Monday, June 9, 2014

Moonshine Jungle

Saturday morning Dean was going to his parents & he left at 5:45 am so that he could go with his dad to run crawfish traps. I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up & got ready for a bike ride.
I went 12 miles at an average pace of 3:43  per mile. I pushed myself but I did it. Next up was Day 7 of the 30 day challenge & then I got ready for our day in New Orleans. Allison has an aunt that lives "uptown" in NOLA so we stopped in to see her & then the 3 of us went to lunch. We had poboys at Parasol's. HOLE IN THE WALL but sooooo good! The firecracker shrimp poboy was amazing.
Literally, a hole in the wall. Parasol's has a smoky bar room that we mistook for the restaurant. The bartender knew we didn't belong & asked if we were looking for the restaurant. I use restaurant in the loosest of terms. It was next door. If you wanted a cocktail to go with your poboy you just opened the little door & ordered. I had ice tea. The ice was in a small ice chest sitting on the counter.  NOLA is full of these type of places but the food is so good.

Next up was the Swizzle Stick bar. It's inside the Loews hotel.
We had some "champs" as Heather Dubrow of Real Housewives fame would say.
Then I had a French Martini. It was delicious!! Allison's sister & another friend met us here.
Allison, me, Amanda & Christina. We hung out here for awhile. The A/C was cold. It was 100 degrees in NOLA Saturday & it felt every bit that hot.

We checked into our hotel & got ready for dinner.
We had to pass the time while we were waiting on the street car. This is probably pic number 973 that we took at this location. My eyes always looked funny. They were either closed or halfway closed. I'm in serious need of an eye lift. That's where the sunglasses came in.

We had dinner at The Palace Cafe. If you're familiar with New Orleans restaurants, this is a Brennan Family restaurant. I'd never been.
More drinks while we waited for a table. Champs & Chambord is seriously my favorite drink.

On to the food. SOOOO GOOD! This my friends is crabmeat cheesecake.

Incredible!!! For my meal I had the Shrimp Tchefuncte.  

Popcorn rice (I don't know what the difference is between it & regular rice but it was soooo much better), shrimp, mushroom sauce. Soooooo good!!! 

Of course we were running just a tad late so we grabbed a cab outside the restaurant & he brought us to the arena for the concert. This cab driver has a lot to learn about getting someplace in a hurry. We made it in time though. 


That's a picture of Bruno on the screen. Our seats weren't the greatest. When I say not the greatest I mean we were 3 rows from the top. We were on the side of the arena so we didn't have the worst seats. We could see & hear so it was fine.


Bruno with The Hooligans.


This was right before the encore which was Gorilla. Bruno puts on a really, really good show. I'm soooo glad we went. After the show was over we just wanted water. We were hot & thirsty. Luckily there was a Rouse's nearby. We also ended up with 32 oz. fountain Dr Peppers at 1:00 in the morning. That could have something to do with the not sleeping very good Sat. night. That & the party in the hallway outside our door at 3:47 am........

Sunday we had brunch at Tivoli & Lee. The service was awful.  


Allison had a bloody mary & I had a mimosa. It took 20 minutes to get the drinks. The food was fine. Nothing special. I wish we would've stuck with our original plan to go to Atchafalaya. I've never heard a bad word about it. Oh well. Live & learn.

We stopped at PJ's to get a coffee treat for the ride home.

This is a Wedding Cake Velvet Ice! Delicious!!!!

Once I got home & crashed on the sofa I realized that I was awake for 20 hours on Saturday. WHA???? No wonder I was exhausted.  In retrospect starting the day with that 12 mi. bike ride might not have been my smartest move.

Toodles!

1 comment:

  1. Your trip sounded like so much fun, Traci -- quite a party with the girls! You always have the best sounding food. You were wondering about Popcorn Rice and what I've heard is that it is nutty, strong, and a little toasty. Also that it is one of the few rices that can "stand alone," meaning it does not need herbs and spices added and definitely smells like popcorn when it's cooking. See, everything you never knew you wanted to know about rice!

    Glad you enjoyed the concert. Even this old granny likes Bruno!

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