We flew out on Christmas Eve. Our flight was with American Airlines and went to New Orleans via Chicago. Unfortunately Chicago had a bad snow storm and flights were delayed. We were delayed in Dublin by over an hour, we did not mind that as we had a 7 hour layover in O' Hare so any time we could knock off that was a good thing. When we got in to Chicago we had only 5 hours to kill. We stopped off at the O'Hare Bar and Grill and had some nice food. I had my first Leinenkugel. I got the red and it was a pretty tasty brew i thought. I also had a heifeweissen of some kind but it was average if not below so i had another Leinenkugel.
We killed over an hour, maybe almost two and went wandering towards our gate in search of plugs to charge our portable DVD player etc. There we are sitting on the floor (no plugs by any chairs) watching movies and at this time i notice some delays on the floor and hear of announcements. Our flight is way off so im not concerned yet. Eventually it is nearly time to board and i notice that now our flight is delayed but no announcement has been made and the flight that was waiting at our gate hours before is still there? Doh! All in all our flight was delayed by about 4 hours. Instead of arriving in New Orleans at 10:30 that night, it was after 2am. When we went to try and get our car, the stand was closed and directed us outside to the shuttle pick up, which there was no sign of and someone shouted over that Dollar rental is closed for tonight, only one still open was Hertz. So we got on the Hertz shuttle, get there and their computer is down so we had to wait another 20 minutes for a quote. It came to over $930 i believe for the 10 days? Jaysus!! We had prepaid with Dollar using auto-europe for about €290. So we politely declined and decided its too late anyway and we will go check in to a hotel for the night. Now this is where we have some good luck! The girl at the desk said she will take us to a hotel down the road. I doubt we would have had an offer like this in Dublin. So we stayed at a hotel for $99 ex tax and got the hotel shuttle to the airport the next morning (2 mins away) and that shuttle brought us straight to the Dollar shuttle which was waiting and we got our car and drove through Fog to Foley Alabama passing the Stennis Nasa Space Centre and signs for the USS Alabama Warship.
We arrived to a warm Christmas day at about 10:30 am. Compared to Ireland and especially Chicago, this was paradise. In fact it was warmer than expected and we were not prepared or packed for the heat. Over the next few days the temperature was in the 20's for the most part, peaking at about 26 degrees Celsius. It did get a little chilly sometimes but for the most part it was very warm and it was shorts, sandals and a T-Shirt weather. Luckily my mother in laws condo is situated accross the road from the Tanger Outlet mall so we could get stuff real cheap. Its like a tripple saving! First we gain from the Dollar to Euro exchange rate, then we save because stuff is just so much cheaper in the US (very little sales tax/VAT also) and then because they are outlet stores, you get another 40% to 70% off the RRP.
I got a pair of Docker shoes and docker sandals for about $60 at buy one get one half price. Also got some T-shirts and another pair of shorts.
In Alabama i tried mostly bottled beer i had not tried before. Samuel Adams Cream stout was a very nice stout. Not a patch on the O' Haras which is my favourite but still a very nice stout. It had a sort of Nutty and Coffee flavour. It was not a thick heavy stout.
I also tried Yuengling black and tan which was drinkable but nothing worth mentioning. Sort of like a combination of the Sam Adams cream stout and some Miller light.
My wife got some Tequiza beer which was absolute muck. Its a Mexican cerveza with lime added in. Since the wiki shows the alternative is Bud light with lime, it pretty much sums it up. Incidentally, my wife loved it.
One of my favourite moments (and weirdest i suppose) was the morning my Mother in law took me out and left my wife feeling a little sick and sleepy in bed. We went to Hooters of all places. Now there was a reason for this. The last (& first) time i went to Hooters was with my father in law and Brother in law along with his two children. Anyway while at hooters that time, the power went out and we never got to eat there. my mother and father in law loved hooters so she took me there to a great little hooters right on the beach. We had a chicken wing platter and i had a few Blue Moons sitting on their porch in the sun. Blue Moon is a very nice Belgian Wheat style beer. It is seen as a sort of a micro brew but in fact is owned by Coors, who try not to let on that they own it. It is usually served with a slice of orange and is very tasty and refreshing. Full of citrus and the Orange brings it out even more. Similar to my favourite summer beer in the North, Oberon which is brewed by Bells in Michigan (where my wife is from). Oberon is also served with an orange slice but has a spicy taste to it and a little more bite. Unfortunately its only available in Michigan and also in Chicago and probably northern states nearby. Being seasonal, i can not get it down South in the middle of winter.
On the way back from hooters we stopped off at a mall and my mother in law went into a shoe shop. I went down to a sports bar and had a very nice IPA. It was a 22oz so bigger than a pint and it went down very nicely and left me buzzed after the blue moons just before. Unfortunately i can not remember the name of the bar let alone the name of the IPA.
We left Alabama on the morning of New years Eve and drove towards New Orleans.
On the way we stopped off in Mobile to see the USS Alabama. This is the ship they used in the movie "Under Siege" only in the movie it is supposed to be the Mississippi. It was lots of fun exploring the whole ship and as a bonus (i was more interested in this) they have some planes too. There is also an old Diesel sub to explore which was a bonus as i did not know about it till i got there.
In the hanger are the best planes such as an F-16 but the biggest reason for me to go there was to see my favourite as a kid. The SR71 Blackbird. This was before modern Stealth aircraft but it was stealthy enough back then even though the main reason was possibly the altitude and speed it would fly at. The biggest reason i loved this plane is the most obvious. It looks like a space ship! Its like something out of star wars, in fact Queen Amidala's ship in the phantom menace looks like an SR71 with a silver finish. Of course the sign says do not touch and of course i touched it :D
We tried to go to the Stennis Space Centre but it was closed. Still there was a rocket at the USS. Alabama park.
