Mark and I decided to go visit Everett in Mobile over spring break, but something is seriously wrong with the Mobile airport because it costs twice as much to fly in and out of there as it does to travel to and from any of the nearby cities: Pensacola, Florida, Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi, and New Orleans. So what could we do? We were forced to fly into New Orleans, rent a car, drive the two hours to Mobile, hang with Ev for a couple days there, then bring him with us back to the Crescent City, spend the weekend taking in the sights with the boy before Greyhounding him back to Mobile and--sigh--endure a romantic couple of days on our own in the French Quarter before flying home.
It was 75 and sunny the entire time we were down south. The people were friendly and charming, the Gulf of Mexico was cool on the toes (as opposed to painfully frigid, as the Pacific is in Oregon), and the food was to die for. My ambition in visiting the south, besides hanging out with Everett and seeing his stomping grounds, was to eat and drink myself along the Gulf Coast, and I am nothing if not focused in my ambitions. We ate crab cakes, fried oyster po' boys, deep fried alligator, frog legs, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya, alligator sausage, shrimp, oysters rockefeller made into an omelette, muffulettas, beignets, bourbon pecan pie, and enough bread pudding to last a lifetime of stairmastering. We drank with equal enthusiasm, from the morning ritual of chicory coffee at Cafe' Beignet, to my newfound love of sweet iced tea, to a boozy concoction called Louisiana Lemonade, New Orleans microbrew Abita Amber, amazing olivey martinis at Emeril's restaurant in the Quarter, NOLA, Sazeracs--an cocktail featuring absinthe, traditional absinthe...
New Orleans is a jewel, drop-dead gorgeous, soulful, vibrant, and sexy. The architecture, the lush flora, the brassy, bluesy Dixieland music wafting along every street in the quarter along with the smell of something spicy and rich. Walking two city blocks is an entire sensory banquet. I won't go on too long trying to describe it, but here are some photos...
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