The Last Day

Sunday, August 23, 2026

It’s Jack, Aldo, and Lucas’ birthdays today. I don’t think I have another three birthdays day. I hope everyone enjoyed their day!

You can actually only eat like this for a short time, so as all good things, it was time to close out the trip. We got a late check out (noon instead of 10am. 10 is wayyy too early. Noon felt like ultimate luxury). We did not really have any interest in walking around outside because we had nothing we really wanted to look at and the weather was extra.

Benjamin was doing stretches recommended by the physical therapist. I demonstrated how I cannot be flat on the floor. Either my head or my knees need to come up. He didn’t believe me, but he does now. Alexander and Keith didn’t think it was hard to lay on the floor, and demonstrated their skills of being flat. Only I am special in a non-flat way. Benjamin is way bendier than the rest of us. It really isn’t a family gathering until we are all lying on the floor trying to do some odd thing or another.

Well. I just looked at those pictures. Hahahahahahahaha!

At noon we headed to Pierre Masparos, a very old restaurant. The building itself is one of the oldest in the French Quarter (from 1788). Pierre and Jean Lafitte hung out in the coffee house here and met with Andrew Jackson to plan the defense at the Battle of New Orleans. I don’t actually know when this jim-dandy restaurant started but we eat here every time we are in NOLA.

Benjamin says seafood pistolettes give him the happies, so he was delighted to start off his meal with them. They are little loaves of delicious bread filled with crawfish and shrimp covered in some kind of amazing sauce and parmesan cheese.

The online menu offered red beans and rice with andouille, alligator sausage, and fried chicken. $6 to add fried chicken. Hmm. The actual menu did not mention the added chicken. The chicken was really moist and delicious, and the breading was light and crispy. I shared. Red beans and rice gets overlooked because it isn’t exciting enough to just order on its own (we actually know how to make it, so ho hum), but when it comes with a bit of other interest it is a welcome tastiness.

Alexander and I both had a bowl of gumbo. It was the third best gumbo of the trip. That is not to say that it wasn’t really good, but that duck and andouille gumbo from Creole House was really something – the texture was so dense and smooth, plus the flavor was so bold – that this was just a good gumbo. Alexander has given everything he has eaten “a solid three” – giving ample room for something to blow his socks off. He decided the duck gumbo and the cat daddy were the best foods of the trip. He is working through the whole retroactive rating system. He finished his gumbo really quickly and the waitress asked if he wanted another bowl. He declined, then I just handed him the half a bowl I couldn’t finished and he took care of it.

Benjamin had something. I’m absolutely sure of it. It was in a round bowl and had rice, but also maybe something else like fish or crawfish or a banana. I am unsure. Maybe crawfish etouffee. He took a picture, but I forgot to have him send it to me, so I can’t have my memory jogged. I don’t think it was a banana. He liked it. He ate it.

We have pondered the covered, giant jar things on several bars at several of the places we have been. The boys decided they are marinating their own olive salad for muffalettas and dubbed this a jar of muffal-aid. Mmm?

We walked out into the convection oven of weather and I suggested we go down the street to Johnny’s Po’boys to get a muffaletta sandwich to go to Minnesota with Benjamin. We have imported sandwiches before, so it seemed possible. Johnny’s has had a monstrous line out the door every time I’ve been there, but today there was no one. A to-go order was meant to be! Our waitress at Pierre’s did mention that they slim down the menus in the summer so they can get by with one cook when it is slow, because summer is really their off season. It makes sense, but I hadn’t really thought about it before.

We were going along kinda quickly (because we now had a heavy sammich) when I saw some New Orleans pants. I loved them immediately. I had to try them on over my shorts because I had to have them and I had NO idea what size to get. It was hard to figure out even after trying them on over shorts, so I just said large and we got them. It is very hard not to fall down while quickly trying on pants in the front of a store. I made sure Benjamin and the sandwich were in the air conditioning.

Alexander wanted to stop for a fast food cup of gumbo, just to see if fast food gumbo was good. It was too hot to walk far off of our path to find something we considered fast food, so we gave up the idea. It’s a good one though, so next time! Our final food of the trip were beignets. We prefer Cafe Beignet to Cafe du Monde, so there we went. (There are two a block apart. We went to the one that is closed in the evening. We assume the other one is closed in the afternoon. Also, it was a block away). We got two orders of three – plain and salted caramel. Alexander adored the caramel and Benjamin is a purist and all were eaten.

When we got to the airport, we abandoned the boys to the regular security line while we zipped through TSApre. We sat on the bench waiting for them, imagining them to be 4 and 8 and lost and sad. I did the same thing in Minneapolis, then they popped out looking like grown men who hadn’t even noticed they were in a security line. Same thing happened again today. I still took their picture when I found them in the line.

We got on the plane to sit in the frontish part and they got on later to sit in the almost last row. I was very excited to see them.

There really is no explaining why Alexander and I hiss at each like kitties (or in my imagination, vampires), but we do. We both hissed at Keith and he asked for picture. So. That.

Alexander and I escalatored up to get picked up, because I love escalators. Alexander loves elevators. He said he would love getting stuck in an elevator. He would just lay right down on the floor and be happy to be in an elevator. He was just keeping me company on the escalator. 🙂

Maren was willing and expecting to pick us up, but Elizabeth wanted to help out, so she picked us up. We very much appreciate them both (Maren drove us TO the airport).