The Big Easy, A Culinary Vacation!

In the French Quarter

    Blog reading friends.  If you have been following along, you know that we stayed at Frog Hollow Campground.  We bounded away from this pleasant little place and headed for New Orleans. The drive was pleasant and really uneventful until the end.  Just before we arrived in New Orleans, we drove across the longest continuous bridge over water in the world.  The bridge is called the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.  It is 24 miles long and runs nearly straight through the lake to New Orleans.  It was a cool experience, but the bridge was horrible for driving across with a trailer.  It was very bouncy, because of the seams in the concrete.  We felt like we were riding galloping horses the entire length.
    After our interesting experience on the bridge, we drove to the KOA in Western New Orleans.  We got in rather early, so we decided to take a little rest before heading into the city for dinner.

Driving in the middle of a lake

   Rested and feeling hungry, we headed out to St. Charles Street for dinner on the recommendation of our friend Heather.  Heather went to college at Tulane and knows all of the special places to eat.  For our first experience of Cajun food we stopped into O'Henry's Bar and Grill.  We were not to be disappointed.  Cecelia started with a bold choice.  She ordered the Alligator Sausage sliders with a Spinach salad.  I went all Cajun, by ordering the Ya Ya Bird.  The Ya Ya Bird was a piece of fried chicken on top of a cornbread muffin sliced in half.  On the side was a pile of grits laced with shrimp, all topped with craw fish etouffee.  Needless to say it was a delectable culinary experience that my taste buds will not soon forget.  I didn't mention what the girls had because, Claire had a burger with Avocado on it and Taylor had a Steak, BORING!!!
    With semi-full bellies, we headed next door to The Camellia Grill for pie.  The specialty of the house for dessert is grilled pie.  We had four different kinds, three of which could be grilled, Chocolate Pecan, Pecan, and Apple.  I ordered the Cheesecake.  The pie and coffee were a great finish to our first foodie experiences in New Orleans.

Gem Mace and Tom Allen

    Fully satisfied, we drove down St. Charles Street and marveled at the awesome architecture.  Along the way we also drove past Tulane and Loyola Universities. The area was very much iconic to what the south represents.  The homes were very beautiful, with large columns and porches with many sporting porch swings.  The front lawn finished off the scene, by having huge trees with Spanish moss hanging from the branches.
    Returning to the RV Park, we then embarked on a bike ride along the Mississippi River Levee.  One of the really cool things about this trip is the little things that you learn about that aren't in the history books.  Along our bike ride, we came across the little town of Kenner.  What is so special about Kenner?  Kenner was the landing spot for the French explorer Rene'-Robert Cavalier in 1628 who promptly claimed it for France as the Louisiana Territory.  It was also the sight of the first professional heavyweight prize fight.  The two fighters were Gem Mace and Tom Allen.  Gem won the fight after 10 rounds on May 10, 1870.  Great information for Trivial Pursuit.
    After completing our evening bike ride, we went for a late night swim and then headed for bed.  We wanted to get up early for our morning excursion into the city and the French Quarter.
    The following morning we arose early to head into the city.  Our first stop was to the iconic restaurant Cafe DuMont.  We went here on the recommendation of multiple friends for breakfast.  The menu at Cafe DuMont is rather sparse, but you actually only go there for the beignets and cafe au laits.  So, what are beignets?  Beignets are big blobs of dough that are deep fried and then covered with so much powdered sugar that it is nearly impossible to take a bite without sucking the sugar up your nose like a scene from an Al Pacino movie.  You actually need to hold your breath before you take a bite and then follow the bite up with a swig of Cafe Au Lait to wash it down.  If you hold it in your mouth too long it will become glue.

Don't Breathe Claire!!

   What is my opinion of beignets?  The first thing that you need to know, is that I am not a big fan of Pancakes, Waffles, French Toast, Donuts or anything that doesn't have to do with bacon and eggs.  That being said, I did give them a good college try.  Three beignets come per order, but I could only handle two.  The only thing that really saved me was the coffee.  I could see, that after a night of celebration on Bourbon Street these would be a good stomach filler.  After eating two beignets, I had to find a place that served bacon and eggs immediately.  It didn't take long, but we found another cafe that had a larger menu.

Andrew Jackson

    After adding some eggs and bacon to the top of my two dough blobs, we headed out to explore the French Quarter.  The French Quarter is a quaint area filled with amazing architecture, a variety of different shops and plenty of bars.  There is also tons of history.  On almost every block there is a plaque that shares the history of some building or event from ages gone by.

    While wandering through the streets we also had an opportunity to view some of the local street art.  Much of it was very good, but definitely had a New Orleans flavor.  Many artists have musicians or architecture as their themes.  The one thing that we were really looking for was music, but other than a couple of people singing acappella there was none to be found.  The reason that we think, is because their was a confirmation going on at the church in Jackson Square and the Bishop was coming into town.

   Wandering away from Jackson square, we headed toward the French Market.  The French Market is an open air market that sells masks, watches, sunglasses, jewelry and alligator heads.  We managed to get away with a hat, masks, sunglasses and voodoo dolls.  That's right, I said voodoo dolls.  So, some of you back home, if you end up with back problems you know where it comes from.

   Completing the shopping excursion, we headed out to get some lunch.  I wanted to have oysters, so we walked along the river to the Marriott Hotel.  The Marriott was home to Dragos restaurant.  Dragos is famous for their oysters and we were not to be disappointed.  I had a dozen raw oysters and a bowl of oyster bisque.  My oysters and bisque were outstanding.  Claire had a dozen of the grilled oysters and a cup of the gumbo.  Her oysters surpassed mine and were a hit with everyone.  They had Parmesan cheese melted on top of them and were grilled.  Even our picky eater Taylor liked them.
    After lunch, we walked back to the truck and headed back to the trailer.  It was late in the afternoon and quite hot, so we headed back and took a little rest.  To finish off our visit to New Orleans, we rode our bikes on the levee again and then finished the evening off with a swim.  We needed to be in bed early, because we were heading to Alabama the next day and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.