Today's Adventures

Today was a bunch of fun.  We got up, went to this little cafe and had beignets.  I don't know how to tell you  how they are pronounced, but Brianne could probably read this (bɛnˈjeɪ) and tell you what that would sound like.  They look like this:

Afterwards, we went to the Audubon Aquarium and then walked around the French Quarter for a few hours.  I kept getting the run around from characters with names like "Dan Dan the Shoeshine Man".  Now, you would think that since I was wearing Chacos that folks posing as shoe shiners would leave me alone.  They'll come up to you and say something like, "Now I make my living shining shoes, but I'm willing to bet you 5 dollars that I can tell you where you got your shoes, the city that you got them!"  


My response, "Does my shirt that says 'Spartanburg International Festival' give you a hint?"   


"Naw Naw man, where you GOT them, they on the bottoms of your feet!  Let me give you a complimentary shoe shine!"  ...proceeds to try to shine the sides of my sandals...naturally I let them because I'm just curious how you go about shining a sandal...it leaves your bare feet feeling dirty. 


"Alright man I work off tips, so..."


"Yeah, I'm not carrying any cash.  Thanks though!"


Here's one of Dan Dan's associates giving some other poor guy the same speech:

After taking a break at about mid-afternoon, we headed back into town for dinner.  I got char-grilled oysters and they are the best things I've eaten on this trip. 

After dinner, we decided to walk down some other streets to check out the sights since it was flooded with people and neon signs.  We watched a street performance where four dudes danced and threatened to break into your house if you didn't give them tips.  I think they were playing, but I gave them a dollar anyway because they were extremely talented.