The Big Easy - Part 1

Pensacola, FL
Hello Friends!

Greetings from the home of the Blue Angels, you know, those super fast and cool Navy jets you see at air shows? We are currently on at Pensacola Naval Air Station were the Angels are based. We are in the throws of a short week as we had the 5th of July off. Kids are doing great and our contact is wonderful, but we will talk about Florida later, first we have to discuss New Orleans! Mandi and were able to go to New Orleans twice last week. First during the week with our great contacts and then on Saturday by ourselves. (By the way that wanted picture is from a display at the back of the gym were we performed in Belle Chasse, LA. Not picture are the 20 children behind the picture taker making fun of us...)

Our first outing with our contacts (one of whom a native New Orlean-er - that is her pictured with Mandi and I) took us to get some good Cajun cooking in the French quarter. The food was much better then our experience with Lil G's, but I was a little over seafood-ed and since they boil the crawfish right in the dining area it STUNK! Thankfully I ordered the Jambalaya and it was very good (as was my Hurricane). My fellow diners had OK dinners so I was the winner!

From there we went to Bourbon St. and even though it was a weekday night it was still bopping. This was my third time on the world's most famous street so I was prepared. However this was Mandi's first time and seeing her reactions to all the drinking and strippers on the sidewalks was great. It is deferentially another world and since we didn't want to be rude tourists we had a walking drink on Bourbon St. as well. Ah the world famous daiquiris. We both ordered the "tropical itch" and enjoyed them as we strolled. They were very sugary and by golly did have a wee bit of "libations" in them.

Next we went to our last stop of the evening, beignets at Cafe du Monde . The famous 24 hour cafe is know for their beignets(French doughnuts, or fried squares of dough bathed in powder sugar) and their coffee. The binges were tasty but I still don't understand what the big deal is, it is fried dough with sugar, who hasn't had that at a fair? I did not have any of the coffee (it has chicory in it making it real good I hear). We went there at 10PM and the place was packed, poor Mandi even had to wait 20 minutes to use the bathroom.

Then it was time to go home and it was much appreciated that our contacts drove. While the night was hot, it wasn't too muggy and even a block away from the life of Bourbon St. the French Quarter was quite, calm, and beautiful. Thankfully we would be able to experience the quarter again during the day when we returned that weekend. To be continued!

The Adventure Continues - ML