Anyway, Easter vacation is always a time that I like to go away. I like to get to baseball games and/or go to places I've never been to before. Let's review my last three years:
2013- Opening Day at Dodger Stadium and Milwaukee
2014- Los Angeles and San Francisco
2015- Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Dallas
Sadly, the early Easter this year meant that there would be no baseball (actually, there almost was baseball, we'll get there). But I was able to get to two new states, which brings my total to 47.
I decided to go to New Orleans and combine that with a trip to Mississippi. So I just had to figure out what to do in Mississippi. I really wanted to go to New Orleans for the National World War II Museum. That's all I really wanted to do. I ended up combining that with a couple other things. As for Mississippi, I thought about going to Vicksburg. One of the most important battles of the Civil War was fought there. But going to Vicksburg would have required twice as much driving as going to Biloxi and I was planning on driving there and back in one day. My trip was from Monday-Wednesday. Monday was in New Orleans. Tuesday was the Mississippi portion, but I needed to drive back to New Orleans and stay there for the night because my flight back was at 6:00 in the morning on Wednesday. So I went to Biloxi.
I got to New Orleans early on Monday and after getting to my hotel, I went right to the World War II Museum. Why is the museum in New Orleans? It is because a very high percentage of the boats used by the US Navy were designed and/or built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans. It was a good thing to see the day after Notre Dame was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament. I was disappointed, but I handled Notre Dame's elimination pretty well. We lost to a team that was clearly better and we were competitive for the first 30 minutes. After making it to the Elite Eight for the second straight season (and getting to see two tournament wins in person), I can't complain. But visiting the World War II Museum really puts things in perspective. It's hard to be upset about basketball when you're thinking about World War II. The museum has different buildings that you go through. If I remember correctly, most of the interesting stuff to see was in the third building. But the second building had Beyond All Boundaries, a short movie produced by Tom Hanks. You have to pay $5 more to see it, but it's worth it. As I sat there watching it, I was crying. I admit it. As somebody who didn't live through World War II, it really is horrifying to think about how many people died in that war and the sacrifices our soldiers made. Of course, stopping the Germans and the Japanese was absolutely necessary and lots more people would have died if we didn't stop them. I have said that the Allies won for three reasons:
1. Churchill refused to surrender. In June 1940, Britain had no major powers as allies. Sure, they had Canada, Australia, and some other former colonies, but these were not major powers. France had surrendered. The Soviet Union and United States had not joined the war yet. Which leads me to our other two reasons.
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| One of my favorite people in history |
2. Hitler made a huge mistake and invaded the Soviet Union. Suddenly the British had a major power as an ally to fight the Nazis and the Soviets did the fighting in Eastern Europe.
3. The US got involved after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The British and Soviets were almost fighting separate wars against Germay (and they weren't really fighting the Japanese). The US could help the British in North Africa and Western Europe and fight the Japanese in the Pacific.
In the third building, you had the first floor dedicated to the war against Germany and the second floor dedicated to the war against Japan. You go through them chronologically until you get to the surrender. One of the artifacts from the war against Germany was a Nazi Flag taken as a souvenir by American soldiers. They signed it. One of the names on there was Lt. Leslie Schultz from Greenlawn, NY.
I spent about five hours there and I would have spent more time there, but they closed at 5:00. Actually, I was ready to leave, but then I found an exhibit in the first building that was kind of hidden. I checked it out and there was hardly anybody else there because it was so hidden (and because the museum was about to close). I had to run through it really quickly. They had a cool display comparing the size of the US Army to Germany and Japan at the start of the war. One thing I learned was that the US had the 18th or 19th largest army in the world at the start of the war. I think they said 18th in the Tom Hanks movie and at one other spot in the museum, but when I googled it I found 19th. I couldn't find a list ranking the armies, but we were behind Romania and Portugal. That's amazing.
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| And we beat them both. |
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| This is why I study history. |
After that, I took a walk to the Courtyard Brewery. It reminded me a little bit of the Sand City Brewery in Northport, which John and I went to back in December. It's small and kind of hidden. But they had a wide selection of beer (some of which wasn't their own). I had the Blanch de Orleans, which was fine, but nothing special. I'm pretty sure it was my first ever Louisiana beer. I'll have to do a blog post soon with the states I've had a beer from. I have to be at more than half by now, but I've never really taken the time to figure it out.
