Our French Quarter weekend lived up to all expectations. Tracey got away from all the family stresses and strains, and I got a chance to visit once again my favorite vacation spot. The highlights? Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Beignets and Cafe au Laits to go at Cafe du Monde. The line was incredibly long, but one of the hired help came up to me out of nowhere and asked if he could take my order. Saved me probably a half-hour, so I made sure it was worth his while. Musta thought I had a friendly face. No wonder I love that town so much!

2. Char-grilled oysters at Acme Oyster House. My friend Rock turned me on to these a few years back, and they’re just as good as I remembered them. Sopping up the butter, garlic, and oyster juice with french bread is a guilty pleasure matched only, perhaps, by this.

3. Shrimp Roumelade at Antoine’s. To call it shrimp cocktail simply doesn’t do it justice. Actually, our entire meal there was fabulous, including chateaubriand just like my mom would like it cooked (medium rare, tending towards the latter). Fabulous.

4. A walk along The River between Riverwalk and the Vieux Carre. I never knew The Crazy Lobster was even there. Don’t know if the food is any good, but you can do a whole lot worse than sitting in the sun on a pleasant fall afternoon listening to a jazz band and watching the river traffic drift by in the open air.

5. Dan was right – the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone was a regular stop. A wonderful hotel and a great location.

6. A big shout-out, Obama-style to Ricky Perez, day manager at the Omni Royal Orleans. The fact he gave us a full refund for our cancelled visit in September after the corporate Nazis told me in no uncertain terms to go take a hike shows you just how classy a joint the ORO is, and just how cool a place it is to stay. The Monteleone was great, but no one – and I mean no one – has a better rooftop pool setting than the ORO. Thank you, Mr. Ricky, I promise we’ll be back as soon as our economic situation allows.

7. The Zydeco Gumbo and Crawfish Entoufee at Mulate’s was as good as I remember. And the zydeco music entertainment provided by La Touche was très bon.

8. Rock window-shopping was a great deal of fun. Sure, all the jewelry on Royal Street was hideously overpriced, but it was still a lot of fun to gawk and awe. And yes, we still have our eye on that big honkin’ Morganite at La Petit Fleur. Maybe in the next life…

9. Strawberries in double cream at Brennan’s for breakfast. Yeah, one might say $7.95 for a breakfast appetizer could be considered a bit pricey, but you only go around once in life, and those damned strawberries were really to die for.

10. Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville was a fun stop. The food was just OK, but the mojitos and margaritas at the Tire Swing Bar were a lot of fun, and The Margaritaville Store around the corner had a lot of cool stuff.

All in all, it was a great weekend with great weather and one with a lot of rest and relaxation. Now, back to your regularly-scheduled programming…