We left out this morning of 8:45 AM and headed south to Alexandria, LA. There we stopped in at Silver Dollar Pawn, home of the Cajun Pawn Stars. We did not get to meet any of the stars but we did see them all briefly. Amazingly, to me they all looked exactly like they do on the TV.

We did get a picture of the GT500 beside three of their iconic cars. Unfortunately we could not get any shots of the inside of the shop as inside photography is prohibited. I have to say from the outside the shop looks much smaller than it does on TV. But from the inside, the shop looks much larger than you would expect. There didn’t appear to be any tourists there except for us, but there were some colorful locals.

Anyway, we looked around for a while, and they really do have some rare and eclectic pieces. Some of the more interesting pieces were a $3500 antique gas pump, props from the sets of the Titanic, The Mummy, Pirates of the Caribbean and Raiders of the Lost Ark, lots of war memorabilia organized by conflict and a surprisingly large comic book collection. The original plan was to eat lunch in Alexandria, but we were running late as usual. So we skipped lunch to make sure that we had a little more time at Metairie Cemetery. We arrived in New Orleans a little after 3 PM and spent about an hour roaming through the city of the dead taking pictures. We remarked upon leaving that we could have easily spent all day there. The variety of tombs was staggering and the entire cemetery is laid out like a city with street names and signage. It was very beautiful in a morbid kind of way.

On our way out, we noticed a ‘real tank(er) train’ and Beth snapped a quick pic:

We would have like to have stayed in New Orleans but we would not have gotten to eat at perhaps our favorite restaurant on the planet: McQuires Irish Pub. So we left around 4 pm and headed for Pensacola, Florida.

On the way to Pensacola, I stopped for gas and noticed something interesting. California has vapor reclamation required by law on every pump using a complex system involving negative pressure that’s  incredibly expensive, which results in increased per-gallon taxes at the pump.

Well, it  turns out the Louisiana accomplished roughly the same thing using a rubber suction cup and a steel fastener that they probably paid a total of $7.23 for from the local Home Depot, and therefore has a gas price that’s roughly $1.00 per gallon cheaper.

You Californians should  consider this the next time you are breaking your own arm patting yourselves on the backs for how much better you are.

Anyways, we arrived around 7 PM and after checking into the hotel, managed to make it to McGuire’s by 8:30 PM. McGuire’s actually  had a live Irish folk singer tonight, so we listened to a lot of comically irreverent Irish folk tunes during our meal; just one of many reasons why we love this place.

Since we skipped lunch, you might expect that dinner was huge, and you would be right. I started with an Irish Wake, which is basically a whole bunch of alcohol in a big-assed Mason jar.

I ended up drinking three of these (the limit), and having no problems walking back to the hotel, though I was very happy doing so.

I also started with an appetizer of Blue Cheese Chips, which is a whole bunch of kettle chips covered in melted blue cheese.

Beth had three Chocolate Moose drinks and an order of Tenderloin bites:

For dinner proper, I had a ribeye (roughly 12 ounces) and Beth had the Filet (12 ounces). We both had garlic mashed potatoes with it.

Finally, I had a  brownie a la mode for desert (Beth drank her desert).

McGuire’s food is always good, but it’s really the whole package that makes the place special. If you are ever in the area, drop in; you won’t be disappointed.

Anyhow, that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow we will head out to go visit my brother in Venice, Fl before making our way back north.