Saturday, January 28, 2023
We went back to the French Quarter – nothing like Bourbon Street on a Saturday morning. It’s pretty amazing how many people are already stumbly at 11am. And the smells! Ew!
We wandered some shops, then found a National Park place right in the middle of the French Quarter. What? How many times have I been here? How many times have I walked down that street (Decatur). Crazy. There was lots of information about the origins of the French Quarter, and there was a nice meeting room where there were several musical groups scheduled to play in the afternoon. Keith pointed out that there was a big gate over the street entrance and that we must have always gone by when it was closed. Huh.
We then decided to revisit Pierre Maspero’s. Keith had the seafood pistolettes – “golden French rolls filled with a creamy cheese sauce with Gulf shrimp and Louisiana crawfish, bell peppers, and onions, topped with Parmesan cheese. He wasted no time in the gobbling, then moved on to half of my roast beef po’boy. It was the plan. He was wondering which he should order, and I suggested we share the sandwich. I didn’t think I was very hungry – then surprised myself by wanting more after my half sandwich. I suggested we go for beignets. We walked over to the famous Cafe du Mond, and the line was literally a block long. I know it probably would have moved quickly, but we moved on to Cafe Beignet two blocks away. The beignets are much bigger (which is neither better nor worse, just a fact) there. An order is 3, and I had a moment of wondering if we should eat get an order. Then I had a reality check. Seriously, these beignets are as big as a sizable doughnut, but heavier. I looked around at tables as we waited in the (considerably shorter) line. Just about every table had leftover beignets. It looked like everyone thought, “Sure, I can eat three. Or we can eat three after we eat our Muffulettas.” None of that optimism turned out to be true. We ordered three, and I had one.
We streetcar-ed back to the hotel on a very full car. As people got on at subsequent stops, they pushed past us (and the little room at the front which had a bar to hold on to) toward the middle of the car. Then the car would start, and they would nearly fall down because there was nothing to hold to. See? That is why I am standing at the front where there are supports meant to be held on to. I was curious about how many people just blithely went forward without having a clue where they were going. Huh.
I was first on the plane upgrade list, until I wasn’t. All day yesterday I was, and then suddenly someone just sniped my spot. I would have sent Keith, but I liked me being first. We had exit row seats, so it didn’t matter. The middle seat was empty, so there was lots of comfortable. I watched Where the Crawdads Are (he wasn’t interested when it was in the theater) and Keith watched Knives Out (I saw it in the theater). We both thoroughly enjoyed them.
Alexander picked us up at a horrendously busy baggage claim after we arrived 40 minutes early. It is decidedly colder here than in NOLA. Alexander was telling us about being out of Tony Chachere’s seasoning. He had shopped up the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, and couldn’t find it. He didn’t need it at the time, so he just figured he’d grab it the next time. Yesterday, our eatings had motivated him to make some spicy chicken and he needed Tony’s. He looked in spices. He looked in seafood. He looked in Cajun. He looked in every aisle of the store. He went back to spices and got down low. There it was. Pushed to the back and behind something on the bottom shelf. TA_DA! As he was checking out, another guy saw him with it. “HEY! Where did you find that?! I’ve been looking everywhere for it!” Alexander gave him the scoop and the guy was super grateful. Fun at the grocery store.