Hello all!
We made it to New Orleans on Wednesday after spending some time in Lafayette Louisiana. The Louisiana experience has been awesome!
For starts, the people here are so unique. Their southern charm and polite hospitality is incredible. Some of the people I've chatted with are challenging to understand sometimes because their southern drawl is so significant. They seem to be super proud to be from the south and pretty happy. It's exciting to experience the full effect of this area. It is like another world.
We ventured to the French Quarter two days ago and made our way to the iconic Bourbon Street. The buildings were very old and had the Mardi Gras awnings we've all read about. Mardi Gras is not happening right now and the area was very slow. I liked it because we could just walk around like tourists without any crowds at all. There were a few spots that had live jazz playing.
When we arrived to New Orleans, we walked to the levy that blocks the Mississippi River from the lower flood lands. The river was impressive. I had no idea that it was as wide as it was. Huge tanker ships passed through the river taking signifiant amounts of train car size bins to wherever. At times I didn't think one ship would fit under a bridge in its path. That was an optical illusion. It fit.
While in the French Quarters we found a nice restaurant, New Orleans Creole Restaurant. I've read about this style of cooking compared to Cajun food. It is largely tomato based. Historically, the Cajun people are white folks from the Southern rural regions of Louisiana and the Creole people are black or mixed-race folks from New Orleans. Obviously, it's much more complex than this and I am not at all doing it justice. The deep history here goes back to the 1700's. You can read all about it here.
We ventured to the Bywater District yesterday and got some lunch at a nice brewery called Bywater Brewing Company. They specialized in Viet-Cajun food. What is that you ask? It was a mix of Vietnamese and Cajun foods. We shared the Phorrito, the Anh Luu Wings and the pork belly lettuce wraps. The tastes were so unique. They made a Thai basil emulsion that was unbelievably good. Of course you could get Vietnamese crawfish nachos if you preferred. I've seen this effort to blend food together one other time in Crouch Idaho. The restaurant in Crouch was a blend of Asian and Mexican foods. Interesting.
The freeway system here is really cool. The roads go over marsh lands and span across lakes and rivers. There is so much water here! It isn't as humid as Texas but I'd imagine in the summer, the air gets pretty thick.
Today, we are going to venture out, yet again and head to the modern downtown area to see what that's all about. We are planning to go check out a park or two and see if we can find a nice crawfish dish.
From here, we are planning to venture to Birmingham Alabama for a few days then travel to Nasheville Tennessee. After that, we are going to go East to North Carolina and the Outer Banks for a little bit. I think we will get to New York by June.
We plan to see my sister in Virginia for a couple days and head north to see my good friends, Andy and Maggie Slater in New Hampshire.
I'll update when we get to Birmingham. Until then, I'll be posting daily on Instagram and Facebook. My goal is to learn a new song once a week and post my attempts on InstagramTV.
Have a great weekend!
Nate
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