Our most recent outing, last weekend, had us heading to downtown New Orleans to the ever famous French Quarter. The 30th annual French Quarter Fest is basically the "quarter" filled with live music on different corners, food vendors, artists and entrepreneurs with booths and tents selling things, food eating contests, beer or mixed drinks, etc. (the best part is you can walk around drinking and enjoying everything...) From what we've heard from the "locals" this was a MUST for us to go and experience...so with not much twisting of our arms, we ventured on out to see what this was all about. (Pretty much anything that involves drinking and good food....we're pretty much in).
The weather was actually PERFECT when we went, light breeze, slightly warm but not too bad and the sun would venture behind the clouds creating that perfect 70 degree nirvana! Plus it was just warm enough that the beers were going down pretty smoothly too!
A little background on the French Quarter and it's festival. (We're learning that they hold festivals for a lot of different things around here...so if you want to celebrate something...throw a festival!)
The French Quarter is probably one of my favorite parts of New Orleans....vintage buildings, close to the river walk, awesome restaurants and cute little shops! It has a lot of different styles from Spanish, French, to American in it's architecture...which is really something neat to look at (my engineer husband seems to enjoy this part a lot). It has cute little garden areas, the Jackson Square (essentially a little park), basically a little something for everyone!
We enjoyed things from the locally brewed Abita Beer, awesome catfish, scrumptious prime rib po boy, gator in a blanket (basically a gator sausage in a bun) and snowballs. (Not to be confused with snow cones that us Midwesterners seem to enjoy in a hot summer...basically all we could figure is that the ice is shaved finer...it's basically the same syrup....but all the same delicious) And then to complete our adventure, you ALWAYS have to treat yourself to some beignets when you get to the Quarter. (so much powerder sugar goodness....mmmmmmm good)
The festival, as I noted in the beginning, has only been around for 30yrs. So not quite as big of a tradition as Mardis Gras....but...from what I understand, it was first started as a way to bring residents back to the Quarter after some extensive sidewalk repairs were performed. It is now the largest, free music festival in the South, hosting about 21 stages where a wide variety of genres perform (contemporary, jazz, New Orleans funk, gospel, latin...etc). Only local restaurants are invited to participate as food vendors. It has been consistently voted "favorite festival", "favorite food festival" and "favorite even open to the public" by the locals. So...hopefully you are able to enjoy the fun through our pictures (this would be a fun thing to take visitors too...;-)
Here is what the "snowballs" look like....you be the judge.
When we first got down to the quarter, a crawfish eating contest was getting under way with "local celebs" (i.e. newscasters, the newspaper reporters, etc.) in participation. Of course we were intrigued...and had to see what this was all about, considering we have eaten crawfish once....these people are quick!
Here is some of the entertainment:
Our next little adventure will be the PGA Tour visit for the Zurich Classic. Although my favorite, Phil Mickelson will not be in attendance...we'll get to watch the likes of Bubba Watson, Steve Stricker, Rickie Fowler, Keegan Bradley....strike a few. I'm sure there will be some drinking involved with this activity also. We'll see how much we'll get to take pictures...the PGA gets a little fiesty with some of that because it can be distracting to the players....
Hope everyone is doing well!
loved the blog and miss you two!
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