two.\u00a0 We had a Jason’s Deli stop for some healthy lunch (as we figured it was the last healthy food we’d get).\u00a0 Once we got to Louisianna things got super green (poor Texas and our exceptional drought) and there were lots of \"\"little casinos and adult shops.\u00a0 Coming from TX to LA was just about like\u00a0 leaving California and going to Nevada.\u00a0 Any of you in games, my first instinct on that sentance was to say “zoning” into Nevada.\u00a0 Oh yeah – and just about every restaurant claimed to be the “original” cajun restaurant.\u00a0 Perplexing!<\/p>\n

We drove over a bunch of bridges that seemed to go on forever.\u00a0 Hey, if anyone was wondering, Louisianna is pretty wet!\u00a0 Who knew?\u00a0 Then, we finally got into town and found our Hotel.\u00a0 The city seemed sort of familiar in a way (and I’ve never been there) like some of the little parts of San Francisco.\u00a0 I had been warned by a lot of people that it was a dirty place and that things might be all shut down still being rebuilt from Katrina – at least in the super touristy areas, not so.\u00a0 But \"\"venturing outside of the French Quarter or casino\/warehouse district – it was kinda rough looking.\u00a0 Only half the shops were open and there were a lot of buildings literally falling over.\u00a0 But, upon the advice of one of our first bartnders, we stayed in the touristy areas lest we’d expect to be mugged.<\/p>\n

The hotel.\u00a0 Oh the hotel.\u00a0 I’m not entirely sure I ever want to book a room this nice again, as sometimes it was hard to leave it.\u00a0 The bed was probably more pillowtoppy and cushy than ours at home.\u00a0 We had a super hi-def flat screen tv and even a bathroom TV and phone.\u00a0 The shower had 4 nozzles that sprayed different ways.\u00a0 There were super cushy robes available for use.\u00a0 The decor was awesome.\u00a0 Oh, and somehow we even got to stay on the top floor with an AMAZING view.<\/p>\n

\"\"But leave it we did.\u00a0 We headed to a place called Bourbon Rocks, which incidentally had a CRAPPY bourbon selection, but also had a fun band playing.\u00a0 We hung out there for a while and watched a group of people from St. Louis get super drunk on 2 for 1 beers.\u00a0 After soaking in a little sun, music, and booze, we were in need of food.\u00a0 However, we decided to head down to see the river.\u00a0 Literally saw the river, said hi, took a picture, and then headed back.\u00a0 We hit up another little corner bar and got more drinks, spicy fried cheese sticks, and found some slot machines.\u00a0 I didn’t have much luck \"\"on this trip, but Zliten kept turning a dollar into a few and once paid for dinner with it.\u00a0 Nice place, great happy hour, but there was much more to see\/eat\/drink, so we moved on.<\/p>\n

Next, we walked down a street that apparently was the art gallery street, and we mosied in and out oohing and aahing.\u00a0 We inquired in one of the galleries about the price of something and the dude spent the next HOUR trying to sell us something and wouldn’t let us leave.\u00a0 Apparently they didn’t know they were not exactly speaking with people \"\"with extra money, but it was kinda fun to try to be coerced.\u00a0 Also, we definitely got a nice sobering break from the bars.\u00a0 After finally getting out\u00a0 of there, we made it to the R bar, which our good friend’s brother was bartending.\u00a0 Things got a little hazy there, but Zliten annoyed the DJ and we were well taken care of, and invited back for a 6pm shrimp boil (which we sadly did NOT make it to).<\/p>\n

We walked back to the hotel from the farfarfar side of the French Quarter, and stopped at the little divey bar across the street from the hotel.\u00a0 The bartender there was pretty kick ass and the cocktails were strong and stylishly poured.\u00a0 I devoured a shrimp po boy (fried shrimp on french bread with lettuce, tomato, and mayo) and some fries.\u00a0 They were totally diet fries.\u00a0 We did a Jaegermeister shot with the bartneder and that pretty much ended the night out – we were done (stick a fork in us).<\/p>\n

Day 2 : Friday<\/p>\n

Somehow, after all that silliness, I was up and out of bed at around 9:30 am (I think we called it a night around – 4? 5? ).\u00a0 I do believe it was the sheer amount of caffeine I had the night before.\u00a0 We got up and hiked down to Cafe Beignet \"\"and I got the reasonable, healthy breakfast of a large coffee with half and half, an order of beignets (fried donuts with powdered sugar), and a muffaletta (ham, salami, and cheese sandwich with olive spread).\u00a0 We enjoyed the morning reading the paper and enjoying the not-100-degrees NOLA weather outside.<\/p>\n

Then, it was totally pool time.\u00a0 We swam for about an hour, which felt like 10 minutes.\u00a0 The pool was a perfect warm-but-not-bathwater temp, and was even somehow cushy on\u00a0 all the sides and the bottom.\u00a0 So considerate of them!\u00a0 The hot tub was out of order and the pool bar never seemed to be open, but the hotel WAS in the middle of a remodel and we couldn’t complain.\u00a0 The outdoor pool area was on the 4th floor, and had an awesome view of the buildings around there.\u00a0 There was a \"\"church with gorgeous stained glass windows and we could see where somethingawful.com was hosted (because they were reporting live from there during Katrina).\u00a0 It was fun playing peek-a-boo with all the people looking out from their rooms.\u00a0 I still had some super twitchy energy to burn after that so we headed to the gym.\u00a0 Super fuzzy picture, but notice each cardio machine has it’s own tv (with cable)?\u00a0 Um, swanky…<\/p>\n

After the gym, we got dressed and headed out for a late lunch\/early dinner.\u00a0 We walked down bourbon street again and found a nice little homey restaurant that was reasonably priced and looked like it used to be an old house inside.\u00a0 Zliten had the BEST red beans and rice there, and I noshed on a delicious stuffed crab claw and some heavenly mac and cheese.\u00a0\u00a0 Totally healthy, I know.<\/p>\n

Then…we decided it was time for a hand grenade.\u00a0 I think I’ll end it here for now.\u00a0 Tune in next time for part 2!\u00a0 If you just want to check out the pictures, you can do so here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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Ever notice how your head just changes on vacation?\u00a0 At home, I have sense.\u00a0 I know that I need my veggies and fried food is like a once a week thing max and exercise happens when it should and a little whiskey or a little wine is also a once-ish a week thing and certainly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,75,45],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUhDu-gC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1463,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}