Small World, again.

One of the highlights of summer so far was my trip to New Orleans for my cousin Lucy’s wedding. Mom, Dad, and I drove down on Thursday and arrived in town with enough time to head to Par O briens (I think), home of the (in)famous hurricane drink. We talked with the rest of the fam for a bit and called it a night in our old but charming hotel in the bottom of the French Quarter. Friday brought the swamp tour in the middle of hick-Louisiana with a down-home local gator hunter. We saw quite a few little alligators, and the kids on both sides of the family had fun throwing them marshmallows. There was no BP oil in sight.

We had lunch with Aunt Jellybean at a Spanish place recommended by Lucy’s husband and went to pick up Joshua from the airport, who technically broke military rules to get to his sisters wedding. That’s dedication. Both families had a crawfish boil in a park downtown. The crawfish were tasty, but near impossible to salvage meat from and not worth the effort, in my opinion. Definitely fun to try and a fun social event for sure. Later that night I hit the town with my Dad, Uncle, and cousins, and we walked up and down bourbon street. It was sortof weird having been to bourbon street before with the ultimate team over mardis gras and then contrasting it to this experience.

The place is much less crowded when it’s not mardis gras, and I was happy being able to recognize places that I had seen before. I didn’t want to show off my knowledge of Bourbon street too much in front of my parents, as I was techinically underage the past two trips to Bourbon street. My Dad bought me a few beers and we were walking down Bourbon when I got a tap on my shoulder from John Quigley’s dad. The quigley’s were in for their wedding anniversary, and John had told them I would be down here, so they walked down Bourbon street for the off chance they would run into me. Lo and Behold, another small world moment. Some good cathcup and texts to John and we parted way and finally settled in at a bar off of bourbon street where we could all here each other talk. Dad bought a round, and for some reason there was an extra shot of whiskey laying around. Being a noble mcgoron and against Dad’s wishes, I took the shot like a champ. No chase, no face.
I left the family early to meet my friend Jerry who is studying at Tulane at a concert/club nearby. I saw a few friends from HS and caught up with Jer-bear. We saw some good local music and almost got thrown out of the place when we were sneaking drinks of Malibu form a flask and my scotch from Scotland. Made for a pretty awesome night.
Saturday we walked around the Quarter and the French market and had lunch at What I think is the original bubba gumps.The wedding itself was in a park, and it was cozy and cute. Everything was quite well done with a New Orleans charm – including a march off band from Alex’s high school that played The Saints Go Marching In as the new couple danced down the aisle with the wedding party and guests in tow, waving handkerchiefs. It made for a fun time and introduced a lot of us northerners (their family was from Michigan) to life in New Orleans. The reception was a typical Mcgoron reception – lots of booze, piano man, and drunk aunts at the end of the night. We took two drunk people from the other side home at the end of the night, and then Josh and I got beer from the Unique Market and drank it with Gary, Pat, Dad, and Andrew in the hotel courtyard.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to Café Beignet, the birthplace of the (in)famous donut type, for some coffee and donuts before hitting the road to the Lou. I read a book about law school on the way back and got nervous about my future plans, which will probably be a theme in my next few blogs. I’ll take a break now and get some water because our apartment is scorching hot, then I will continue.