New Year's on Bourbon Street

New Orleans is absolutely buzzing with excitement. Walking around last night, we saw hundreds, if not thousands, of fans from Utah and Alabama! I was actually pretty surprised by how many we saw. It seemed like every few seconds we would either hear someone shout "Go Utes!" or "Roll Tide!" So far, everyone has been pretty welcoming. As you walk down the street you can see Utah flags everywhere. We had a few people stop us last night and ask us what a "Ute" is and we had a lot of LSU fans wish us good luck against their very much hated fomer coach in Nick Saban.

After eating at Bubba Gump Shrip, we headed over to the Mississippi River to see fireworks at midnight. The Riverwalk was packed with thousands of anxious people and the fireworks were pretty impressive. From the looks of it, a good number of people had started celebrating a little early and were a little tipsy. It made for a good deal of entertainment. From what I understand, the fireworks were in sync with "Utah Man" and whatever Bama's fight song is, but we couldn't hear it. It did show Utah's and Alamaba's colors and even threw in yellow and purple for LSU.

Bourbon Street was insane. It was definitely not a place for someone like Lil' Swoop! In some parts it was so packed that we couldn't move. I felt like I was at a concert or something. People were pushing and you could pick up your feet and float through the crowd. Beads were flying through the air, people were stumbling while spilling their drinks, others were throwing up in the gutters, etc. Despite the fact that some things I saw made me want to vomit and that my shoe came untied and now I have to burn my shoe laces, over all, I thought the French Quarter was pretty cool. It looks like what was damaged by Katrina has pretty much been restored to give it back a pretty cool vibe.

I have no idea what today entails - at least other than watching football - but I will post some photos from the pep rally at the team hotel this afternoon.