New Orleans

After our day in Destin we packed up, assessed our sunburns, and headed towards New Orleans. It got cloudier as we got there, so we decided to stay in a hotel for the night. The problem was, our laptop had been acting up (read: randomly freezing), so we weren't sure if it'd behave long enough for us to get a room booked. Thankfully on our way we found some free wifi (thank you Mississippi rest stop!) and the laptop behaved for long enough for us to get a room booked for the evening. That secured, we made our way to the Bon Ton Cafe in downtown New Orleans for some dinner. Again, it was recommended by our Road Food book and marked as a deal with entrees under $10 (this is important for later). So we got there and parked downtown without much incident and made our way to the restaurant with me in shorts and a tshirt and Katherine in capris and a tank top. When we arrived at the restaurant, we noticed cloth napkins on the tables and a dark quiet atmosphere and a sign on the door that said "Proper dress required". Uh oh. So we went in anyways and were greeted by what we figured was the manager. Katherine asked, "So, what sort of dress is required?". "Oh, business casual", the manager answered, then stated, "I'd say you're casual, so come on in". The restaurant was fairly empty at this point, and the current patrons were mostly in khakis and button down shirt attire. We looked at the menu and found that while perhaps you could order an appetizer for under $10, there was no way that entrees were that inexpensive. I felt a bit uncomfortable in my blue tshirt with Texas logos and tried to scoot under the table to hide the fact that I was wearing shorts. I sat up extra straight and put on my best manners to try to pull off the "well cultured person who is too cool for dress codes" look. The staff was all very kind, though I did hear someone talk to the manager and heard something like him defending us saying "Well, the dress code is business casual and they are dressed casually", heh. Our waitress came and took our order, with Katherine ordering Red Fish Bon Ton and me ordering the Crawfish dinner. It was all excellent, and I got to try 4 new dishes in a night with my order. All dress-related awkwardness aside, I'd have to say it was the best restaurant-cooked meal of the trip. We finished dinner with their excellent bread pudding with whiskey sauce then conspicuously made our way out of the restaurant and to our car. With no ticket on the car, we were happy campers and made our way to the hotel for the night.