In New Orleans, Sunday is "Drink for Jesus Night"
Dinner was great - we had a wonderful meal at the Pelican Club, which ended around 10:00pm and, feeling that the night was still young, decided to wander down Bourbon Street to meet up with another member of our group.
We ended up at a place called The Famous Door which I later learned, after looking it up on the internet, is Bourbon Street's oldest live music club.
The band that was playing was pretty darn good - they did everything from Cheap Trick, to Journey to Aerosmith to... well, whatever. And did it really well. Baby got a good dose of bass this evening. I've read that babies in utero generally don't start to hear sounds outside the womb until about week 25, but I'm postive that our baby could feel the music tonight! I've been back at the hotel for an hour and he or she is still kicking up a storm.
The people-watching was plentiful as well, but that is true for all of Bourbon street at night, not just The Famous Door. But we'll start with the bar... shot girls pushing test tube drinks - you know, the kind that they hold in their mouth and then tip into yours... etc. etc. Plenty of that going on. And then down in front of the stage were these two little girls - I kid you not, they couldn't have been more than 17... both dressed in these delicate long pink satin prom gowns, shakin' their "thangs", and banging their heads to the beat of the music while waving their neatly manicured little cigarette-gripping fingers in the air, flirting with the band. The only time they stopped was when the shot girls would pass by with the test tubes, and then they'd do double shots and continue dancing. The contrast of the head-banging, shot-drinking, cigarett-smoking party moves with the delicate pink prom dresses was pretty surreal.
It was during a Cheap Trick song that I received a text message from Tim, after several failed attempts to call each other and hear each other over the bar sounds. I flipped open my phone to reply and a man in front of me who had been enthusiastically rocking out to the tune of "I want you to want me" turned around and said "Hey! Put that phone away! This is Cheap Trick!". When the song was over and the band had switched to Aerosmith, he came back and told me it was ok for me to use my phone again, pulled out his own blackberry device and explained that his wife had emailed him during Cheap Trick, but NOTHING would ever interrupt him during a Cheap Trick song, despite the fact that she's 8 months pregnant.
And then there was the huge crowd of guys standing around in the middle of the street outside the bar staring up at one of the wrought iron balconies throwing beads and encouraging the two women who were staggering around up there drinking and giggling to show them their "stuff" (only they weren't yelling "stuff" if you know what I mean).
The city definitely has a smell to it too. It was vaguely noticable during the day, but it was definitely noticeable at night. It smells like... well... a garbage dump.
But I think the moment that really defined it all for me was when the lead singer of the band on stage back at the Famous Door yelled into the microphone during a song change "Hey everybody! It's Sunday night! Sunday night is Drink for Jesus Night! How many of you are Drinkin' for Jesus tonight?" and then proceeded to slug back a test tube shot. With the number of hands that shot up to answer his question I'm thinking (actually I'm hoping) I was the only pregnant woman in the bar tonight... all I was slugging back was water.
New Orleans. Definitely a free spirited town. And the only city I've been in that parties like this on a Sunday night. And it was only 11:00pm when I got back to the hotel.
Unfortunately I had left my CF card for my camera back in my laptop so didn't get any pictures. But we'll be going out again before the trip's over, so I'll make sure I capture some of the "essence" of the city to share with you :-) I wonder if Mondays and Tuesdays are as rowdy as Sundays... hmm... there are just so many things wrong with that question. :-)
Off now to shower and head to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings us!