Day 3 - We Traveled To New Orleans To Do WHAT?!?!

I said to Angie, "What is it about women that they can browse through stuff even if they have no desire to own any of it?"

I then added, "If they put plates of dog shit out, you'd probably still be browsing through here!"

The last comment didn't win me any friends when I said it, but understand the circumstances. We were in New Orleans and Angie is rummaging through a Flea Market. What's the deal with that? A Flea Market?!?!

Angie saw the market on Thursday evening and since it was closed, she made a mental note that she wanted to revisit. So, after sleeping in a little bit, Angie and I set out on foot for the French Market / Flea Market. I knew the only way I was going to deal with this was with the help of Hurricanes, so I made sure we walked up Bourbon St. first and I got fueled for the day.

We stopped in just about EVERY shop in the French Quarter, and Angie was in heaven. It is what she likes to do, so when I get the chance to make her happy, I know my role. Walk with her, don't talk too much, tell her I like everything, say 'YES' to whatever she wants, and don't mention that she saw the same crap on the previous table. In fact, when she mentioned to me that I needed to stop complaining, I knew I was in trouble and had ceased fulfilling my role (accompanying Angie to little shops is my role when we travel). I never said another negative word after that, and instead turned my focus to more Hurricanes.

We then had perhaps the only really negative experience of the week. We ended up at the River's Edge Cafe on Decatur. We waited a while to be greeted and shown to our table. Service is different in New Orleans and we had learned that already, so we didn't really note HOW long it actually took. That was until Angie asked the waitress to come back in a minute as she didn't know what she wanted. Twenty minutes later, and we still hadn't ordered. OK, so we didn't get the best waitress - her name was Esther and if you see her, run like hell. Besides, she's so slow, she won't be able to catch you. After we ordered (crab cakes and a crawfish boudin po-boy for me, cheese sticks and spaghetti and meatballs for Angie) we waited and waited and waited. During our wait, we noticed that much of the plates that were being cleared off tables still had food on them. A lot of food on them. We received our appetizers and although not terrible, they weren't very good. We then waited some more, and they brought out our food - but Angie's meal was the wrong thing. And, mine just about was the worst looking and not much better tasting food I have ever been served. I commented that I wouldn't serve it to our dogs, let alone eat it. They came back to the table and told us they were out of meatballs, at that point we cancelled Angie's order. She complained about the service and the food, but they still made us pay for my entree. Thirty dollars was a small price to pay to get the hell out of there are this point, so we were gone. On our way, we informed a party of three not to bother waiting, so in the end we hopefully cost them as much as they should have let us go for.

Just so we are clear, if you are in NOLA, stay away from the River's Edge Restaurant on 801 Decatur. Their phone number is 504.525.4478. They are horrible and you have been warned - too bad, too - their location is amazing, right on Jackson Square and Decatur St.

So, we continued around the market seeing the same stuff over any over...Mardi Gras stuff, African stuff, silver, leather, souvenirs, gator heads, repeat, repeat. Angie had a great time and really enjoyed Sterling Silvia's on French Market Place. We ended up buying a beautiful cross with Fleur De Lis on them for her cross wall. We also found the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen and were entertained with great pizza AND excellent service.

We continued to stroll down Decatur to return to a store we saw earlier in the day, and ended up at the ticket booth to the paddle wheeled steamship, Natchez. Angie thought it would be fun to take a two hour cruise down the Mississippi and see New Orleans from a different vantage point, so we bought two tickets and boarded (they have a dinner cruise, too, but we were still stuff from our pizza). We boarded, listened to some live jazz, enjoyed the breeze and had a couple of Hurricanes. The captain regaled us with information about the port, shipping, the Battle of New Orleans, the ship and other interesting facts on our South-bound journey and then we enjoyed more Jazz (and, yes, Hurricanes) on the North-bound portion.

We arrived back at the dock and were pretty much done with our long day. We walked back to the hotel, again cutting through Bourbon Street for more Hurricanes and a cigar. We saw some pretty and not so pretty women earn their beads (I guess you have to experience that while there) and called it a night.

Tomorrow: Day 4 - Not Worth The Wait