June 27, 2011
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NOLA, I love you
It’s been over a week, but I’m still happy from our loverly trip. We just took a short 3 day trip since it was Father’s Day weekend, but we definitely soaked up the juicy bits of the city this time. I asked my co-workers for places to eat/things to do since several of them have visited the city or are from Louisiana. I hotwired this hotel.
One of the recommendations was The Rivershack Tavern. Boo for me not taking touristy pics, other than the one Jefferson took of me outside the place, but this place had the coolest bar stools. Some of them were pinup legs and others had skulls and cross bones on them or looked like they were made for Harley riders. I loved them and their tackiness. The coolest thing about this place is that it has so much history. It used to be a grocery store, pharmacy, liquor store. Several of the signs were found intact and decorate the place. This place was also featured on diners, drive-ins and dives. The food was soo good. I had a shrimp po-boy and Jefferson had a steak. He said that steak was the best he’s ever had. For $10, (steak night was that night) it was a win-win. They also had some 2 for 1 special on a local spiced rum. I had a double rum/Coke for $4.50. They had a local artist playing that night, but then they opened it up for open mic night. We left before that started. The 6 hour drive caught up to us.
I took a peek at the rooftop pool before bed when we came back and couldn’t wait to go swimming the next day.
We woke up the next day and before it got too hot, we made the trek to Cafe du Monde. This place is known for their Cafe au lait and beignets. I love dipping the beignets in the coffee and letting the powdered sugar sweeten the coffee. For an extra special treat, there was a trumpet player playing gospel music. He kind of reminded me of the I wrote a song about it, like to hear it, here it go guy from In Living Color. It was way too hot to walk around and I knew I wanted some pool time, so we walked back to the hotel for just that.
The view from the room and the actual pool water was heavenly. It was a saltwater pool. Score! I did a few laps before laying out. Then the noise started. About 5 kids took over and I didn’t get in the water much after that. Jefferson is not a pool all day person, so we went back to the room to rest/watch movies/plan our next stop. My brother/several others recommended Port of Call. This place is known for their monsoons/burgers/baked potatoes. We didn’t have the monsoon since it was only lunch time, but we did enjoy the burgers/baked potatoes. Their grilled mushrooms were soo good. The burgers are huge! My brother wanted us to bring him back one. LOL. I loved walking around this part of New Orleans. The homes just look so quaint/colorful.
I wanted more pool time, but we opted to have some more rest time. The hotel is known for its heavenly bed and for once Jefferson had no complaints. We asked our favorite bellboy for a dinner recommendation. He suggested Deanie’s Seafood and I’m so glad he did. This place was packed when we got there, but we were able to sneak a bar seat. We were still able to converse and enjoy some excellent vittles. Double bonus. I had some drink called Voodoo Juice, a rum punch with Everclear. Our waiter/bartender was excellent.
Friday night I had planned for us to see a live brass band at Howling Wolf. We had agreed this was going to be a more low-key, less debaucherous trip so seeing a live band sounded perfect. Band nerd alert. I played French Horn for 7 years and loved it. This band wasn’t cool enough to have a French Horn, but they did have marching band style drums, trombones, trumpets, a sax (not brass, LOL), and a marching band style tuba aka sousaphone. (It’s not a tuma…). They were loud, boisterous and they were going to entertain us. People were dancing, bobbing their heads, clapping. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. Soaking up the music, watching people dance, chatting up the locals, all of it. There was a beautiful woman that looked just like a younger Pam Grier. She knew just about everyone in the band. I loved hearing the classic sounds of New Orleans.
New Orleans is just a fun, loud, colorful, cheerful town to me. It was a wonderful trip. I really focused on spending time with Jefferson, talking in the car and soaking up the city with him. It was just what we needed to get back on the same page. I feared he was going to be talking to his mama the whole time about whatever drama she was going to bring up, but that didn’t happen. It was just us. Thank you baby Jesus.