Two years ago on this date I walked through a pecan grove, stood beside the most handsome man I've ever known, and told him I would stay with him no matter what. This vow included Zombie attacks, by the way :^) Well, two years later and I've never been more happier with Jason. Luckily there have been zero zombie attacks, too. That's always a plus. Well, two years ago from the day we were married, we began the morning walking through Jackson Square and visiting cute, little shops. We set out to buy gifts for the amazing people who stood beside us on our wedding day. I am so thankful for our families. I was lucky enough to grow up with the most amazing parents and siblings anyone could ask for. Then I met Jason and his family. I am so lucky that Jason's family is just as amazing and unbelievably wonderful! They have been kind enough to let me be apart of their family, and I couldn't be more grateful! We really are lucky :^) I would post pictures of what we got all of you, but then I might spoil the gifts. Sadly, we'll have to wait until we see you all :^)
Well, after walking around and shopping for a while we decided to go back to the hotel to check on the water situation. As I mentioned from my last post, they called a boil water advisory. Therefore, we have been unable to even shower yet. I know, gross. We hated it! The only comforting thought was that everyone in the city was in the same boat. So we all stunk together, I guess. Gross people unite! When we got back to the hotel, we noticed they still had signs up about the water and there were no more changes. We were able to get extra bottles of water, though. We made due somehow. After cooling off a bit, we decided to head to lunch. We walked around trying to find a place to eat and ended up here:
This is the French Market Cafe. This is the band that was playing there. They weren't my favorite, but they were pretty good. Only awkward part is when the singer said he was going to take a moment to walk around the room and basically ask for tips.... Some of us don't carry cash that often.... awkward! Oh well. We did enjoy the food though! Jason got a turkey po boy and I got the chicken one. It came with chips also. All in all, a pretty good lunch. As we were eating, we noticed pigeons all over the cafe, scuttling along the floor hoping to get scraps of food. Gotta love pigeons! What was the most amazing thing about this place was that they had drinkable water!! The lady said "I'll put your order in and get you some water." Jason and I both looked at each other, and had one of those conversations you have between someone without actually talking... "Crap, they don't know about the water!" Luckily the lady must have known our hesitation with the water because she said, "Don't worry, the water's safe to drink." Phew! Fun times in Nawlins! Haha
After eating we decided to go to the hotel. We felt so dirty at this point, we really didn't think it was good to walk around too much and just make it worse. We ended up going to the hotel and took a nap, hoping when we woke up the water would be on. Sadly, when we woke up the water was not on. We decided to make the most out of the day and not let the water situation ruin a perfectly good day. We started looking up stuff to do. We discovered the horse and carriage rides we kept seeing at Jackson Square were cheaper than we thought. Apparently it is $75 for a tour, but if you go with a group of people (even people you don't know) it's only $15! Jason and I decided to walk down to the square and take a ride :^) Here is our buggy and the man who did the tour:
The guy was born in New Orleans and he said his father was a history professor. He told us about the square, some of the "haunted buildings," how New Orleans was named, and whatnot. He showed us a school that was made by nuns that was kind of neat. He said they hosted fights in the building. I thought that was kind of weird... nuns hosting fights. He also stopped at a bar and let us buy drinks if we wanted. We didn't, but we did stop for cash. The bar we stopped at was Jean La Fittes Blacksmith Shop. Apparently this is the oldest bar in the U.S. It's kind of tricky though. It's not technically the oldest, but it's been open longer than any other. They say that because it didn't close during prohibition. Gutsy! The guy said the man who owned it was a pirate. The bar was apparently just a front to make or sell weapons. Later on the trip we found out there's a different story about the bar, though. I'll explain later. For now, that's what we knew. As the tour went on we learned that Nicolas Cage bought a huge house here. I'd show you a picture, but I'll have to wait until later on. Later in our trip, we heard a different version of who owns the house now, too. I'll get to that later. Anyways... After the tour we said goodbye to the guide and decided to go to the edge of Mississippi River. In the picture above you can see steps, if you go up the steps you're at the river. Our tour guide said "to our left is where we keep the Mississippi River... usually." Oh man! Here's a picture of us on a bench by the River, please excuse the messiness (again, no shower):
We didn't stay long because we noticed this was a slightly sketchy area... We kept seeing this one guy, who was talking to himself for some time, walk back and forth on the sidewalk in front of us. We decided we better leave. On our way back to the hotel, Jason got stopped by a shoe shiner. This happened at least 20 times on our trip! Each one of the shoe shiner people said the same thing, too! "Hey man, those are some nice shoes. I be I can guess where you got them!" Jason's smart and always just responds, "I'm good, thanks though." When we were sitting on the bench by the river we heard a shoe shiner say that same phrase to another man walking by. He was smart, too. He responded "Yeah, I've heard that one!" Jason and I had never heard that phrase before this trip. Jason says he thinks they will offer you a free shoe shine if they get the place right. I think that's a bad game cause someone could always lie and you'd lose a shoe shine. Jason says he thinks they would just say, "You got it at a store!" Smart. Oh well, we finally got back to the hotel and found a lovely surprise! Remember the fruit water we saw when we first checked into the hotel? Well, they took it away when the water went bad. However, it was back!! The notices were taken down, too! I would say we ran back up to the room, but it's hard to run on an elevator. Let's just say we excitedly went upstairs to our room, hoping to see a notice under our door. We got back but didn't see a notice. I called the front desk and she said the water was safe! Immediately we took a shower!! Never been so thankful for running, clean water! All I could think of is how spoiled we are... so many people have to go months or years without water like this! I couldn't do it. Well, once we finished showering a notice slid under our door saying the water was clean :^) Yay!
After showering, it was dinner time! We found a cute little cafe named Cafe Maspero! Here's a picture of us there:
Because I don't drink ever really, the daiquiri I had, plus the shot, plus half this hurricane, and the champagne we always have to celebrate our anniversary with was enough for me. Luckily I stayed hydrated and managed just fine, though! Jason found me amusing after just the daiquiri. Haha.
After getting the hurricanes, we forgot to stop by for some chocolate covered strawberries. Oh well, we had a lovely time and laughed the whole night! Jason found it very amusing when I accidentally called the Hurricanes "Hurlincans." I remember thinking that would be a good name for a dog. We then started saying "Hurlincans!!" to the tune of the Ricola cough drop commercials. Jason and I made sure not to have too much alcohol though and were able to enjoy a nice evening together. The cafe, the champagne, holding hands as we walked through the city... a truly wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary :^) End of notes for Day 4.
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