NOLA and Cruise-Day 1

I had the pleasure of waking up at 2:30 am just to get to RDU to try to get the 5 am flight to Charlotte. Truthfully, all I really wanted was to make either the 5 am or 6 am flight to Charlotte, since the flights to New Orleans were looking to be widely available.  Our Lyft driver actually came on time, 3 am. I think deep down that was my biggest worry. I have to say Mom still has this early morning energy, even at 70 years young. Maybe it's the mindset of going to the airport early for four decades. I just didn't have it. I didn't want to talk all that much. But I pulled myself up and we were foff at 3 am. Even at 3:15, the airport was already packed. Now in the security line, I got felt up by the TSA agent! In the x ray, I could see I had a yellow dot and a red dot around my belt line, so apparently, I was packing something!

We actually got our seats for the 5 am quite quickly, and considering that flight was booked at 188/190, it was a very pleasant surprise. Some people just can't get up or security becomes an issue, who knows. I ended up with seat 14E. Hey a middle seat is never ideal, but a seat is a seat. 

In Charlotte, we wanted breakfast, but no place would cut a sandwich in half.  They couldn't even give us a pathetic plastic knife to cut it ourselves. Absurd. So instead, it was Starbucks drinks. I tried the iced gingerbread oatmilk chai latte. The only reason I did is because it was advertised on the board. And it was so so good. Forget pumpkin spice, give me more gingerbread!

The NOLA flight was wide open as expected; we got the second row of coach. After collecting our bags, we took the 202 bus to get downtown. It cost only $1.25 whereas an Uber would have cost us close to 40 bucks. We probably sat on the bus for 25 minutes waiting to go, but once we did go, it only took about 20 minutes to get downtown. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn, which looks like it used to be a bank judging by the stately looking exterior. It was in between the Central Business District and the French Quarter, so it was a good location to get to a lot of places.

We were hungry! So once we checked in early and dropped off our bags in the 4th floor room (Yes!), we walked uptown to Central Grocery for a muffaleta, one of the staples of New Orleans cuisine. The sandwich or round Italian bread with cold cuts and olive salad. Of course along the way, we did some observing in the little shops. I even purchased a colorful New Orleans themed spoon rest for my kitchen. It took a little over a mile and 30 minutes to walk to Central Grocery. But the sandwich was great, which is amazing for me since I don't even eat olives. And Zapps sweet onion potato chips, those are some of the best I've ever had. 

From there, we continued north to the New Orleans Jazz museum, which is housed in the former US Mint. It wasn't huge, but there were some nice artifacts like a Fats Domino home piano. They also had a full exhibit for drumming as well as the roots of Louis Armstrong. Not the best museum I've ever seen, but as someone who appreciates jazz, I'm all for learning all the history about it that I can. They also have a downstairs section for the US Mint days and they even have a jukebox dedicated to songs about money. Everything from The Gambler to Money For Nothing to a bunch of older songs that I can't remember!

We walked back through the French Market and made our way to the Sazerac House on Canal St. It was a huge building that offers free tours with three cocktail samples included, one of which is the classic Sazerac with whiskey, lemon juice, Peychaud bitters, and Herbsaint. Very classy place with a huge wall of bottles that they sell. There's no bar, just the bottles and the samples. Even the merchandise was made of high quality materials but was available for fair prices. I didn't purchase anything, but gosh, it was some of the best merch I saw on the whole trip.

With our appetites coming on strong again, we walked back across Canal St to the Creole House. Two seats were available at the bar and we knew quickly we found a good spot. I took down a 22 ounce Abita Jockamo IPA, which was excellent. Then the food. Those charbroiled oysters. We could actually see the cook at the grill next to the bar cooking then up for us. He even threw down a little French bread on the grill too. He always makes a little fire. And once one table gets them, folks at the other tables can't help but want to order them too. I keep saying, you don't just taste with your mouth, you taste with your eyes, your nose, your ears. And the oysters came to our bartop still sizzling, we had to wait a few minutes to indulge. A little lemon and melted cheese on top, just remarkable. Then we split the alligator po boy, and I had to cut that in half myself. But at least we got the knife this time...

Next to us at the bar was three guys, in town for the Knicks vs Pelicans game. One was named. Vincent, who turned out to be a personal chef in NYC. We all had a great chat and he even bought mom another glad of wine and he bought me a shot of Woodford. Stiff drink, but smooth as can be! Craziness kept happening, Santa and the elves even made a quick visit into the kitchen. Just a cool time. I've had so much frustration with people lately that I kind of needed this. 

On our way back, we wound up walking with a Jets fan, it was the 3rd time I'd seen the logo in one day. He was a big black guy and such a down to earth guy. I didn't even pack any Jets stuff because I'm too ashamed! But we vented about the frustrating season. Those kinds of interactions are so good to have. 

Back in the room, we both needed a nap. Woke up, all of a sudden it was dark outside! But Canal St was all lit up. The palm trees were wrapped in diagonally hanging Christmas lights that gave off a white hue.

For dinner, we went to Snapper's, located on Canal St. It was a small, casual place, nothing too flashy. We took two seats at the bar which holds maybe 8 people. Being that it was a pretty cool night out, we each got a cup of crawfish etoufee. I hadn't had it before, but I enjoyed it. The etoufee came with a scoop of white rice and side of garlic bread. There was plenty of crawfish tails in the cup too.

For an entree, we split the grilled red snapper filet, which is usually one of my favorite fishes. Not this one. It didn't taste all that fresh, and it was smothered with a white creamy crawfish sauce. But it was way too heavy and creamy that it overpowered the fish. Very disappointing. It did come with two sides, we had a house salad and Caesar salad. The house salad was fine, it had some spring greens, which gave it a nice touch. The Italian dressing was your standard thick golden Kraft. Come on Snapper's, do better than that please. You are in New Orleans, certain standards are required. I wish we had returned to the Creole House.

We went back to the hotel for the rest of the night. Part of me felt guilty about not going to Bourbon St and partying on my one night in town. At the same time, I'll be doing it for a full week on the ship. So nothing to feel guilty about.