New Orleans and Swimming in the Gulf

Chowing down beignets in Jackson Square.

    Being so close to New Orleans we decided that we should probably go and see Bourbon Street and eat some beignets so that was the plan for Monday. Hot tip-if you want to see everything in New Orleans, don't go on Monday. Apparently Monday is the day that everything closes during the week. No matter, we got done what we set out to accomplish, first stopping in the nearest café that offered beignets. 

    Beignets came in orders of three so I figured we'd need two orders, giving all the boys one and a half pastries a piece. Jason quickly corrected me and said that we'd be getting a full order for each person, or three giant pillow fry breads drowning in powdered sugar per person. Well what did I care. It wasn't my stomach that would have to deal with those repercussions. Interestingly, a woman in the café overheard us as we were leaving and said, "you can only eat two. Three is too much." Marcus, Jason, and Samus promptly proved her wrong by chowing down their entire orders in nearby Jackson Square. Lucas pushed himself hard and made it through two and a half. Thankfully, Samus bats clean up crew during meals, and no beignets went to waste. 

    From Jackson square we plodded along the streets of New Orleans, passing bars and shops not yet open or shut down for the day. Not to be dissuaded by a lack of shopping options I did manage to find a store called "Simply New Orleans" or something similarly fluffy, where we took care of our souveniring needs, complete with a voodoo doll Christmas ornament. We then stumbled upon a hat shop where Samus, Marcus, and I found our new favorite hats. Samus opted for his trademark Ivy Hat, Marcus went with the classic fisherman, and I purchased a darling pink and salmon sun hat with a short back brim to make sitting against something more comfortable. I decided right then, this is now my signature hat and the hat that I will wear when we hike the Grand Canyon in a couple of weeks. It was truly a satisfying buy. 

    New hats on heads, we hopped on a handsome cab with Jeff and his trusty mule, Red. Jeff proved to be an entertaining and informative host. As Red clopped through the backstreets of New Orleans, Jeff offered up tasty tidbits of knowledge about the city's history and it's notable attractions and residents. He was quick to point out all of the unlicensed vehicles, old asbestos roofing tiles, and windows leading onto balconies; just a few of the ways residents skirted the laws without much scrutiny. He also let us in on his code word for trouble: spaghetti. According to Jeff, he uses a neutral word, spaghetti, to signal to people he's with to be on alert, without offending or raising suspicion in the people by which the trouble could be caused. Brilliant. If you hear a Munsch say spaghetti around you, trouble may be a brewing.  

    Jeff suggested we ride the ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers Point and grab a slice of pizza for lunch. At this point, Jeff could have told us to do anything and we would have done it, because what did we know? Please note that the ferry ride to and from Algiers Point was financed by Marcus. About time these boys start pulling their weight. 

    Anyway, the Munschs, who would normally climb to the top deck of any water craft for the breeze and superior views, rode instead inside the air conditioned main deck of the ferry for the much too short five minute trip to Algiers Point. Whelp, little did Jeff know, but the pizza shop closes on Mondays. So next door it was to Dry Dock Café, a neighborhood bar, that offered our new favorite amenity, air conditioning. The boys gorged themselves on hamburgers the size of their heads and Jason ate a Poo Boy, because, when in Rome. By all accounts Dry Dock Café was a winner. After a short, but much too hot stroll down the Jazz Walk, insisted upon by Jason, we missed the ferry back by one minute. By the time we got to the car, we were officially done with New Orleans.

    Arriving back at the camper it was as if Mississippi knew we had had enough of the heat and rain and just wanted to swim, as an oncoming storm skirted just to the east of us. We took the opportunity to frolic in the ocean for just a little while. The water was cool, but dirty and, surprisingly, completely devoid of salt. I know, because I licked it when Jason refused to believe me. Does the water from the Mississippi Delta really dilute the salt water that much? It must.

    Having accomplished all that we set out to do in Mississippi, we decided that we'd move on to North Padre Island a day early, where we would be camping directly on the beach. As excited as we were to be so close to the ocean, none of us was really looking forward to facing the southern heat without air conditioning. At least the next day would start with a nice cool eleven hour drive before setting up camp.