right on bro!

Yesterday I decided to drive back east and check out the Biloxi that I missed the night before. It turned out to be a really good call. I drove west along Highway 90 (Beach Boulevard), which goes right along miles of beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, starting from Casino Row - four casinos there, but didn’t stop. Stopped at the Porter Avenue pier and walked to the end, where there was a guy who looked like a fat Elvis, complete with sunglasses. I asked him if he caught anything and he said he caught some catfish. I didn’t know there were saltwater catfish. Wandered around downtown Biloxi for a bit, and ate lunch at Mary Mahoney’s sidewalk cafe. I thought Mary Mahoney’s was a fictional place in John Grisham novels, but it’s real. They’ve been around since the 18th century, and they have a damn good shrimp salad.

After lunch, it was time for Magic Golf. Before I left, I did some research on mini-golf courses in America. I really like mini-golf, but courses are hard to find and a lot of them don’t have any character. Magic Golf is part of a mini amusement park, located right on the beach. It was pretty cool, if really old and falling apart. The place was totally deserted when I went there, but I plunked down four bucks and played course #1, whose holes had wacky names like “The Frog,” “Skee-Ball,” and “The Enchanted Forest.” There was water in the holes from the previous night’s rain, but that was okay.

Back on Beach Boulevard. On a whim, I stopped at the Treasure Bay Casino in Gulfport - who doesn’t like gambling on a pirate ship? I played a bit of craps and picked up a few more bucks.

After that, it was on to New Orleans, which is where I am now. I got into “N’awlins” at about 6 in the evening, and drove into the French Quarter to the Prince Conti hotel, which is half a block from the legendary Bourbon Street. The French Quarter is its own world - tightly packed streets lined with old two-story buildings, full of bars, restaurants, strip clubs, and people just wandering around. I ate dinner at the Acme Oyster & Seafood restaurant, sitting at the marble-topped bar right in front of the oyster-shucking guy. Half a dozen freshly shucked oysters and a sampler of gumbo, jambalaya, grilled sausage, and red beans and rice - all really good, but the oysters were the real standout. I was starting to feel oyster addiction, so I went to Felix’s and ate another dozen oysters after that.

Spent the rest of the night wandering up and down Bourbon Street. I stopped at Pat O’Brien’s and had a mint julep. Yuck, but it was worth the try. Stood outside of Preservation Hall watching and listening to some old-school jazz through the window. Apparently (according to the guy at Felix’s) it was a pretty slow night - nothing like what you see in the Girls Gone Wild commercials, and the only beads were the ones that strippers were throwing from the balcony at Scarlett’s. But there were still quite a few people walking around, and tons of bars open, many with Tijuana-style barkers who tried to hustle everyone into their club. There was a lot of live music - either jazz bands or rock-n-roll cover bands, the latter which all seemed to play “Summer of ‘69.” Drank a couple of brews here and there, and then came back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Here are yesterday’s photos.