My next stop was another Man vs. Food location, Mother's Restaurant. I had what Adam had on the show, which was the Ferdi Special. It had ham, roast beef, their debris with real au jus sauce (I tried to find the video of Kramer celebrating selling his stories to Peterman, but I don't think it's on YouTube). It was good, but it's not like I'd make a point of going there again if I was in New Orleans (as opposed to say the Vortex Bar and Grille in Atlanta, which was excellent). I think this was my 16th Man vs. Food spot. I'll finish this post with some thoughts on some of those places.
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| The Ferdi Special |
The last thing I had planned was Knicks-Pelicans. Unlike last year when I went to Salt Lake City and saw the Jazz, I didn't have this planned originally. I was going to New Orleans for the World War II Museum and then I decided to check the NBA schedule and the Pelicans were home. This game isn't really worth talking about much. Jerian Grant didn't score. They had a commercial clock in the arena like baseball does now and every time a 20 second timeout was called, they put one minute on the clock. The box score said the attendance was 17,000. I was there and it wasn't close to that. There weren't 16,999 other people at the game. The upper level was more than half empty. At most, there were 12,000 people there. And the last two minutes of the game took way too long to finish. The Pelicans won 99-91. That's all I need to say about the game.
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| Two bad NBA teams |
After the game I took a walk down to Bourbon Street. I figured I should see it. Like Las Vegas, this was not my scene. I like drinking with my friends, but large crowds of unruly people that I don't know are not my scene (one of the many reasons I never need to go back to Las Vegas). One of my favorite nights ever was Thursday, March 18, 2010. It was the night after St. Patrick's Day and the night before the weekend. Pete and I went out in Huntington and the town was dead. But we watched basketball (it was the first night of the NCAA Tournament), drank a lot of beer, and had a great time. Twelve Bars of Christmas was another great night. It was me and six other people on a Sunday night in Huntington and it was great. Anyway, back to New Orleans, how many people get really sick from drinking way too much? I'm glad I didn't go to the Sugar Bowl in January 2007. My friends tried to get me to go, but I think my response was something like "Isn't New Orleans worse than Detroit right now?" The city was still a mess from Hurricane Katrina (it's not anymore), we got destroyed by LSU, and Bourbon Street would have been ridiculous. So I'm glad I didn't go back then. I walked down Bourbon Street to Spirits on Bourbon (from Bar Rescue) just to see it. I didn't have anything to drink and I just walked back to my hotel.
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| Bourbon Street |
The next day, I took a shuttle back to the airport to pick up my rental car. And the driver looked and sounded a whole lot like Charles "Big" Daddy from "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase." And then I was off to Biloxi. I stopped when I first got to Biloxi and took a quick walk on the beach and dipped my hand in the Gulf of Mexico. It was not nearly as nice looking as the Gulf of Mexico was when I was in Tampa five years ago for Greg's wedding. My next stop was Beauvoir, which is the last place where Jefferson Davis lived. The property has the house and the Jefferson Davis "Presidential" Museum. Most of the buildings on the property were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but the house was still standing. The house wasn't huge, but it was elegant. I took a quick tour of the house and then checked out the museum. I'm no fan of Jefferson Davis, but I learned some things about him so I'm glad I went. He had a pretty impressive career before becoming a traitor. He had been Secretary of War, he arranged the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, and he was put in charge of expanding the Capitol building. He also pushed for using camels in the military, which is why there was a camel that lived on the property. There was a statue of Davis by the museum. I was happy to see that from the statue, you had a view of the American flag, but the Mississippi State flag (which includes the Confederate battle flag) was blocked by trees.
