New Orleans Day 1

Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took for the first day are there, so I must simply recap and move on. Mindy and I arrived to a wonderful hotel. It was called the Intercontinental and I would certainly recommend it. The staff was helpful and accommodating and our room was lovely. We went to eat at The Crazy Lobster which was rather good. Mindy got the Bucket of Seafood and almost finished it(and it was a seriously huuuuuuge amount of food.) I of course, as we shall see the more I post about this, had a Cat Fish Po' boy and we shared a pair of Crab Cakes. Nom nom.

The rest of the night we walked around part of the French Quarter and it was wonderful. The sort of place that you can walk miles in and find interesting things at every turn. Seriously, every ten feet is a restaurant and every where else is some sort of interesting shop or pub (both of which I can thoroughly agree to.)

Another thing I noticed was there were smells everywhere. Good smells, bad smells, strange and unusual smells and mysterious but pleasing smells. Beer and weed are prevalent; the beer you can account for but you can't really find who's smoking the weed, yet you know that someone nearby is smoking it. In a strange way, you welcome even the sickly sweet smell of garbage that occasionally wafts by and the rhythmic reappearance of the mule crap (there are French Quarter tours taking carriages hauled by mules.) You accept them I think because it is part of the adventure and experience.

One last thing I want to discuss is the people. Now, I've been to the South before and the people were friendly but not always welcoming if you understand. But everyone we met here were beyond friendly and welcoming. They'd talk to you with a sort of familial warmth that just made you feel like the place was another home. They'd stop to help you find directions; they'd joke with you or even offer you well wishes for Mother's Day knowing that you weren't a mother. In short, it was a whole city of people that may drive a little crazy, but they welcome you in and enhance the awesome time you are having from the ambiance.

In short, day one clued me in that I was going to love this city.

Tomorrow comes Day 2 with pictures!

Phew!

I just got back from New Orleans and I'm going to write a couple of posts about that loaded with pictures. But I have a lot of pictures and things to sort through so they will probably pop up next week. I also should have the finished tattoo design of Skadi fairly soon so that should be in a post within a few weeks.