We woke up after a good night's sleep at the Hotel St. Marie and headed out into the cold drizzly day after a little continental breakfast. Jackson Square was virtually empty because of the weather, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We also walked around in the Presbytere and then along the Mississippi on the Riverwalk. We visited the Aquarium of the Americas first. Lots of great areas to explore, but unfortunately overrun with kids on field trips...very LOUD kids on field trips. We did our best to avoid them though and enjoyed the animals, particularly the jellyfish and the otters. There is an IMAX theater next-door to the aquarium so we opted to get tickets to see a movie along with our aquarium and zoo package. We saw a film called Hurricane on the Bayou, which started out to be a documentary about the plight of the wetlands but evolved into a story about the environmental and emotional impact on the people of the region following Hurricane Katrina. This was owed to the fact that the hurricane struck while the filmmakers were still in the process of filming the original footage for the project. It was an interesting film although the message was a bit disjointed with the two parallel topics. Our plan after the movie was to visit the Audubon Zoo, which is about 8 miles away from the aquarium and the movie theater. Fortunately I had Terry, the guru of public transportation, with me so we walked up Canal Street and caught the city bus. (We could've taken the now fully operational St. Charles streetcar through the Garden District, but opted for the bus since it would take us directly to the zoo with less walking in the freakin' cold.) The bus rattled as though it would completely fall apart at any moment, but we did get to see some unique areas of New Orleans on our way. We arrived at the zoo around 2:00 and I was anxious to get in since they close at 4:00. As we walked up the drive, I joked with Terry about Wallyworld and what if the zoo were closed. Bad omen! We walked up to the gates as they were closing them. The girl at the ticket counter informed me that "not many people had come in today" so they were closing early. Seriously?!? I was totally annoyed, especially when Miss Helpful informed me that I could come back another day and that my already-purchased tickets were good for one year. That would be just dandy if I didn't live nine freakin' hours away! I tried to debate this with them and was not offered a refund or even an apology. (Terry feels that I set my expectations a bit high for the hospitality of folks in Louisiana.) Terry was at least realistic and focused enough to realize that we were NOT going to be going into the zoo that day and that our highest priority should be getting back to the bus before we had the wait a half-hour in the cold for the next one. He ran ahead to get the driver to hold the bus while I drug my pouty, dejected self back down the driveway. Once on the bus, Terry promised that we could go to the zoo on the way out of town in the morning, which partially cheered me up. The rest of my "attitude adjustment took place in the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone, which had been suggested to us by Big T as one of his favorite places to go for a cocktail in New Orleans. The bar features a working carousel with a circus/piano bar type feel. The bar revolves every fifteen minutes and we stayed for several rotations soaking up the ambience and the history. (Numerous authors, including William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and Truman Capote, were frequent visitors to the hotel, established in 1886, and it has often appeared as a setting in American fiction, prompting the Friends of Libraries USA to designate the Monteleone a literary landmark.) As we were leaving the Monteleone, there was a walking parade (Krewe of Shangri-La) coming down the street and heading into the hotel so we stopped to watch before heading off in search of oysters. The bartender at the Carousel had suggested Felix's Oyster Bar, but there wasn't a seat available so we went across the street to the Acme Oyster Bar where we were greeted warmly with a couple cocktails and a seat at the oyster bar. We has a dozen each, since Terry categorically refused to share his with me. Nice fun atmosphere, good service, and dirt cheap. Our tab was something like $11. Fortified by our bivalve snack we went for a drink at the Old Absinthe House at the corner of Bourbon and Bienville. Built in 1807, this historic building has red brick walls and a gorgeous copper and wood bar. They specialize in classic New Orleans cocktails like sazerac, hurricanes and the Absinthe House Frappe, an anise-flavored liquor made with herbsaint, an absinthe substitute that was legal because it does not contain wormwood. Absinthe, although at one time widely regarded as having psychoactive properties and outlawed in many countries in the 1900s, has been found to be no more dangerous than other alcoholic beverages. Several brands meeting certain guidelines are now commercially available in the US, and I tried some at the Old Absinthe House because, well, it seemed like a fitting place to do so. It was extremely licorice-y and made my mouth numb. I also had a nice warm fuzzy feeling, but I can't say for sure whether that was exclusively the absinthe or the numerous other concoctions I had throughout the day. We prowled around a few more bars in the Quarter including Touche and Pat O'Brien's. It was super cold at Pat O's but there was no seating in the piano bar so we found a table with a heater in the courtyard. We had an awesome waiter and met a nice couple from England who had just come off a cruise ship and had to stay in New Orleans overnight because there flight had been canceled. Poor babies still had on sandals and cruisewear. Brrrr. We were exhausted from our long day, so instead of going out to dinner, we picked up a pizza at Vieux Carre Pizza and went back to the hotel for pizza in our jammies. I don't know if it was the absinth, the oysters, or the pizza, but I drank about 15 glasses of water during the course of the night. I know, what a party animal I am...staying up late doing shots of H2O. Laissez Les Bon Temp Rouler!