We woke up this morning to dogs that reeked of cigarette smoke (they can smoke in bars here, people, not the dogs). But none of us cared. All four of us had a great time last night.
John took an early morning hot tub at the hotel,
followed by a morning walk to a nearby city park on Camp Street with the girls where we met other friendly dog owners.
Then John headed off for blunch with friend Mckenzie and a personal tour of her adopted city and beautiful French Quarter home. I got stuck baby sitting the dogs because Daisy was a terrible hotel guest and wouldn't stop barking at the owner's German Shepherd, a very sweet dog. Dang Daisy.
A mix-your-own Bloody Mary bar at the restaurant Mckenzie chose for blunch has spoiled John for life. No more salad bars for him. Fantastic food, live jazz, and self serve Bloody Mary's- I don't think I'll be able to get John to leave New Orleans.
John came back to the hotel and we finally got Daisy calmed down. Charles, the Inn manager today, kindly agreed to keep an ear out for the dogs so John and I could tour the city, with a promise by us of a quick cab ride back to the hotel if the dogs misbehaved. Dogs are as much work as two year old children but, unlike children, dogs never grow up; they just get old.
We took the St. Charles Avenue streetcar through the Garden District.
We stopped in at a bakery on Magazine Street called "Sucre" and had the best almond caramel pastry and coffee. So much better than Starbucks.
We hopped back on the streetcar to go to Canal Street and then walked the French Quarter.
We got back to our hotel via streetcar and spent two hours trying to get Lilly to eat; she hadn't eaten in 48 hours. Ironic that she chose to stop eating (again) in the gastronomic capital of America. John, the good papa, did a web search and tried rubbing her gums with a little sugar as someone had written online that dogs lose their appetite when their blood sugar is too low. It worked, thank god, and she wolfed down two cans of food.
We are both greatly relieved and will celebrate by heading to the hot tub followed by dinner tonight at this restaurant:
Tomorrow we search for something called "green tripe" because John read that dogs will eat that when they will eat nothing else. We figure if we can't find an unusual food like "green tripe" in New Orleans then it doesn't exist.
And by the way, the innkeeper accused us of bringing Seattle weather with us today.
Update
Three words to describe tonight's dinner at Emeril's Delmonico: Fab U Lous!
(No flash, so pics not great)
Appetizers were:
Bacon crusted Louisiana oysters, watercress, fennel, rockefeller dressing
Creole mirliton pirogue, gulf shrimp, Louisiana crab, chieisi ham, roasted red bell pepper butter
Entrees:
Louisiana drum meunière, artichoke, fingerling potatoes, local blue crabmeat, arugula, grape tomatoes
And, (no pic) bourbon braised pork shank, red bean and rice congri, creole baked banana, vinegar peppers
Dessert:
Creole cream cheese stuffed beignets, preserved Alhambra peaches, fresh blackberries
Coconut cream pie, lime meringue, grilled pineapple, rum caramel, cashew crust.
And here is a surreptitiously taken pic inside the restaurant:
The service was flawless; John and I had 6 different staff members waiting on us. They didn't just refill our water glasses, they brought us new ones each time.
It was a very memorable meal and evening.
I wouldn't mind a few photos of the food at Emerils! Thanks.
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