Day 5: New Orleans LA

-Checked out of the Windsor Hotel (which we later found out was #1 in the world in 1998, apparently the service was really good?)
-After failing to find a breakfast place in the French Quartar we drove to breakfast at Stewarts Diner in the Upper 9th Ward. Turns out George Bush had visited the restaurant several times since Katrina and had flown the parents of our waiter out to DC for a memorial mass a few years ago.
-Next door was a weird little grocery store that sold "rap snacks"?
-Visited the Lower 9th Ward. Hundreds of empty lots, even 5 years later. The Make it Right foundation (makeitrightnola.org) was constructing these new age houses on stilts with crazy architecture. We saw exactly where the levy broke and photos from the flood. It was a pretty somber and weird place. There were still many houses that needed to be torn down.
-We then split into 2 groups



-JOHN AND GREG
-John's sister's boyfriend's sister Kate, who hosted us our second night, got us comp VIP tickets to theNew Orleans Food and Wine Experience in the Superdome.
-We went with Kate's friend Dawn who turned out to be an rabid Saints fan (there were Saints superbowl stuff everywhere in NoLa btw)
-The event was very expo-like and we walked from booth to booth with a wine glass and a little plate. I (greg) thought the food was delicious. There was Gumbo, Noodles, Crawfish, Catfish, Cheese, Ice-cream everything you could imagine (and LOTS of wine ;)
-In attendance at the even was Paula Dean, NoLa Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and tons of Top Chef chef's including Hosea Rosenberg who made made favorite dish (a spicy Thai vermecelli with shrimp)
-After three hours of drinking and eating "Big Sam's Funky Nation" (bigsamsfunkynation.com) played a half hour set of funk. I (greg) Loved It! Great music and had a GREAT time dancing and taking it all in. The basist even recognized Kate.

-ROMAN AND SAM
-Birders to buy local authors
-Post office to send postcards to Russia
-NOMA (New Orleans Museum of Art)

-EVERYONE
-Met back up at the Balcony Cafe.
-Went to the Audubon Park where we saw the Tree of Life and walked around the labyrinth.
-Took a short siesta at the house where "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" was playing on TV. (One of my fav movies. It's old but you gotta see it)
-Creole Creamery. The ice cream was amazing. Roman got the Olive Oil ice cream and guess what it tasted like... olive oil. Sam's outmeal cookie ice cream was also really good. I (greg) got white peach and John got cheesecake (all delicious)
-Rock and Bowl. Kate took us to this bowling alley that had live music. The place was really cool on the inside witha huge dance floor and high ceilings with a lot of character. The Topcats (thetopcats.com) played throughout the night. They are a cover band that has been around for 25 years. It was great these old guys played everything from the Electric Slide to Boom Boom Pow to Sweet Caroline to Low by Flo Rida to My Angel is a Centerfold to My Own Worst Enemy. The bowling was also fun.
-Lets forget that the Suns got a eliminated by the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals in Game 6 that night too.
-At around 1ish we moved to the RC Bridge Lounge for more drinks. It was fun of course. The night didn't end until almost 4.