New Orleans smells like...

After unloading our bus at 7:20, we promptly got into the lobby and waited. And waited. And waited. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the front of the desk, as the Marriott had only a manager and one other worker manning the desk (helpful, right?). Then the fun began.

Mainly the registration system used by the LCMS took forever for the worker (Robin) at the Marriott to figure out. It wasn’t really her fault at all…she was exceedingly pleasant, professional and compassionate, it was just a dumb way to register our kids into their rooms.

Finally, all three of our U.P. churches were able to get their room keys at 9:30pm. We all dropped off our stuff, met back in the lobby and split up. Ishpeming and Kingsford went off to a pizza place, while our crew, working off a tip from a hysterically funny security guard (Dennis…he’ll be here all week…ask Whitney about the story of him falling off a horse) went to find a place called Café Maspero. It was a fun walk of about 6 blocks down Decatur St in the French Quarter…just enough nightlife to give the kids a taste of New Orleans, but far enough away from Bourbon St that we weren’t exposed to anything too crazy. We found the place, and it does look fantastic (good cheap Creole sandwiches, Po-Boys and seafood), but it was closed.

A security guard on the corner outside of the restaurant directed us to a different place, three blocks away, however that too was no longer serving by the time we got there. THAT waiter then directed us to a different restaurant, however we simply couldn’t find that last night (I did figure out what he was talking about later after getting back to the hotel and looking at a map). So, at 10:30, we looped back towards our hotel, because we remembered seeing a pizza place with live music that looked open. On our way, the girls came to the conclusion that at night the streets of New Orleans smell like an intoxicating combination of seafood, spices, B.O., cigarettes, vomit and humidity. Pretty accurate.

Pizza was good. Music was good. Kids were pooped, but it was a fun night. Checked in with everyone at the end of the night for devotions…kids are doing good.

That’s all for now! Tomorrow we’ve got an airboat tour through a swamp at 10, registration, time to check out the French Quarter and Bourbon St (a little more appropriate in the daylight I think…) then we head off on our Riverboat dinner cruise with the rest of the Northern Wisconsin District.