Dear Soup,
You say that you like the Gulf.
Might I suggest some place in Louisiana, outside of New Orleans.
The ‘other’ major towns are Alexandria, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, and Shreveport.
Lafayette and Lake Charles have a lot to offer, as well as other foods for Thanksgiving, if not turkey and it’s accompanying fare. They are both in the heart of Cajun country, so i can assure you that there is something you might wish to eat. Lake Charles is different, with the entire town built around the huge lake.
Alexandria has some things, and is at the edge of Cajun territory. It is not ‘large’, but can be seen as a pass through, to either the two northernmost towns, or to Lafayette and Lake Charles.
Shreveport (river)Boosier City, or Monroe, are supposed to be major towns. Shreveport I have been to, albeit, to get to the larger V.A. facility there.
All the cities, including New Orleans, do not equate to any city in size, along the Washinton, D.C. to Boston megalopolis, with Alexandria boasting, at last count 80,000 people.
I lived in the NYC Tri-State Metro area, so I base my findings on that.
I did not include New Orleans, because lately, more folks have been getting hurt there, than when I lived there, prior to Hurricane Katrina. I do not wish to read your obit, and have the thought that -I- might have been that last impetus, to get you to travel there.
It will be cool weather, then, but I do not think you need your ‘stadium coat’.
Come and get ya a crawfish boil, enjoy a little different music, and have a nice stay.
I have never really been down south and this sound intriguing!