In to every holiday, a little rain must fall

Today was the first day we didn't have to be up and out the door early, so we took advantage!  We slept until after 7, and then wandered up the street about 12 blocks to have breakfast at another place from The List - Cake Cafe.  It is what you would imagine, a local bakery that specializes in wedding and other special events cakes.  However, they also serve beautiful breakfast and lunch menus.  The food is fresh, local and colorful...and delicious.  I had Boudin (a local sausage patty) and grits, with lovely soft eggs and a biscuit.  Andrew had a grilled crab, spinach & brie sandwich.  

My breakfast.

After breakfast, we walked back home through the French Market to have a little look around.  We didn't find anything we liked, but that's not uncommon for us.  We often don't buy anything to bring home from our travels.  Back at the apartment, we started a load of laundry and we ran in to Bob, the property manager, in the courtyard.  He expressed concern that he hadn't seen much of us, and that we might be in need of something from him.  We reassured him that we are VRBO veterans, and don't expect this type of accommodations to be a full-service hotel.  We expect that someone will meet us upon arrival, give us a key, and show us around.  After that, we assume we'll be on our own unless there is an issue with the plumbing, or the like.  He said that one of the last round of guests posted a very negative review saying that they didn't feel the manager was attentive to them, so now he's careful to check in a lot with guests.  We said he should assume we're fine, unless he hears otherwise.  

Around 1 pm, we decided we'd try to go to the zoo, which is about 8 miles from our VRBO.  We had detailed instructions using a combo of public transportation and walking.  What we didn't count on was the fact that the street car system is excruciatingly slow, stopped at practically every corner, and that it was under construction in a certain area requiring a transfer to the bus.  After about 90 minutes, we arrived at the stop labelled "Zoo".  From there, it was another 1/2 mile walk, give or take, to get to the zoo entrance.  We were prepared for this, however it started raining just as we were getting off the bus, necessitating a dash under a picnic shelter to wait it out with several other people.  We sat under there for more than 20 minutes before the downpour turned to drizzle.  By this time it was nearly 2:30, with the zoo closing at 4 pm.  With minimal time left, we opted to skip the zoo and wander back through the Garden District admiring the amazing homes.  Don't ask me why I didn't take any pictures.  

While we did miss the zoo, we didn't miss another very important activity...happy hour at Luke's!  For any foodies reading this, Luke is one of John Besh's four restaurants here in NOLA.  While I'm not particularly interested in John Besh, I am interested in the fact that Luke's offers 50-cent oysters on the half-shell from 3-6 pm!  A half-priced cocktail each and a dozen oysters to share, and our bill was $16, plus tip.  How can you beat that?

Heaven!

Our last activity of the evening was another ghost tour that Chris & Cliff arranged for all their wedding guests.  Our guide, Andrew, was fantastic.  He was very animated and completely captivating in his storytelling.  In addition, he did not duplicate one stop from our tour last night, which was pretty impressive.  Andrew and I were fairly certain that we were going to hear several of the stories twice, so we were more than pleasantly surprised.  Apparently there are a lot of ghosts in this town! 

Oh, we did stop in Pirate's Alley on the way home so that Andrew could try absinthe, a licorice liqueur that is poured over a sugar cube and then diluted with water.  I think it tastes like a cleaning product, but Andrew thought it was "not too bad".  There's no accounting for some people's taste!