N.O.L.A.

My girlfriend and I went to a wedding in Lafayette, Louisiana for my buddy Mark. I also, stayed in New Orleans for a few days beforehand. In keeping with the top 10 lists here we go...

10. Plantation - So after spending a couple nights in New Orleans hanging w/ the guys, we drove over to Lafayette, LA (more technically New Iberia) for the wedding. We obviously took the less traveled highway 90 with a whole day to kill before we needed to arrive in New Iberia. Along the way Jen (our navigator and factologist) found a historic plantation that did daily tours, however, by the time we got there it was closed. From the fence that read, "Beware watch dog on premises." we could see the main house and it was pretty impressive.

9. FOOD - While in New Orleans I got to eat at several good restaurants. On the first night we went to Dickie Brennen's Steakhouse (http://www.dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com/) because Travis owes me 3 (now 2) steak dinners. The other reason we decided on this place is that in the if you eat in the bar the only restrictions was that you had to have sleeves on your shirt. I didn't pack the cut offs so I was good to go. Had the house filet w/ fried oysters for good measure. the following day we ate at Acme Oyster House and this small divey soul food joint called Mother's. Had a shrimp po boy and some red beans and rice. It was probably the best po boy I've ever had.

8. La Quinta & Chilis - New Iberia, despite the great name, is not the most happening place in Louisiana. All the guests of the wedding were pretty much staying at the La Quinta Inn (newly remodeled and very nice). The only place that had a bar was Chili's. Don't get me wrong, I do like Chili's, but there is only so much chain food atmosphere I can handle. This Chili's did have an amazing deal as all draft beers were 2 for 1. This deal was taken advantage of over and over again throughout the weekend.

7. Omni Pool - After a night of long dirnking there is nothing more this pasty white guy likes to do than hang by the pool and by pool I mean covered area by a pool that has a bar. A few people were staying at the Omni in the French Quarter so we decided to take advantage of the rooftop pool w/ bar. Nothing like getting rid of a hangover by drinking Corona cans all day ;)

6. Beignets and Cafe Ole - I have never had a beignet before and apparently Cafe Du Monde is the most touristy place to go for them but they sure are good. Not a big sweets guy but something about the outdoor seating, the street musicians, and the cafe ole made this a great experience. In the outdoor seating area they have ceiling fans to help you cool off which reminded me of Hong Kong.

5. Acme Oyester House Balcony - If you go to New Orleans there is one thing that we all think of and the is Balcony's. Instead of doing a really expensive dinner Travis decided it would be a better idea to rent out the top of the Acme Oyster House place that has a balcony looking over Bourbon street. We ordered a ton of Oysters and had a 2 hour all you could drink deal. It was definitely a highlight of staying in New Orleans.

4. Tabasco Tour - Avery Island is really close to New Iberia and this is where Tabasco is made. If you look closely on the bottle is says "McIlhenny Co." and "Avery Island LA." McIlhenny is the founder of the company that got a patent for the recipe which goes something like this...Take Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt ground up and age it for 3 years in a bourbon oak barrel. After the mash is aged you strain it, add more vinegar, and stir for 28 days and then bottle. They have a tour and gift shop that has all kinds of Tabasco products. Overall it was pretty cool and i bought wood chips that they chop out of the oak barrels that they are done using for Zach, hopefully he smokes something good (thanks Dickers).

3. Pre-Jeans - This is traditional cajun restaurant that was recommended by Laurie (the bride and LA native) and her family. The food was really good as we tried fried crawfish, alligator, frog legs, crab legs, and oysters. For my entree I had crawfish etoufee which was ridiculously good. The funny part of this story is that the entire time at the restaurant and when a buddy was talking to Laurie's family about where we went to dinner we pronounced it Pre-Jeans which they had no idea what we were talking about. It is cajun country so obviously it is pronounced with a French inflection.

2. Air Boat Tour - You're not in the Bayou until you do a air boat swamp tour. This was really really cool. Basically a air boat is a raft with a V8 engine that powers a fan. It can go really fast and basically glide on the water or it can maneuver deep in the swamp land even jump over floating tree stumps. We saw some birds but no alligators. It was told to us later that because it was so hot and late in the day (around 2PM) that they had already called it a day. Despite wearing headphones I still can't hear.

1. Wedding - It was a very nice wedding where there was a live band, friends, booze, and tons of fun. During on part of the night they broke out a bunch of Mardi Gras masks and handed them out to everyone w/ beads. Truly a great end to a fun weekend.

PS My girlfriend, who wishes to go nameless on the blog wants to add, I ate Alligator