Ah, New Orleans, a city with soul. New Orleans is a very cool place. You're never far from music, alcohol, or good food down in New Orleans. I was staying in the spare apartment of one Dr. Simonson, a friend of my aunt and uncle's who was out of town anyway. So I regrettably didn't even get to meet my host, but I did meet some very cool people who let me crash at their place for the second night since it was in New Orleans proper and Dr. Simonson's apartment was on the westbank in nearby Marrero.
The first place I went was City Park for the botanical and sculpture gardens. On the way, I stopped for a real nectar cream flavored New Orleans sno-ball. It's kind of a cross between a sno-cone and a slushy:
I didn't get to the sculpture gardens in time, but I walked around city park and got some good pictures.
After city park I went over to the French quarter. Here I am on a streetcar that wasn't named "Desire":
See? I'm still alive and in one piece!
The French Quarter of New Orleans has a life of it's own. It's right on the river and extends back inland for 6 or 7 blocks.
As I was returning, I walked up Bourbon street a ways. Bourbon street is aptly named. The way it's set up is a bar, 2 or 3 daquiri places, then the pattern repeats. The music flows through the streets and the booze flows through the people. It was hot as an August night in New Orleans so I decided to look for a cheap frozen drink. I picked up a small "Ecstasy" daquiri (151, everclear, and blue curacao) for $6.50 and got a good strong frozen buzz on while I made my way back to my host's house.
The next day I met up with another very cool person (are those the only kind here?) for lunch and a couple games of pool. Afterwards I went BACK to city park to get in to the sculpture garden on time.
I think the bird makes this shot.
After the sculpture gardens I met up with a bunch of friends of one of my hosts for dinner. A fun time was had by all.
I wish I had more time and money to spend in NOLA, but the next day I headed west to Texas. It was another long ride. Parts of it were very scenic:
I spent a night, a day, and a night in Houston, and then rolled on out to Austin where I've been for the past 8 days...8 days?! Wow. Time really DOES fly. I've been hanging with some good friends of mine and lazing around for the most part. I did go to Zilker botanical gardens for more walking around taking pictures of plants and scenery. I know most people find pictures without people boring, but they're the kind of pictures I like to take. So rather than take up the limited space in my flikr photostream, I've posted the New Orleans and Texas pictures to my photobucket here
As I was returning from Zilker (a 15 minute ride) my bike's temperature light came on and coolant sprayed out of the radiator cap luckily not burning my leg through my pants. So at this very moment my bike is in a shop.
[Update: It's just the radiator cap! Hooray for cheap, do-it-yourself fixes!]
There's a Vietnamese dish called Phở (pronounced "fuh"), and as I was riding around I saw a Vietnamese restaurant that I had to go in to:
We ate at the Phở King restaurant. The food wasn't just good, it was Phở King good. My friend even took home a Phở King menu.
I'm going to hang in Austin for a bit and try to stir up some random I.T. work fixing computers so I can to offset the cost of repairs. Next up: Dallas!
No comments:
Post a Comment