Adventures in the Quarter -- Beignets, the Big Muddy, and Little Discoveries

Reba and I ventured to the Quarter yesterday. She did very well on the bus -- it helped that we didn't have psycho drivers slamming on brakes at every stop and making us slide around.

Our first stop was the infamous Cafe du Monde, home of world-reknowned beignets and coffee. After a long search for a table, I was invited to join a lovely couple at their table and proceeded to wait fifteen or twenty minutes for a waiter. I was thrilled to learn that my desire for sweets wasn't going to break me -- an order of three beignets and a cup of hot chocolate with tax came to three dollars even. Fabulous. OK, so it was a little to warm for hot chocolate, but I don't drink coffee (iced or otherwise) and I'd heard the chocolate was pretty darned tasty. It was. The funniest part about being at CdM was watching Reba watch the pigeons. The pigeons of course were fearless, and in their pecking up fallen bits of beignet one literally came within a foot and a half of Reba. She merely sat beside me and watched it VEEEERY intently, but she didn't make a lunge for it. I was so proud.

I ate only one beignet (loaded with powdered sugar and very sweet) and packed the other two to go, then we set off down Decatur Street to do a little sightseeing. After about a block or so, Reba started acting like she needed to find a patch of grass. We finally found one, and as she took care of business I noticed a sign at the top of the hill decrying River Walk. I found a ramp, and when we crested the hill, there was the mighty Mississip. We walked along it for a while, stopped to talk with a really nice older gentleman selling handmade jewelry (Nay, you shoulda been there -- he had a GORGEOUS moss agate necklace), and then just sat in the shade for a while and watched the boats go by. I'm thinking about checking to see if any of the steamboats are accessible.

The rest of the afternoon we just walked up and down a few blocks, occasionally going into this store or that shop to have a respite from the heat. One of our stops was at The Shops at Canal Place, an extremely ritzy-titsy place. No Gucci for this poor college girl. I did buy some over-priced incense at L'Occitane En Provence, but I figured I deserved to spoil myself a little. Lavender-amber, what a combo!

My other discovery (besides a few bars to visit when Mark and Amy come down -- there's actually a Coyote Ugly Saloon on Peters Street, but there were no women dancing on the bar when I went by) was a delightful second-hand bookstore called Beckham's. The first book I saw was my oft-coveted EO Wilson tome The Ants. Even here it was still out of my price range, but the price was better than new. There was also a very nice looking man carefully repairing a book in one of the side aisles. Hey, I notice these things.

All in all, Reba and I had a very nice, relaxing time in spite of the heat. I was a little disappointed I didn't see any of Decadence, but I never made it over to Bourbon Street. Oh well, there's always next year.