The plan for Sunday was to have a quiet day recovering from the night before. As we all had got quite a lot of sleep none of us were feeling that bad.
Stefan located a Diner on Magazine Street that did not serve alcohol, but did serve amazing meals. I opted for one of the specials that came with Crawfish ettouffe. This continued my sequence of eating only seafood meals whilst in the Big Easy.
Back at the house Stefan and I discussed plans for the day. I certainly at some point wanted to get a boat on the Mississippi. Yet the famous paddle steamer the Natchez took two hours and was $31. Not sure I wanted to use up that much time on the river we opted to gamble on the weather. With grey clouds looming and we decided to walk along the Mississippi. To the confusion of our Uber driver we got out at the entrance to Crescent Park. The driver had lived in N'Arlins all his life, & had never heard of the park. In fairness to him the park had only opened in 2014 and we were the only tourists walking along it. Crescent Park is just under two miles. It follows the railroad to the port along the river. At its conclusion we arrived in the very busy touristy French Quarter. I took advantage of the farmers market to pick up a pair of sunglasses. Stefan mentioned there was an Irish bar nearby where we took a pit stop to cool down & I grabbed a beer for the walk. It wudnt be any kind of trip with Mr Hench without going to an Irish bar.
Past the quarter we arrived at where the paddle steamers set off from. The Natchez was just returning from its morning trip. Stefan came up with the excellent suggestion of getting the ferry boat across to Algiers Point. For the bargain price of $4 each way. This allowed us to explore another quieter part of Louisiana. With 7 bars and restaurants within walking distance and only time for one. I discouraged talk of the English pub, & instead headed to one where many movies had been filmed. Once inside there were an array of photos of various actors on the wall. We didn't stay long in order to catch the 14:30 ferry back. We walked alongside the river trail, now on the other side from earlier. At one point marked on the trail was a US Marines fitness marker. This explained all the Marine flags we had seen outside homes and in the bar.
Back in the city we decided we would walk all the way back taking Magazine once we left the CBD. I did have time to pick up some flip flops from the GAP outlet store for the bargain price of $3.24.
Spending anytime outside this week has proved tough simply because of the heat. Thankfully today though there was some cloud cover and in my vest & newly borrowed hat I was well prepared for the walk. It was still tiring and when we did finally reach the end, my phone had recorded 10.1miles. Stefan to his credit had agreed to go spinning with Emily at 17:00, & stuck to it. I am still unsure how he managed that, as as soon as I sat down at the Bulldog bar for a pint I was beat. I popped into another bar on the way home as it looked very busy with some kind of sports team inside. After ordering my beer I was feeling slightly self conscious. Then I chatted to the owner about the beer I was drinking. Urban South - Wit. Urban South brewery is apparently just a mile away from where we're staying. It had slightly zesty taste & made a nice difference to standard lager. The team it turned out where the kickball team that the bar sponsors and they come in for pizza and drink after every game. You can change the sport & the county but pizza and beer seems to be the way for all Sunday sports teams, the world over.
I jumped in the pool and nursed a bud lite & listened to Springsteen while waiting for Stefan and Emily to return from spinning. The liquor store, where I grabbed the six pack from, right next to our house had a great selection of beers. Bizarrely though it had a full range of MD 20/20. When I asked the Russian owner about it, he stated it was something that used to be popular. I think the last time I had his was at a firework display at Broadway with Krish when we were quite young.
Stefan located a restaurant for us to have dinner in. This was called Superior Seafood located just along from Superior Steakhouse on St Charles. This restaurant like Basin had one TV. Perhaps it's the only way guys will agree to go out for dinner if they can still watched sports. Emily cleverly sat so she could see the TV but Stefan could not. Stefan and I shared some wine, & asked the waiter Mason for his recommendations. One of the most popular dishes was the Catfish. Though this came with crawfish ettouffe that I had had for breakfast, I could not miss out on having a catfish. Mason seemed somewhat confused. 'Cat-fish' I repeated. Still unsure he asked "So for the final time, just to be sure, the blackened catfish?" 'Yes'. After some of the worlds largest raw oysters we had ever had, everyone enjoyed their mains.
Emily sensibly went home after dinner as Stefan and I went to another neighbourhood area. Known as Freret it was new to us both. We were too late to join in an outdoor table fuseball tournament. This seemed to be the theme at every bar we walked by. Until almost at the end of the street we found a bar packed to the rafters. We had stumbled onto the tail end of a cocktail bar crawl. After trying one of the crawl cocktails we moved and sat on the patio with a beer. Rediscovering my enjoyment for the smooth taste of Rolling Rock was good. Attempting the whiskey shot that came with it less so. Stefan was on hand to make sure good whiskey did not go to waste. Our waitress explained to us that this was the bars busiest night of the year & the crawl concluded just over the road.
We explored this late night bar which had a huge range of eclectic music being played. When a genre of songs we didn't like came on we headed to the beer garden to enjoy our PBR's. I suggested we try a bar over the road from our accommodation but they would only let us in if we were wearing V necks. After offering to cut Stefan's shirt for him, we though it best to head home. Not to change and go back as I had originally put to Stefan.
One more beer back at the house ensued, as I introduced Stefan to Ballers. After he fell asleep on the couch, I watched a couple of episodes of family guy. Thus concluding my latest night in America since I arrived.