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Straight on Through to New Orleans

New Orleans

We started off this morning right with a breakfast buffet at a Shoney’s restaurant. I had never been to one before, James said he remembered them fondly from his childhood and had thought them all to be closed.

We rolled into Birmingham around 1:30 looking for a bite to eat. @Amy_norinn suggested via Twitter that we check out Golden Rule BBQ, but after the last two days we’re both a little BBQ’d out so we hit up my friend Zack for a suggestion. He immediately shot back with a place called ‘The Garage Cafe.’ Knowing that Zack is from Decatur I figured his suggestion to be spot on.

The directions were weird because they lead us smack in the middle of a residential block but sure enough we found it. When we arrived the place looked awesome. Sort of an artsy / DIY / punk bar cafe surrounded by antiques.

Sadly, they aren’t open until 3pm and our hunger just couldn’t wait that long, so we took Amy’s second suggestion of a place called Jackson’s. I’m sad to have missed The Garage, it seems exactly like my kind of place hopefully I’ll get to come back here some day. We instead went to a place recommended by Amy on her second attempt, Jackson’s. It was fairly standard bar cafe food but we were just happy to eat.

From there we wandered around a little bit and found an ice cream shop where we both got cones and then hit the road to New Orleans.

We arrived at our hotel around 9pm and after settling in went out for a bite to eat. Sadly everywhere we tried was closed so we wound up at a Krystal’s (think fake White Castle) on Bourbon Street. The last time I was here I had avoided Bourbon Street and while it was an interesting walk, it’s definitely not the type of place I’d like to spend time. We quickly made our way to Royal Street where the way the streets are lit it’s almost as if someone is preparing a stage show on every corner. The architecture of this city just shines and the two of us spent time wandering and photographing before making our way over to Flanagan’s for a drink.

The last time I was at Flanagan’s during the Mercedes Benz Tweet Race I fell in love with this city. There is a presence here that I cannot explain. It draws me in and makes me want to explore.

Photos now. More later.