As I mentioned at the end of last night's post, despite the hurricane drama, we had a really good time at the game and in New Orleans.
Friday night, Brian and I headed to Bourbon Street and we were able to have a really good laugh when we saw a whole bunch of male "preachers" protesting gay sex. The signs were hilarious. We were totally cracking up and were able to snap a few shots (us and lots of other tourists).
Brian and I had the best dinner ever at La Bayou Restaurant on Bourbon Street (http://www.labayourestaurant.com/). I had the "Taste of New Orleans," which had three specialties: Red Beans & Rice, Jambalaya, and Chicken Andouille Gumbo. Brian had the Cajun Burger Po'boy. And we both shared a piece of chocolate cake. All of which were un-damn-real awesome. The next time that we're in New Orleans--we will totally be dining there again. With my dinner I had a Hurricane drink. I think they must have been trying to get rid of all their alcohol pre-Gustav because it was one of the strongest drinks I've ever had. Seriously. I was totally buzzing, even after eating all that fantastic New Orleans cuisine! My trusty DD husband had a Diet Coke; no surprises there! :-)
After dinner, we walked around Bourbon Street for a bit and I bought a shot glass. The shot glass has all of the famous streets in the French Quarter and it's really quite cool looking. One funny thing, though, was that they also had the exact same shot glass that I bought in New Orleans when I was there 10 years ago. I guess there isn't a big market for new shot glass designs! :-)
Saturday morning came VERY early. A few months ago, dad signed us up to tailgate with Appalachian's Alumni Association. When the game was starting at 4 p.m., this was awesome because we would be tailgating around noon and eating awesome Cajun cuisine.
Well...when the game was moved to 10 a.m....they still had all that food ordered, so that pushed tailgate up to 7 a.m. and, of course, we were there. My dad is (well, let's just say...) regimented when it comes to arriving at football games on time (and in his defense, I agree with him because I want to experience everything [like the band marching in, pregame festivities, etc.]--not be stuck in traffic or walking to our seats at kickoff).
So, anyway, we were up and at'em at 6 a.m. and we were on our way to the game and tailgate by 6:45 a.m. We got to the tailgate at 7:30 a.m. and we were "mangez-ing" gumbo, jambalaya, stuffed sausage, crawfish etouffée, and seafood alfredo! (Oh yeah, and we were washing it all down with Bloody Marys, beer, and Diet Cokes.) It was AWESOME!!!! Even though it was so early--the food tasted soooo good!!! I might seriously be changing my favorite foods to Cajun cuisine. App.'s Alumni Association did a really good job. They had long picnic tables that were under these huge oak trees and a local Cajun band. The music was good and the atmosphere was very festive and fun (even though lots of people had driven through the night from Boone to make it to the game on time).
After the tailgate, we started making our way to our seat and, of course, we had to walk completely around to the other side of the stadium to get to Gate 18 (which was NOT well signed) and then we had to walk up a series of 50 billion ramps (OK, more like 20) to make it to row O in section 641. I seriously think that we were at Boone elevation (3,333 feet) by the time we made it to our seats.
Oh yeah...and it was hot...and humid. Did I say humid? It really gave "Death Valley" its name. We were all soaking wet for the entire game (but, fortunately, not too sunburnt). It was to the point where I couldn't even rest my arms on my legs because they kept sliding off. I think each of us drank at least two liters of water during the game. It was still completely awesome. I say if you're going to experience Baton Rouge, you might as well experience it to the fullest!!! It was so very cool to experience a game at Tiger Stadium--that place is HUGE!!! Even though Michigan has about 20,001 more seats, due to the stadium design, LSU's stadium looks so much bigger. We were probably 50 feet ABOVE the scoreboards. However, even though we were so high, you could still see the game sooo well. There was nothing obstructing our view and we could totally see the entire field and all the plays unfold perfectly.
It was awesome. I LOVE FOOTBALL! :-)
The outcome wasn't the best ever for App, but that was pretty much expected. LSU is definitely not Michigan. Their o-line is HUGE and strong (same for the defense, which totally shut down Armanti Edwards and Coco Hillary). I can't wait to cheer for them for the rest of the year. Their fans were great and Brian said that their radio crew was giving App. mad props all broadcast!
It's hard to get a read on how App will look this year because LSU was so dominating. I think they'll be strong and national championship contenders, but we'll definitely know more when they play Jacksonville on Saturday in Boone.
I also wanted to briefly discuss our rental car--a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Although Hertz rocked, the car was pretty lame. It didn't ride too smoothly and the gas mileage sucked (20 mpg on the highway--a far cry from the 40-45 mpg that we get in our Civics). Not to mention, the car just looks stupid and Brian looked like a total nerd driving it. :-)
The fun pictures from our trip are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/NOLAFunAndLSU
and my dad's pictures are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/samuels.jay/NewAlbum91081020AM?authkey=G-VYyuvbpK4&pli=1&gsessionid=dLjlrJhJpwDKeFbjGL3nzg.
You can see in my dad's pictures how tired I was Saturday morning in the pregame pictures.
Also, we're definitely watching Hurricane Hanna (I added Weather Underground's five day forecast tracker to the left side of the blog). With my grandmother's house in OKI, Callie in Wilmington, and my parents and Clay in Morehead, we have plenty of coastal interests. Not to mention, the storm could track into Knightdale or farther west and completely drench Boone for the football game on Saturday. If it goes NC coastal, we might have four house guests who are fleeing their second hurricane in one week! :-(
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