It goes in the blink of an eye

Over 2 months since my last post.  What a slacker I have been.  I just haven't had the urge to write much of anything and I guess I just haven't felt I had much of anything new to say.  But I am back even if I'm not better than ever.

Since my last post I did take a little vacation to Pensacola and New Orleans.  Really enjoyed NOLA, it is definitely a great city to eat, drink and party in.  Almost a southern version of Vegas without as many lights and casinos.  Like Vegas, you get to see weird and wild sights and almost anything goes.

We first headed to Pensacola to help get our niece settled in at college.  When I travel I try to make it a point not to visit any chain restaurants as I want to support the local economies and try the local flavors as much as possible.  But in Pensacola we do make one exception and hit up the Whataburger near the campus of Univ of West Florida.  Been too long since I had me a Double Whataburger with a chocolate malt.  All of the Whataburgers in the Tampa Bay area closed a few years ago much to my dismay.  So it was really good to taste that again. 

Its only 3 hours from Pensacola to New Orleans.  4 different states in 3 hours, almost like being back in New England again.  Due to our spending last year in Vegas, Harrah's was willing to comp us rooms for 2 nights.  But since they have very few rooms in the NO casino, they have worked out deals with some of the other local casinos so we were comped for 2 nights at the Hilton Riverwalk.  What a nice hotel it was.  Way above the quality your humble scribe is used to enjoying.

We shopped a bit, ate a lot, gambled some (had very little luck there) and really enjoyed ourselves.  Since our daughter had always wanted to go to New Orleans, we took her along on this little jaunt.  That wasn't the original plan but it might be the last time she comes on vacation with us so why not.  Besides it gave us a designated driver if we needed one. We did some of the touristy stuff like beignets at Cafe Du Monde and shopped the French Quarter. 

It was a nice little vacation but like anything good in life, it goes too fast.  My gaming did not go particularly well but the food and drink were definitely worth a visit.  Hit a place called Muriel's Cafe for lunch in the French Quarter.  It was superb.  The next night we were planning on hitting a little place near the hotel that was well rated but ran into a problem.  Let me set the stage. 

The first day in NO we were going to hit a restaurant inside the Harrah's casino for  dinner but we couldn't.  To even enter the casino you have to be 21 and our daughter is still 20.  Seemed very odd to not even let her walk in there.  Then after going in I found out why, or at least why I think the casino enforces it so steadfastly (every entrance has security guards checking ID on the way in). 

I sat down at a video poker machine and started playing aka losing.  Found a good one with the right payout structure for a 100% return however you gotta hit some quads and stuff like that and I couldn't hit anything.  But I noticed there is an interactive section on the machine front.  After playing around with it a little I found that you can order your drink right there while sitting at the machine.  You order the drink and the machine tells you when the drink has been made, when its being delivered etc.  Now that is cool.  Before you know it I've had 3 Mai Tais and am feeling no pain.  And I figure that's why they won't let anyone under 21 in the building.  Just too easy to sit at a machine and get hammered. 

So a couple of nights later we decide to hit this little place for dinner.  The wife and daughter had looked it up and it had a lot of nice reviews.  I'm all for it. and its just down the street from our hotel.  Cool.  We walk into the place and its a little hole in the wall bar and grill looking place.  There's a couple of slot machines in there too which surprised me as I thought they could only be in the casino.  We walk in and before we get seated our server asks us if we're all 21.  Have to be 21 in there too because of the machines.  I was in a word, amazed.  So no dinner there.  We walk down the road a piece and there's a sports bar named Mannings.

Fortunately this Manning was not Eli or Peyton so I was not immediately engulfed in flames.  Instead the place was owned by their dad Archie.  I wasn't expecting much as it was just an upscale sports bar but I was pleasantly surprised.  The interior was nice with a few twists like stadium seating in front of the huge big screen on one wall.  But what set it apart was the food.  I had some of the best chili I ever ate and the PQ had a soup that was fantastic.  The main courses didn't suck either.  I also had a local beer called Abita amber ale.  Really good beer.  Abita also makes root beer with real cane sugar.  Best root beer I ever had.  . 

Well that's enough for now.  Definitely a fun trip and there is so much I haven't seen there that I will go back in the not too distant future.   I have a number of posts in mind, lets see if I can translate that to my fingers.