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We got up early and went over to Paris where they have Le Village Buffet. It’s about 15 dollars and includes most things you could want. The eggs were not watery, the bacon was not soggy fat, the omlets were cooked properly as were the crepes, the hash browns were not greasy. Their fruit select is restricted to typical American stuff but I suppose that is to be expected. The only nasty thing was the eggs Benedict – I could not even cut it – so it could not even be tried. It was quite great and we left stuffed.

We then went on over to the join the shuttle bus to go over to the outlet mall in Primm. We picked up some nice stuff from Burberry and the Gap for really great prices. The only thing bad about it aside from my being generally kicked into a high state of anxiety by the smell of manufactured clothing type places was some of the other shoppers. Everyone was arguing with the salespeople about why something is 12.99 when they thought it was 11.99. This is all going on in front of me for at least 10 minutes while trying to get my 20$ Burberry shirt, and as the line grew and grew. Argh City!

Anyway, after that we explored the Venetian and I got a gracie card for their casino rewards thing. We wandered around outside after that and did the rewards thing at Harrah’s since they had a promotion going on. Unfortunately it was for new members and they said I went to New Orleans in 2004 so I’m not eligible. Hmph. On well, E got the deal and also a nifty set of winter hat, gloves, and scarf. There is this one cent slot there that if you get a devil in the first, third, and fifth row it does some bonus round stuff (if you do max bet – like 90 cents). We ate at Flavors buffet before heading hope and it was entirely unacceptable … and 21.99.

The blog is finally updated! A little too drunk the last couple of nights to do any serious typing, but we slept early last night — too much free beer at the Casino’s – although I wound up waking up at 3am.

Anyway, it was too early, and we wound up having breakfast at Harrah’s Casino, although the security guy couldn’t decide whether to let me through cos of my id [note to self: bring PASSPORT!]. Went to the French Quarter area to have a walk after that, and had a gypsy read our futures. Well, apparently, I’m in for a big move soon, one that will bring me what I want – love and success – not sure if she was just pandering to my desires or if she really hit the nail on the proverbial head. But for 20 bucks pax, she’d better at least tell me something nice.

Lunch at The Alpines, had the seafood platter which was again too big for one person to finish, but as we were heading out for a cruise and movie, didn’t pack anything. The Bloody Marys were very good though, lots of pepper.

Went aboard the Cajun Queen for a 1-hour tour of the Mississippi River. Actually seen it from St Louis, Missouri, where it was actually much more scenic than in Louisiana. Mostly warehouses, ships, and barges here. Well, the bridge was kinda nice.

Dinner at a great microbrewery called The Crescent City – much like Brewerkz – with Weiss Beer, like the wheat ale. The oysters were not bad, and the stuffed shrimps were pretty good, but too buttery. Well, almost everything’s too buttery for me here.

Went on the Voodoo/Witchcraft tour in the evening. New Orleans has a rich history of Voodoo practitioners, the most famous apparently being Marie Leveau. We were led by a guide called Steffanie, appropriately decked out in black, although she did bear a striking resemblence to Boy George. It wasn’t as spooky as I imagined; instead she was more interested in portraying voodoo as just another religion, much like Roman Catholicism. In any case, it was among the more interesting and value-for-money touristy things that we did in NO.

Steffanie also pointed out the gay bars along the way – guess we must have had some billboard put over our heads – and we did go to one in the evening called the Good Friends on St Ann’s. It was supposedly a straight-friendly gay bar. It was all right, I guess, although the bartender was quite cute.

Also tried absinthe at a couple of bars in the evening. There’s actually a bar called The Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street. Tried making it before in Sg, but tasted rather terrible. But this is how’s it’s supposed to be done [erm, it still tastes very ghastly]:

1. Fill 1/3 to 1/2 of the glass with absinthe.
2. Put a little metal filter thing across the mouth of the glass, with a cube of sugar on it.
3. Light the sugar to caramelize it.
4. About halfway through, add water over the burning sugar.
5. Voila!

Woke up late today as a result of last night’s exertions. It was time for lunch by the time we crawled out of bed. Decided to head back to Bourbon Street for lunch, at a place called the Red Fish. Nice place with attentive service, and semi-cute waiters.

I had the seafood muffeletta, which is a sandwich with blackened red fish, fried oysters, and grilled shrimp. It was HUGE! I could only finish half of it, while Randall had the special – Hickory Red Fish… which was really good, until he discovered sausage in it. The appetizers were great – we had the Oysters Three Way, which had oysters prepared 3 way. Really, really good! It was tough to pick a favorite.

Had to pack half my muffeletta into a box to bring back to the hotel. Then went down to Harrah’s Casino on Canal Street. We were initially turned away cos this prick at the door said my id wasn’t valid – I was using the SAF 11B. But we went to the front door, and after a lot of scrutinizing by the security person and her supervisor, finally got through, which was a good thing, cos Randall won 1000 bucks on the slot machines – yeah, those that took like quarters. Amazing… even the people around us stopped to look. Looks like the trips to NO and DC have been prepaid!

Randall was uncomfortable at winning so much money from the Casino (?!!) and said we should probably try to lose some of it. So we went to the blackjack table and played for an hour or so. I was on a nice roll initially, winning close to 100, when the dealer changed, and this Erica lady caused me to lose everything, and then some. Well, so after disposing 300 and making sure we still had plenty remaining, we left in search of dinner.

I had jambalaya at this cafe place, which tasted like tv dinner, while Randall had a cheese pizza that pretty much sucked.

After a few beers too many [they were complimentary at the casino!], we got back to the hotel, fell into bed, and didn’t get up till the morning. We did actually want to try the Hustler club or something. Oh well.