10/20/10
So far, October had been a busy month. Springbook, the Des Moines Half Marathon.....and the third weekend was NEW ORLEANS!!!!!!!!!!
We left Thursday morning.....but started our vacation Wednesday night.
Where?
The Worm of course!!!!
Natalie was hosting a mezcal tasting. None of us are really mezcal fans, but we were still game to give it a try.
The food was marvelous.
But none of us have changed our minds about mezcal. :-)
10/21/10
Thursday morning the boys stopped to pick us up, and we headed to the airport.
Getting through security took a little longer than usual.
I was standing there, waiting for my camera bag to come through the xray machine.
Waiting...and waiting...and waiting.
Finally, the grouchy looking TSA lady came over and asked me "Is this your bag?"
I smiled, "Yep."
She frowned.
Uh oh.
"Is THIS yours too?"
I started laughing at what she held up and yelled over at Mot, who was coming through the metal detector "Honey!!! They found it!!!!!!"
Now that I think back, what I said probably didn't sound the best.
What I meant was "Honey, you know that pocket knife I lost two years ago...that we looked and looked and looked for? It was in my camera bag and they found it!!!!"
It was about then I realized that as quickly as they had found it, they were going to take it away.
NNNNooooooo!!!!!!
I asked the nice looking TSA man if we could have it, he said no (I had to ask).
So Mot took it, and was led back through security, ran up to the bookstore, found the most inappropriate greeting card he could, and mailed it home....then came running back down to security.
We all waited patiently.
:-)
The flight was late.....delayed for some sort of mechanical issue. But we eventually (with a layover in St. Louis) made it to New Orleans.
My first ever taxi ride. :-)
Our hotel was within walking distance of the French Quarter. Not a short walk, but a nice walk.
We arrived at the front desk, told them our names and got "the look" from the front desk attendant.
Uh oh.
It seems there was a problem with our reserved two-bedroom suite.
British Petroleum (BP) was still in town cleaning up a little mess they'd made earlier in the year (sigh)...and our hotel had over booked the suite.
We were told we had rooms at another hotel waiting for us.
Back into the taxi.
The second taxi guy was only driving a car, not a mini van...and his trunk was FULL of flats of soda, a guitar case, lots of garbage, and misc papers.
4 of us, all of our luggage, and every personal possession this guy owns had to fit.
(sigh)
Once we reached our second hotel (this one directly across the street from the French Quarter), we were handed our second round of bad news.
Apparently they had one room for us....not two.
A king size bed, and a pull out couch.
For the 4 of us.
For 4 days.
Every hotel in the city was booked (overbooked actually), and that was all there was.
Hmmmmm........
We unloaded our luggage in our ONE room, and immediately left. :-)
All four of us were starving so we stopped at the Gumbo Shop for a late lunch/early dinner.
From there we walked up and down Bourbon Street for a while....
...headed over to check out the river.....
...walked down some other misc streets in the Quarter.....
...stopped for a Hurricane dacquiri.....
....checked in at a few blues bars.....did a little window shopping.......and ultimately ended up at Fritzels European Jazz Club.
What a riot!!!!
I took a video that night, but am having technical difficulties and am unable to upload. But after doing some looking on YouTube, I found this video filmed the NIGHT WE WERE THERE!!!! I knew it existed...I watched the lady film it. It's of the piano player.....crazy good. Plus, the piano they were using had 4 or 5 keys that weren't operational, so I can only imagine what it would have sounded like on a fully functional instrument.
Every single person in the ensemble was insane!!! The piano player was a younger guy in a goofy hat...huge grin.....mad piano playing skills....and a great (and unique) voice.
The clarinet player was a typical clarinet player. Awesome skills....and an eccentric personality. Definitely the leader of the group.
The drum player didn't look like he went with the rest of the group....but boy could he play...and sing!!!!
The upright bass player was a cutey patutey.....who not only was a great musician...but a great performer.
This was taken just before Mot leaned back and knocked over the drink of the lady sitting there behind him. :-)
In his defense....they had 10 of us sitting around a table for 6. The place was more than packed.
After the show, we wandered around the Quarter some more.......
...then headed back to the hotel for bed.
I got very little sleep. All three of the boys are snorers. :-)
Good night New Orleans!!
(to be cont)
1 comment:
Just for the record, I was enjoying the chair massage.
Ok, I might have dozed a little, but it really was about the massage.
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