Today was our most packed day so far. I’m going to try something different for today’s post.

What we did:

• Woke up @ 10:15
• Drove to Tulane – Tulane crew t-shirt and hung out with Robbie (beautiful campus)
• Back to Jay’s to pick up Tanya
• Took streetcar to French Quarter for lunch
• Walked by the river to Café Du Monde
• Walked Bourbon Street and Royal Street etc (FaceTimed w Chris Ashcroft, Chris Sherry, and Andrew Hilton in Scotland!)
• Amazing art – Jackson Square, galleries (“Blue Dog” by Rodrigue, incredible art on unlikely canvases)
• Frenchman Street
• Dinner
• Rebirth Brass Band @ Howlin Wolf
• Back to Bourbon Street
• Uber home (Mike, good dude) @ 2:45 am

Food

• Mother’s (lunch) – SUPER long line to order but we found out it was worth the wait. I had a fried shrimp po’ boy and a cup of gumbo. Yep, this is amazing New Orleans food, served up since 1937.
• Café Du Monde (snack) – crowded as hell but we were about to down 2 orders of beignets and coffee in about 20 minutes. NOLA classic, so incredibly good (and good for you too!….)
• Nawlins Jerky Brothers (snack) – Tori DID NOT give us a handsome discount. But she was really cool and they had really good jerky so not a total loss.
• Felix’s (dinner) – split char grilled oysters with Jay, ½ oyster po’ boy, jambalaya. I want to eat this food everyday.
• Brennan’s (dessert) – THE BEST BANANAS FOSTER I’VE EVER EATEN EVER IN MY LIFE EVER. This was my dad’s recommendation from a trip he took in 1975. Turns out this is the place where bananas foster was invented. No wonder it was so good! And….it was prepared table side!

Music

• Bluegrass busking group – really good but really dirty (take a shower, hippies!)
• Brass band at Jackson Square
• Downriver Festival – Honey Island Swamp Band à really good local rock/blues
• Random jazz quintet @ Maison – simple but very talented
• Rebirth Brass Band – ABSOLUTELY dirty (in the good way, not the bluegrass hippie way). These guys were so energetic and talented. Turns out they’re the only brass band to have ever won a Grammy. Highlight – toward the end of their set they invited the birthday girls on stage, one of which was a large black girl who had awesome dance moves and was clearly hitting on the lead trumpet player / singer. Gradually more girls came on stage, including 1 really drunk guy which they stopped the show for and made fun of him.

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