December 31, 2007

Clint would like me to write that I woke up on New Year’s Day with so many beads around my neck that I couldn’t move my head. This, you see, would be evidence of a wild and crazy New Year’s Eve spent on steamy Bourbon Street. I am not ashamed to say that my complete lack of bead retrieval reflects on the evening we really spent in New Orleans: calm, cool, and critical (of the bead-bedecked idiots). However, the environs imbued us with just enough excitement to make up for many, many boring New Year’s Eves past.

Getting the lay of the land was our first step on New Year’s Eve afternoon. We had never visited New Orleans and had little idea what the city is like. Especially since it was a gorgeous day (sunny and 75), touring the Garden District was the thing to do. This beautiful area boasts the largest and oldest mansions in the city (left intact after the flooding), huge houses that make even confirmed cottage lovers yearn for acres of indoor space. We saw the house where Brad Pitt has just filmed a movie, John Goodman’s abode (formerly home of Trent Reznor), and Nicolas Cage’s sometime dwelling. We also observed, close up, the curious above-ground, dozens-of-people-to-a-tomb cemeteries.

After an early (seafood, of course) dinner, it was off to the French Quarter for the festivities. Not wanting to fill the four hours until midnight partying, we took a ghost walking tour for a couple of hours. We were relieved to escape from crowded, hectic Bourbon Street and pop into a hole-in-the-wall bar haunted by a lady of the night or stand gazing at the ghostly Christmas-lights-adorned hotel on a nearly deserted street. But eventually we needed to return to the main drag, and return we did, though I wasn’t sure I would last the night. Revelers tire me! If you’re not dancing on a patio or dancing in a club or dancing in the street, what do you do? Well, we managed to pass the time wandering around and trying to avoid cigarette ash and beads of sweat in our beverages, and 12:10 saw us in a cab heading back. Not the most exciting travel, or New Year’s Eve, story, but consider it a prelude to future New Orleans trips, and many potential bead-getting opportunities.