Day 8, Friday May 31^st:

Sleeping in on Friday was much needed after the wild commotion of Bourbon Street.  We decided to walk through the city and check out what else there was to see outside of iconic but touristy Bourbon Street.  Walking towards the Mississippi River we found a coffee shop called Café Du Monde where Max and Adam got in their coffee fix and we all tried the New Orleans signature beignets.  

Once we were re-energized we walked down the river which unfortunately was not much to see aside from a steamboat cruise and the Oyster festival that was being set up for Saturday.  We decided on lunch at Johnny Po-boys after seeking the advice of a local. We grabbed Catfish, Oyster, and Shrimp Po-Boys from the popular local back alley food joint.  Exhausted from the adventurous afternoon, we took a 20 minute hiatus back at the hotel. Once we made our way back to the street we stopped in to the famous Pat O’Brien’s for some drinks, a huge courtyard, and a dark but vibrant dueling piano bar. 

Leaving the bar we stumbled upon a voodoo shop where Jeremy sought his fortune through tarot cards.  There is a strong positive outlook in Jeremy’s future with much to be determined in the near future.  

After Jeremy’s spiritual journey, we continued to explore –through intermittent downpours of rain that left streets looking like rivers - and made our way to Frenchmen Street where we were immediately greeted by a sidewalk jazz band of 10-plus young musicians performing traditional New Orleans Jazz.  

We stopped in a bar to listen to another jazz band before finding our hidden gem of the evening.  We came across a dive bar consisting of mainly locals playing pool, where everyone seemed to know each other by name, some of which who were accompanied by dogs.  What brought us to the bar in the first place was our relaxed journey to find the last New Orleans food staple that we hadn’t tried – Crawfish Boil.  After waiting 2 hours for the fresh batch we dug into our large plates of free crawfish.  

Everyone at the bar was friendly and we met a lot of very interesting people.  From there we headed back down Bourbon Street and picked Keith up from the airport.  

Adam and Max stayed out beyond the more traveled stretch of Bourban street to visit the historic Blacksmith Bar.  This dark New Orleans bar had great live piano covers and a great personality.  Once Jeremy called after driving Keith back from the airport, we all met up again at the hotel and made our way to an oyster bar we had eaten at the night before for some late night dinner which included more oysters and jambalaya pasta, and the coolest and most entertaining bartender we had met all week.

~Jeremy, Max, and Adam