Friday December 1, 2006

I think I have my dates goofed up on my previous postings. Now ask me if I care. We awoke to a very frigid New Orleans. Crap. Normal temps are in the mid 70’s with lows in like the 50’s. Today the HIGH will be fifty. With a very cold and biting wind. Better than being at home I say. I don’t like ice and snow anymore. Oh well, we are up and out the door, heading to Café Du Monde in the French Quarter. Of course, we take the Canal Street exit off I10 and I TELL the driver to stay on Canal. An arrow points straight ahead and says in ENGLISH, Canal Street ahead. The driver makes a right. Me, playing navigator, tries to read the map upside down since the map is one of the guide book things and I am desperately trying to figure out where the heck we need to go. After several U-turns, the driver runs right through a frickn’ red light. We make it through alive. We finally ask some guy and he says to go right and stay on this street. We go through what seems to be the financial district before we stumble onto Bourbon Street. What a sh*t-hole. Strip clubs line Bourbon street. I thought this was a place to hear music and have a drink. Ugh, the place is so gross. We continue on and get to another cross street which I recognize so we turn in, and finally we are in the real French Quarter. We find out later that after Hurricane Katrina, that disgusting Larry Flint came in and bought up Bourbon street for pennies on the dollar to destitute property owners. What a shame. Bourbon Street is now Hustler filth alley.

We find a parking spot just off Decatur Street, and see the Café across the way. The wind off the river is really nippy. We get into the Café and it is not unlike my expectations, very quaint. There are only either Chinese or Vietnamese waitresses who can barely speak English. We each order beignets and I got the café aulait, the boys ordering hot cocoa. The coffee is a dark roast that is very rich. Half coffee and half hot milk is perfect. Best café auliat I have ever had. Obviously I am biased by my surroundings. We have NINE beingnets in front of us. Gee I hope they reheat well. They are hot and loaded in huge mountains of powdered sugar. I immediately fell in love with Café Du Monde. I will be back. Just now, I can checkmark this place on my list of “wanna go to’s” and “wanna go back to’s.” Paul and grandpa seemed to enjoy them also, at least they didn’t complain. After we finished, we went up to view the Mississippi. We are below the levee and I would assume under sea level? We walk up the rampart, and all of a sudden my head is just spinning and my ears are screaming in pain. The air pressure is not normal here and I am frantic to get away. We walked a bit down Decatur. Lots of really neat shops and café’s, including the French Quarter Grocery, home of the original Muffaletta sandwich. The smell from the grocery was incredible. We continued walking for a couple of blocks to the visitors center and check out tours. Grandpa and I just cannot walk to do tours or sightseeing. My head was pounding from the air pressure and grandpa’s legs were giving out. We found the French Market but just were outta gas to do any kind of shopping. Paul walked back to the car and grandpa and I sat freezing in a quaint little park off the market waiting. Paul had gotten a call from his friend Tom, and we headed to Gretna to see them. I wanted to stop at the rig first to get cleaned up…I had nasty bed head this morning and just stuck a baseball cap on my head. They have a beautiful home. Right now son Tommy and his wife and two kids are living with them until February when they transfer to Houston. We talked all afternoon, and then Sue made a wonderful dinner of Italian type chicken with breadcrumbs and diced tomatoes, sautéed broccoli and noodles. We talked around the table until about 9:30 pm. I felt really kinda stupid keeping my baseball hat on the entire day, but by then my bed head had turned into a couple of greasy tufts of thin stragles so no way would I take the hat off. Let Tom and Sue think I am a weirdo, I wouldn’t let anyone see my hair like this. Poor Pepe was prolly doing the “I gotta go potty” dance back at the rig so we said our goodnights and went home. We pretty much just went to bed when we got back. A good day…very disappointing for both me and grandpa. It is soooooo frustrating not to be able to walk more than a block. Both he and I are in the dumper…we had looked forward to doing some sightseeing here. He’s almost 90, so he’s got reason…me, who knows?

Later,

dee