An Unplanned Date Night in New Orleans

To celebrate the all-but-certainty that the Hogs will be playing here in the Sugar Bowl on January 4th, Pepper and I headed down to the Riverfront for an impromptu "Date Night."

South Louisiana has a quaint Christmas tradition -- bonfires along the Mississippi River to guide Pere Noel through the dark bayous on his way to deliver gifts to good little children.  We've lived here since 1999 and had never been able to see one due to one conflict or trip or another.  Then Katrina hit, and the closest bonfire went on hiatus -- until last night!

Our evening began with cocktails, charbroiled oysters, and fried crab claws at Drago's.  There was even a television in the bar showing the Nebraska-Oklahoma game!  Pretty darn good way to start off.  The weather was near perfect -- cool enough for a light sweater, but warm enough not to require socks.  Moogie is not a sock person.

Then, about 8:15, we headed over to the Riverfront across from the Algiers Point ferry dock and, there it was!  Wow!  It definitely could've guided Pere Noel -- or a 747 pilot flying several miles above!  This pic is from today's Times-Picayune.

Quite a few river boats did circular cruises over to the Point.  That would've been cool.  These were taken from the East Bank riverfront.

We oohed and ahhed for a little while, then strolled back up Canal, all dolled up in its Christmas finery.

I never realized that Harrah's flies the flags of all the uniformed services, even the Merchant Marine!  You can sorta see them below.

Then we headed back to Poydras where we decided to stop in at one of our favorite places in the CBD, The Swizzle Stick Bar at Loew's.  More cocktails, and, of course we had worked up an appetite after all that oohing, ahhing, and strolling, so we ordered Cajun corndogs (huge skewered shrimp wrapped in tasso sausage, deep-fried and served with a 5-pepper sauce) and some kind of alligator taco-y kind of things. 

Pretty tasty!  We offered, and took photos in front of the ginormous Christmas tree of a cute young family whose 3 year-old-ish son took a shine to us -- I guess he recognized a Moogie and a Grandpa when he saw them!

Knowing that dogs needed attention, we headed back toward the car at about 9:30 and stumbled upon the "Miracle on Fulton" across from Harrah's.  That was kind of serendipitous, because we had thought about trying to go earlier in the day.  I'm glad we waited until nighttime -- it was beautiful!  My photography skillz don't do it even a modicum of justice.

I even got a shot of some random guy picking his nose by the musicians' tribute!  Don't ask me why -- I'm not sure.

We were happy folks when we finally got back to Moogie's Mansion.  So were Rosie and Bouie.  It was a good day.  We should be spontaneous more often!

Geaux Saints!