For New Year’s Eve I planned ahead and reserved a room at the Saint Hotel just off of Duval Street. Hotel parking was limited especially at this time of year but I called ahead and was able to drive in rather than take the bus (20+ miles to my KOA campground). Once I checked in a nice fella hopped in a little golf cart and lead me the 2 blocks to a parking lot behind some buildings. As I parked he pointed out that my Honda had a tire going flat. I left it for the next day.
After I got settled in my room I headed out for a quick lunch and a nice restaurant around the corner on Duval St. After some wondering around and a few drinks at local bars I went back to my room and took a nap to kill some time before evening.
I had dinner at Virgilio’s, the cocktail bar attached to La Trattoria, on Duval St. Great meal and nice folks to chat with. Afterwards, I walked down to the Bourbon Street Pub, home of the Red Shoe Drop containing Sushi, the famous female impersonator, and seen on annual TV coverage.
The crowd was “unique” but once I killed enough time I decided I couldn’t just stand there for 2 more hours so I wondered down Duval St which was now store front to store front with people and the road was blocked to all pedestrians to take over the entire street.
I found a nice wine bar with space in the window for people watching and ordered a half bottle of champagne (yea, the real stuff from France, not sparkling wine from California). But just before 11 PM they came around with “last call”. Reallllllly, on New Year’s Eve, they weren’t going to stay open till midnight. From there I went back to Virgilio’s where I’d met some nice people and I toasted in the new year from my corner bar seat. Sorry, I’m not big on photos.
After that I figured I’d just drift back toward my hotel but I got as far as Margaritaville and there was space at the end of the bar, and a great band, so I took a seat and ordered a Margareta — what else!
Turned out to be a great location as passers-by would stop in and stand next to me to order a few drinks. We’d start a conversation and before you know it, I had a new drink compliments of them. I ended up closing the place down and never had to buy another drink.
The next morning, I checked out and had AAA met me at the car to put on the spare. I got the leaking tire fixed a day or two later.
Retirement Escape 