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| I hope that traitor enjoys his view of the Stars and Stripes. |
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| The house where he lived. |
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| This piano was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. |
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| I told you there was a camel. |
My next stop was the Half Shell Oyster House. I had the Shrimp Orleans and a Beach Blonde from the Biloxi Brewing Company. Both the shrimp and the beer were very good. From there, I walked to MGM Park, which is the home of the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. I just wanted to take a walk around the park and check it out since the minor league season hasn't started yet, but it turned out there was a college game there that day. I was there at 2:30 and the game didn't start until 4:00. I thought about sticking around for the game, but I had to drive back to New Orleans so I didn't feel like waiting around for an hour and a half. But I was able to sneak into the stadium and watch a little batting practice from right center field. I didn't push my luck and try to walk around on the inside, but it did look like it was a pretty nice minor league stadium (it opened last year, so it should be nice). And that was Biloxi. So now I just have South Carolina, Hawaii, and Alaska left. Hopefully I'll get to at least one more before the end of this year and maybe finish it off next year.
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| This was excellent. |
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| Batting practice at MGM Park |
I was thinking about doing a Man vs. Food locations power rankings, but I can't really do that. Some I went to so long ago that I barely remember them. And then there's one spot where I only had a drink. But I'll go through each spot that I've been to in a somewhat chronological order:
Syracuse- Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. I went there with Brother Robert on our trip there for a camping conference in January 2007. I'm pretty sure it was really good, but it was more than nine years ago and I was really sick so I don't remember it too well.
Washington- Ben's Chili Bowl. I think I've only had it at Nationals Park when I first went there in 2008. So does that count?
Boston- The Barking Crab. I went with John in 2009 or 2010, but we were only drinking. It was a great summer day and I was drinking Summer Ale. So if I did power rankings, this might get the top spot.
Chicago- Gino's East. I think we wanted to go there when we were in Chicago for a Cubs game in 2008, but the wait was too long. But I did get there in 2010 with my brothers. It's probably my only real experience with Chicago pizza. It's kind of hard to consider New York pizza and Chicago pizza the same food. Chicago pizza is kind of like a cheese pie. If I had to pick New York or Chicago pizza, it's easily New York pizza. But if I had to pick between pizza from Gino's or pizza from the best spot in some random city, I'd go with Gino's. Other cities probably try to do an imitation of New York pizza and don't come close.
Los Angeles- Felippe's and El Tepeyac. I went to Felippe's in 2011 with my brothers and El Tepeyac last summer with Pete. Felippe's had some good French Dip sandwiches. El Tepeyac was good Mexican, but I feel like there are lots of places where you can find good Mexican food.
Pittsburgh- Primanti Brothers. I went with Jon in 2012. They have sandwiches with fries on the sandwich. This is one of the few places where I had exactly what Adam had. I remember it was good, but there was a fried egg on the sandwich, but the meat kind of overwhelmed the egg so you didn't really notice it.
Phoenix- Alice Cooperstown. I remember that Adam had the Big Unit Dog, which was a two-foot long hot dog with all sorts of stuff on it. I had a burger, but I can't really remember it.
Atlanta- Vortex Bar and Grill. I went with Dennis in 2013. Adam had the Triple Bypass Burger. I had a burger with blue cheese. It was really good, probably the best food of all these places that I can remember.
Detroit- American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island. I went in 2014. These two compete with each other. I had the Coney Island Dog at both places and liked Lafayette's better.
Salt Lake City- Bruges Waffles and Frites. I went last year and had what Adam had, the Machine Gun sandwich, which also has fries on the sandwich. I didn't love the sandwich, but the fries and sauces were good. But they weren't quite as good as European Republic's fries and sauces.
Cincinnati- Tom and Chee. Grilled cheese and tomato soup for dipping. It was simple, but good.
Minneapolis- The 5-8 Club. I went with Dennis last summer. I had the Juicy Lucy with blue cheese. It was good, but not as good as the burger at Vortex in Atlanta.
Boise- Big Jud's. I wish I had known to ask for no mustard on my burger. The burger was good, but New Yorkers do not like mustard on burgers. It would rank behind Vortex and the 5-8 Club.
New Orleans- Mother's Restaurant. You just read about this one.
So he did a Long Island episode, a New York episode, and a Brooklyn episode and I haven't been to any of those places. I also haven't eaten at a Boston location or been to a Philadelphia location, and it's debatable whether my Washington spot should count or not. Maybe I'll get to some more spots soon.
Happy Baseball Season!
