The Real N’Awlins (and the Real Houston too)

So I went away last week on a whirlwind 9 day trip that took me through two cities in two states. You may be thinking, “Ange, vacation again?”. I only took one week off in the summer because I had anticipated attending Debbie and Jamie’s wedding in Houston, and I had figured, hey, if I’m going to spend all that money on the airfare, I might as well make a trip out of it.

(Of course, I hadn’t really considered the fact that stretching my airfare dollar also meant draining money out of my bank account and racking up my credit card bill. Because there were some other little things that needed to be paid for, like, oh I don’t know, accommodations and food. Funny things, those basic needs are.)

But anyway, my financial woes aside, I had a marvelous time.

Congratulations!
A shot I took of the beautiful bride Debbie and her very tall husband Jamie. This was taken in the lobby of the Hilton in Houston where the wedding reception was held, right before the meal started. In fact, by taking this picture, I may have contributed to its delay. Oops! 

Debbie and Jamie each took a few minutes to give really moving speeches during the reception. All in all it was a really beautiful wedding - a two-Kleenex/wear-waterproof-mascara kind of wedding if you know what I mean - and I am glad that I traveled all the way to Houston for it.
 

Having been deprived of amusement parks all summer, Tim and I decided to make the trek to Astroworld while we were in Houston. The two-for-one entry deal we got was pretty sweet and the short and sometime non-existent lines were great. But there?s something eerie about watching unoccupied cars making their way around the roller-coaster track and walking around the nearly empty park felt like we were on the set of a bad B-horror movie. 

And this is where we had dinner at Six Flags. We sat close the windows so we could look outside, in case any tumbleweed would start drifting down the deserted street. 

Mmmm?raw oysters. Heaven in a half-shall. Restaurants serving up fresh seafood were everywhere in New Orleans and together (Tim, Pikka, Erx and I), we consumed as much seafood and Cajun fare (jambalaya, gumbo, po?boys, etc.) as our pocketbooks and appetites allowed. Mmmm?gumbo. 

Speaking of heaven, I sure hope there will be café-au-lait and fresh beignets just like those at Café du Monde. We went there almost every day to get our fill of deep fried dough covered in powdered sugar and our dose of milked-laden caffeine. Mmmm?beignets. 

Did I mention that we liked our gumbo? 

A special dish called ?Praline Bacon.? From the numerous samples of praline I tried while browsing through various stores in the French Quarter, I came to the conclusion that pralines are simply flavoured sugar melted over pecans. (Think fudge but sweeter.) Now imagine that encrusted on bacon strips and you?ve got yourself Praline Bacon, a New Orleans original and the quickest way to a heart attack if I ever saw one. Pikka said her strip of Praline Bacon was good, the second was ok, the third was not so good, and would have vomited if she had had a forth.
 

And what did I have for breakfast that morning? French toast stuffed with cream cheese and strawberries. They don?t call New Orleans the ?Fattest City? for nothing.  

Of course our trip to N?Awlins wasn?t only about the food (contrary to what you may think). Buskers and jazz clubs abounded and we caught a couple of pretty good acts. 

Preservation Hall, French Quarter: For 5 dollars, we got to cram into a small room that looked like it was caught in a time warp circa 1930 and listened to some great music played by some superb musicians.
 

Big band music at Snug Harbour in another area of New Orleans called the Faubourg Marigny. 

The next night we checked out another band called the Jazz Vipers at a place called ?The Spotted Cat?. 

Random picture of me and Tim. Well?check back soon because I?m going to be posting more pictures and more stories (like how we all wandered accidentally into a ghetto) in the next days. Toodaloo!