I'm Back from The Big Easy - Who Dat City - AKA New Orleans

I've just returned from a four-day trip to New Orleans with my husband and daughter, Kate. Kate loves tales of ghosts and vampires and evil-doers, and you don't even have to leave the French Quarter to hear stories about nefarious doings. We also visited the Federal-style house of Confederate General Pierre Beauregard. (See picture.) We all had our first taste of Cajun-style crawfish, and it's a lot of work to dig out the meat, which is about the size of a plump nickel, which is why they are served in such large quantities. (See picture--that's one serving.) I have never liked the idea of my food having eyes, and these crawfish are so small, they look like they've been separated from their mothers prematurely. I did eat po' boys, jambalaya with sausage, beignets, and lots of TUMS. They even put cayenne pepper in their apple jelly. There are still signs of Hurricane Katrina, but the city has definitely moved on, especially since the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in February. I hooked up with a fellow Jane Austen Fan Fiction writer who met us at a roadhouse type eatery where we had the crawfish. This is one of the added benefits of writing fan fiction. You get to meet people from all over the country. Bourbon Street lived up to its reputation for music, and thousands of people were milling around carrying their beers. It's a great city, and because of the French-Spanish-Southern influence, it has a different feel from any other in the United States. Fer sure, Cher!