Knew it was the Fourth of July.
I could not sleep last night. Like toss and turn till 2am. Could not drag myself up at 530 or whenever to go workout. I am worthless.
Managed to get to sleep at some point. Woke a couple times to get up. Finally out of bed just past nine. We are going on a ghost tour later this evening, our only set plans We May tour the Garden District as well today but that takes planning and Marika can’t pull the trigger. Which is why we wander around the city drinking cocktails in strange bars with bookshelf doors.
I think I may book a tour for this morning just to make us move in a direction. Makes me feel better. Like I am accomplishing something. I do need better coffee than hotel room coffee. I have not found a good cup of coffee in this city yet. And speaking of mediocre coffee, there are no Starbucks to be found anywhere. And I look. Not sure how they are kept out, but they are. No loss. But I could get an ice coffee, large, a little milk if they were here. That might be nice. All I find here are bars. That does have its place.
Kid is still getting ready. Doesn’t take her long, 20 minutes or so. Gives me a chance to sit and slog through these mental calisthenics. It is waking me up though not like a physical workout. Got to go tomorrow.
I think we are close to leaving. Probably. Yes. We have left. First, went to a coffee joint up the street in search of better coffee. Amazing how the coffee here is not very good.
The Arrow Cafe on Rampart. They sell coffee and that’s it. Almost nothing else besides a poor selection of rancid looking and prob “healthy” baked goods. The coffee, average at best. And expensive. Still searching.
Decided to walk up to the square we crossed yesterday on our way to Cafe du Monde. The central square has a grassy area surrounded by a decorative iron fence about six feet tall. Artists put their work up on the fence for crazy tourists to look at, and they hope, purchase. Not me. We cruised it. Again, nothing truly notable.
We stayed in the square till Marika said she needed to find a toilet, soon. We are so close to the hotel that’s where we went. She is working on it now. And doing a fine job. I know this because she is texting from the bathroom. TMI? I don’t know, I used to change her diapers.
We are lying around doing nothing. Thinking of things to do before we jump in a Lyft and head to our Garden District tour at two. Maybe we will just lie around. Have a snack. Hit the head a couple more times.
We decided to Lyft it to our tour. It’s 2.5 miles and it’s 100% humid today. No walking to our walk. The smartest thing we did was leave an hour and a half early. Not for worms, just to give us cruise time.
An hour early, what to do? Found a local eatery serving donuts. And sandwiches on donuts. Ok. I’m in. Only 19g carb in a glazed and double that in two slices of wheat bread. So I ordered a monte christo on a powdered glazed donut. Wow, tasty, and so good for you. I think this is a fantastic way to kill 45 minutes. And we had to walk a half mile to get there. So it’s like calorie neutral. That’s my spin. Marika and I split the sandwich cuz who needs all that food.
The walk back was twice as hot. I think the day is going that way. Only word for temp here is oppressive. 3 cheers for AC. Got back and met our guide. He is from Chicago. Has a hipster moustache. Poseur perhaps. I think so.
There is a coffee shop on the corner by our tour spot. Back 15 min early. We went for coffee. No, we went for AC and bought a bottle of water so we could use the restroom. A fine rule. Easier to just pay an attendant. This place will come in handy later.
Back at the meet up. It’s really hot and we are jockeying for shade. Our guide is a master of local history. He spent the first 15 minutes of the tour talking New Orleans history. He knows too much.
The first hour of our tour was spent in Lafayette cemetery #1. We looked at all the famous and infamous graves in The place. Learned about burials and how they are paid for and lots of arcane info I may be able to dredge up at a later date. Cool tour. Except it was hot as hell.
The cemetery is in the Garden District. Home to politicians and movie stars. Lots of famous homes from 1800 and on. All historic. We got a speech in front of each one, who owned, owns, still owns, why they live there, etc. very cool stuff.
A side note about NO weather. We are in summer. About 3 pm every day it clouds over. Then it cools. Then the heavens open and a deluge occurs. Today was no exception. The last 45 mins of the tour was a downpour of crazy proportions. Crazy. I saw a guy gathering animals in pairs. I mean it was RAINING. Wet.
So, we stayed with the group, listened and looked and got soaked. At the end, what? Remember the coffee shop? We went there and attempted a dry off. It sorta worked. I got a coffee. I used (abused?) the restroom, blogged a little, rated the tour, and evaporated as much as I could. Not enough. I am thinking of a car for hire to get back to the hotel, dry. I will need to swap out my clothes when I get there. My shirt is quite wet. And my shoes. And my underwear.
So we sat. For a time. Finally I called a Lyft. We went outside to meet him and it wasn’t raining. What to do? Dismiss the Lyft, tip the driver in cash, and walk through the garden district to see what’s up.
Walking around is still fun even without a tour guide. There is always the magic of discovery and the unexpected. And being as wet as a sponge in the sink. We found a bar that sold Po boys and went in there. The bartender, not very good bartender, put the Giants game on for me. Liking it. Cocktails were $5. Yay. We split a shrimp Po boy $17. Fuck. That is mean. It was tasty. But $17 for a sandwich? Lobster rolls in Maine don’t cost that much. We hung out in the bar for long enough to have the game end and become relaxed. That’s when we headed out, caught a Lyft back to the hotel.
I think my shoes will remain wet till l get back to Auburn. There is nothing dry in this city including my shoes. I changed clothes to dry and hung my wet clothes to, I hope, dry. We relaxed awhile until our nighttime ghost tour at 8.
We decided to leave early which turned out to be prescient since the tour guide started 20 minutes early. Tour is two hours long and goes all over the French Quarter. Supposed to be about ghosts and vampires.
Turns out, the tour is fun but it’s really all about the stories. Guide takes us to a house or business then tells a story about some crazy person and story ends with that person is. Ow haunting the house he told the story about. I admit the stories are entertaining. Guidebself admittedly made things up too. But, still entertaining.
We were not quite done after the tour. We went back to the hotel, a short walk, so Marika could use a clean toilet. Then we went out for another Po boy for our dinner. This time spicy catfish. It’s 11pm but no worries the Po boy place is open till 4am, as is most of Bourbon St. the street is an all night party with nothing but bars lining the sidewalks. And you can wander around with a drink. I had a cocktail to carry around during tonight’s tour. Bourbon St is full of drunks, thieves and whores and is fully entertaining to just walk around and people watch. And of course, quietly judge all you see. After tonight I feel much better about myself.
After the wander down a stinky and disgusting Bourbon St, we retired for the evening. It’s now 1am and about time for bed. No, time for bed.