On to New Orleans we go.....
We killed over an hour, maybe almost two and went wandering towards our gate in search of plugs to charge our portable DVD player etc. There we are sitting on the floor (no plugs by any chairs) watching movies and at this time i notice some delays on the floor and hear of announcements. Our flight is way off so im not concerned yet. Eventually it is nearly time to board and i notice that now our flight is delayed but no announcement has been made and the flight that was waiting at our gate hours before is still there? Doh! All in all our flight was delayed by about 4 hours. Instead of arriving in New Orleans at 10:30 that night, it was after 2am. When we went to try and get our car, the stand was closed and directed us outside to the shuttle pick up, which there was no sign of and someone shouted over that Dollar rental is closed for tonight, only one still open was Hertz. So we got on the Hertz shuttle, get there and their computer is down so we had to wait another 20 minutes for a quote. It came to over $930 i believe for the 10 days? Jaysus!! We had prepaid with Dollar using auto-europe for about €290. So we politely declined and decided its too late anyway and we will go check in to a hotel for the night. Now this is where we have some good luck! The girl at the desk said she will take us to a hotel down the road. I doubt we would have had an offer like this in Dublin. So we stayed at a hotel for $99 ex tax and got the hotel shuttle to the airport the next morning (2 mins away) and that shuttle brought us straight to the Dollar shuttle which was waiting and we got our car and drove through Fog to Foley Alabama passing the Stennis Nasa Space Centre and signs for the USS Alabama Warship.
We arrived to a warm Christmas day at about 10:30 am. Compared to Ireland and especially Chicago, this was paradise. In fact it was warmer than expected and we were not prepared or packed for the heat. Over the next few days the temperature was in the 20's for the most part, peaking at about 26 degrees Celsius. It did get a little chilly sometimes but for the most part it was very warm and it was shorts, sandals and a T-Shirt weather. Luckily my mother in laws condo is situated accross the road from the Tanger Outlet mall so we could get stuff real cheap. Its like a tripple saving! First we gain from the Dollar to Euro exchange rate, then we save because stuff is just so much cheaper in the US (very little sales tax/VAT also) and then because they are outlet stores, you get another 40% to 70% off the RRP.
I got a pair of Docker shoes and docker sandals for about $60 at buy one get one half price. Also got some T-shirts and another pair of shorts.
In Alabama i tried mostly bottled beer i had not tried before. Samuel Adams Cream stout was a very nice stout. Not a patch on the O' Haras which is my favourite but still a very nice stout. It had a sort of Nutty and Coffee flavour. It was not a thick heavy stout.
I also tried Yuengling black and tan which was drinkable but nothing worth mentioning. Sort of like a combination of the Sam Adams cream stout and some Miller light.
My wife got some Tequiza beer which was absolute muck. Its a Mexican cerveza with lime added in. Since the wiki shows the alternative is Bud light with lime, it pretty much sums it up. Incidentally, my wife loved it.
One of my favourite moments (and weirdest i suppose) was the morning my Mother in law took me out and left my wife feeling a little sick and sleepy in bed. We went to Hooters of all places. Now there was a reason for this. The last (& first) time i went to Hooters was with my father in law and Brother in law along with his two children. Anyway while at hooters that time, the power went out and we never got to eat there. my mother and father in law loved hooters so she took me there to a great little hooters right on the beach. We had a chicken wing platter and i had a few Blue Moons sitting on their porch in the sun. Blue Moon is a very nice Belgian Wheat style beer. It is seen as a sort of a micro brew but in fact is owned by Coors, who try not to let on that they own it. It is usually served with a slice of orange and is very tasty and refreshing. Full of citrus and the Orange brings it out even more. Similar to my favourite summer beer in the North, Oberon which is brewed by Bells in Michigan (where my wife is from). Oberon is also served with an orange slice but has a spicy taste to it and a little more bite. Unfortunately its only available in Michigan and also in Chicago and probably northern states nearby. Being seasonal, i can not get it down South in the middle of winter.
On the way back from hooters we stopped off at a mall and my mother in law went into a shoe shop. I went down to a sports bar and had a very nice IPA. It was a 22oz so bigger than a pint and it went down very nicely and left me buzzed after the blue moons just before. Unfortunately i can not remember the name of the bar let alone the name of the IPA.
We left Alabama on the morning of New years Eve and drove towards New Orleans.
On the way we stopped off in Mobile to see the USS Alabama. This is the ship they used in the movie "Under Siege" only in the movie it is supposed to be the Mississippi. It was lots of fun exploring the whole ship and as a bonus (i was more interested in this) they have some planes too. There is also an old Diesel sub to explore which was a bonus as i did not know about it till i got there.
In the hanger are the best planes such as an F-16 but the biggest reason for me to go there was to see my favourite as a kid. The SR71 Blackbird. This was before modern Stealth aircraft but it was stealthy enough back then even though the main reason was possibly the altitude and speed it would fly at. The biggest reason i loved this plane is the most obvious. It looks like a space ship! Its like something out of star wars, in fact Queen Amidala's ship in the phantom menace looks like an SR71 with a silver finish. Of course the sign says do not touch and of course i touched it :D
We tried to go to the Stennis Space Centre but it was closed. Still there was a rocket at the USS. Alabama park.
On to New Orleans we go.....
Hang on, didn't we introduce your wife to Galway Hooker on our venture out there? And she still liked gnat's urine with orange?? Hmmmm
ReplyDeleteWe did but there was no Galway hooker over there. At least she did drink the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which i for some reason decided i did not like any more. Im not sure why as i certainly used to like it.
ReplyDelete