![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/realworld1.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/realworld2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFriday morning, I got up and decided to walk down to Rite-Aid to buy a hairdrier, since the Castle Inn was unequipped. It was the perfect day outside, if a little too humid for someone coming from a state where it was still technically winter. I walked down St. Charles Avenue, smiling at the goofy tourists on the passing streetcars and gawking at the mansions built by people who thought slavery was a really good idea. On the way back, I bought fresh strawberries from an old Cajun man selling produce out of the back of his pickup truck. It was another perfect moment.<\/p>\n
I took Heather over to see the Real World house. It’s kind of trashed. I’m not sure what happened there, but it must’ve been a good party. It’s undergoing renovations at the moment. The second picture is taken from the window at our hotel, the one where you see the creepy lit-up suit of armor at night.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
While we were walking around, Heather pointed out that the trees along St. Charles are draped not only with spanish moss, but with Mardi Gras beads. Tons of them, hanging everywhere, and on the walkways, ground into the dirt. Also, on the big suit of armor in the doorway of our hotel.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/castleinn.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
There’s a lot to be said about our hotel, by the way. First of all, it’s supposed to be haunted. The night we arrived, they told us that some people had recently brought a Ouija board, and determined that one of the ghosts (there are five) is a kid named Emily. The ghosts mostly hang out in the Bordello Room, which was next door to our room on the third floor. We stayed in the Voodoo Room, at the end of a long, blood-red hallway with lighting that never worked. The room was all gothed out in a really tacky way. It was awesome.<\/p>\n
We went around the corner to explore the cemetery. The above-ground tombs are pretty incredible. I later discovered that this cemetery was one of the most historic in New Orleans. It was kind of surreal seeing the Goodyear Blimp hovering overhead for the NCAA tournament, though.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/cemetery1.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/cemetery2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
We ate monstrous burritos for lunch, got back in the car, and headed to Alabama. Why? Ask Jay. Anyway, the Gulf Coast was way nicer than expected. We were dreading spending more time in Mississippi, but it actually had more to offer than casinos and rednecks: it had beaches.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/beach1.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/beach2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I wanted to lay around longer, but my Minnesotan was showing, and I was turning pink. We drove through more tacky casino country, watched for alligators in the swamps, and bought boiled peanuts from an old woman on the side of the road. Mobile was, you know, a small city in Alabama, and that’s about it. We turned around and headed back to New Orleans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday morning, I got up and decided to walk down to Rite-Aid to buy a hairdrier, since the Castle Inn was unequipped. It was the perfect day outside, if a little too humid for someone coming from a state where it was still technically winter. I walked down St. Charles Avenue, smiling at the goofy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[199,83,196,515,84,29],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":{"latitude":30.694356899999998944394974387250840663909912109375,"longitude":-88.043052700000004051616997458040714263916015625,"description":"Mobile, AL, USA"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Z5R-c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/sat-32903-minneapolis-nashville\/","url_meta":{"origin":12,"position":0},"title":"Minneapolis -> Nashville","author":"Jenni","date":"04.15.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"We were on the road at 7:30, ready to conquer the 900-mile drive to Nashville. If the scenery in Wisconsin is less than inspiring, Illinois is ten times worse, alternating regularly between vast expanses of nothing and vast expanses of nothing with snow. Things were looking bleak until we stopped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4447,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/quebec-new-england-roadtrip\/quebec-new-england-roadtrip-may-23-30-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":12,"position":1},"title":"Quebec \/ New England Roadtrip: May 23 – 30, 2015","author":"Jenni","date":"04.30.2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Matt and I decided to take a week-long roadtrip that spanned 800 miles and took us through Quebec and three New England states. We discovered that we want to spend much more time in Montreal, that Quebec City is incredibly gorgeous, and that going to the beach is always one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quebec \/ New England Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Quebec \/ New England Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/quebec-new-england-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/deep-south-roadtrip-march-28-april-6-2003\/","url_meta":{"origin":12,"position":2},"title":"Deep South Roadtrip","author":"Jenni","date":"04.16.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Jay, Heather, and I decided to see what the deal was with the deep south, anyway. We definitely learned. Here's the the map for the entire route. Read from the beginning below, or jump to each day: 3\/28: Pre-trip in Minneapolis 3\/29: Minneapolis to Nashville, Tennessee 3\/30: Nashville 3\/31: Nashville\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4165,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/vegascalifornia-roadtrip\/the-great-nevadacalifornia-roadtrip-of-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":12,"position":3},"title":"The Great Nevada\/California Roadtrip of 2014","author":"Jenni","date":"12.12.2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Since we're planning to move toward the end of 2015, Matt and I wanted to book a trip that allowed us to take a long roadtrip with minimal time off work. Thanksgiving weekend afforded the best option for that, and really cheap airfare into Las Vegas and out of Los\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vegas\/California Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Vegas\/California Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/vegascalifornia-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":161,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/west-coast-roadtrip\/west-coast-roadtrip-june-30-july-18-2003\/","url_meta":{"origin":12,"position":4},"title":"West Coast Roadtrip: 6,000 Miles in 19 Days","author":"Jenni","date":"07.30.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"I drove, by myself, a total of almost 6,000 miles in 19 days. I saw most of the western U.S. for the first time, including the Pacific Ocean. Here's the map for the entire route. Read from the beginning below, or jump to each day: 6\/30: Minneapolis to Glasgow, Montana\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "West Coast Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"West Coast Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/west-coast-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/baseball-roadtrip\/thursday-822007-minneapolis-to-chicago\/","url_meta":{"origin":12,"position":5},"title":"Minneapolis -> Chicago","author":"Jenni","date":"08.6.2007","format":false,"excerpt":"[To view the entire Flickr photoset from this trip, go here.] Wendy, Willis, Matt and I piled in Matt's car and rushed the hell out of town on Thursday after work. We didn't get on the road til almost 7, but we had nothing to do but get to Chicago\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chicago \/ Milwaukee Baseball Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago \/ Milwaukee Baseball Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/baseball-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2007\/08\/1030010536_5f14b31560_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}