Day 15 - AYCJ - New Orleans

Tuesday, September 21, Day 15 of my 30-day JetBlue All You Can Jet Adventure.

photos: Streets of New Orleans

Wow. It's the half-way point. 15 days down, 15 days to go.

The day starts with breakfast at the hotel. It forces me to get up and downstairs before 9:30, if I want to take advantage of the breakfast. It's a pretty good selection to choose from. Scrambled eggs and sausage, oatmeal, fruit, cold cereal, coffee, juice, and even waffle irons to make your own waffle.

After breakfast I returned to my room. I wasn't quite ready to hit the streets yet. When I was finally ready to go, I headed out into the humid, moist, hot air. I think I heard it was 91 today. Don't know what the humidity was. Probably better not to know! I kept looking for shade and breezes as I walked around, exploring the city.

I walked down by the river, and after walking awhile, decided to go into Harrah's Casino, because I figured at least it would be air conditioned. I'm not even a fan of air conditioning, I always prefer fresh air. But I was very very grateful for air conditioning today.

In casinos, you used to be able to just drop a quarter into a machine and see what happens. Not true anymore. The machines take only bills and tickets. And minimum $5 bill. So I had to get change for a 10. After finally figuring out where to turn my 10 into two 5's, I wandered the machines. Found one that supposedly cost only 1 or 2 cents per credit. But of course they say you have to play many credits for better chances. You insert your $5 and it deducts the credits it needs. I played for a short while, winning some credits here and there, but in very little time my $5 was gone.

I wasn't going to spend the other $5, because, frankly, it wasn't that much fun. The machines are all electronic, you don't even get to pull a handle or hear coins drop. And I couldn't even figure out what I was trying to match most of the time. I'd win a credit and not even be sure how I did it. Then I saw a Sex and the City game. There were 4 of them, and one man was playing at one of them. So I sat at another, and fed it my $5. That $5 disappeared even faster than the first $5. So that was enough of the casino for me. Back out into the steamy streets.

Walking on Decatur Street, I found Cafe du Monde. For under $5, you can have a Cafe Au Lait (half coffee/half milk) and an order of 3 beignets (French donuts, showered in powdered sugar). I couldn't believe I ordered a hot coffee on this hot day, but after sitting in the shaded patio under a fan, it didn't seem quite so preposterous. And it was amazing. it was the perfect snack. The beignets were light and delicious. Dipping them in the coffee, eating them dry, it all worked. Spooning up the rest of the powdered sugar with a little coffee... yes I did that. A group of musicians played amazing dixieland jazz on the corner, so it was perfect.

I left there and walked some more, wondering how people stood the heat and the.... moisture. I ducked into some shops and galleries, and looked for a place to eat. But the humidity made me feel sweaty, sticky and tired. At one point I felt like I just wanted to lie down in a refrigerator somewhere... but where can one do that?

My plan was to eat a late lunch as my big meal of the day, then return to my hotel and ... pack for my next, early travel day tomorrow.

So I found La Bayou Restaurant, on Bourbon Street and had a fried shrimp platter and a local New Orleans beer. The platter turned out to be enormous, 10 great shrimp, 4 hushpuppies, cole slaw, and a giant pile of fries. And maybe I should have known in a place like New Orleans, I should ask about the size of beer she was bringing. A pint is plenty, but she brought out a glass that was apparently about 24 ounces. Yikes! That's a lot of beer.

I got a take out container for the rest of the fries, and snacked on some of those later. It's now hours later and I'm still not hungry. Sometimes I like to eat a large meal in the middle of the day, and just snack later. I spent a little more on the shrimp and the giant beer than I had intended, but other than the beignets, it was the only meal I bought today, so that worked out okay.

Now I have to get ready for my 7:10am pick up by the airport shuttle tomorrow morning. Let's see, that means, get dressed, packed, have breakfast, and check out all by 7 am, so that means getting up at 6am, or maybe a little earlier, so.... good night!