New Orleans 2008: Day Seven

Before we went to VooDoo, Steph and I decided to have lunch at Commander's Palace. According to the locals, the Brennan family is a very influential family in the New Orleans restaraunt industry. And the Brennan's own the Commander's Palace. (The Brennans are the people who invented Bananas Foster.) It is pretty fancy, and you have to dress up, even for lunch. The place was packed, and I was thankful that Steph had the foresight to make reservations.

But the best part is 25 cent martinis and cosmopolitans. I felt like I was living in 1963 and we were drinking our lunch. They had amazing martinis and my food was fantastic. I had the seafood gumbo, New Orleans barbeque shrimp, and bread pudding souffle for dessert. Umm, pure heaven!

Then we went home for some play time with the kiddo before we headed out to the VooDoo Experience.

Then we went to experience the VooDoo Experience.

Let me tell you. This was probably the most amazing music festival I have ever been to. I haven't been to very many, but this was great. There were all sorts of people and bands from everywhere and a tent dedicated all to local music, and another tent dedicated all to brass and jazz bands. So, not only were there bands like Stone Temple Pilots and R.E.M., but we got to see local bands like Rotary Downs and The Vettes, who were also amazingly talented bands.

We started off with a little Wyclef Jean, then we got up close and personal with Erykah Badu (my camera takes horrendous pictures, I know). Then some Reverend Horton Heat (not pictured). And then we caught a little DeVotchka before Stone Temple Pilots (we were pretty far away) and then some Soul Sisters dancing to a DJ.

Where else can you get such an varraying array of music?? But this was just the beginning.

New Orleans 2008: Day Six

This is the day that will go into my history books as the day that I had the best damn fried chicken I have ever had in my entire life. It was fuckin' good.

For weeks my boss had been telling me I needed to find this place in New Orleans. Betty Sue's Ranch House is what she thought it was called. It was deemed by The Food Network to have the best fried chicken in the nation. Anthony Bourdain ate there and also said it was the best fried chicken he ever had. I was determined to find this place.

We finally figured out it was actually Willie Mae's Scotch House. A couple of Steph's friends met us for lunch there on Thursday. We walked in and were hit with the amazing smell of chicken deep frying. It smelled like ... well, heaven. We sat down, and I ordered a plate of fried chicken with red beans and rice (when in Rome!) and sweet tea.

First the sweet tea arrived, and Adian was all over that. He has an amazingly big sweet tooth. Then, cornbread. Oh holy God, I thought I liked cornbread before, but this was heavenly. I was informed that I needed to save it to put into my red beans, so I patiently waited. (Not really. Aidan and I both were struggling with the wait for our food!) And then, sweet Mother of God, our chicken arrived. Never has anything so succulent ever passed my lips. The grease. The batter. The chicken! And I don't even like chicken that much. Aidan settled down after the chicken arrived and so did I. I was planning on saving a piece for a snack later, but I couldn't wait. I just couldn't do it. By the time we were leaving, the place was packed, and people were waiting outside.

Then we decided to get some pralines for dessert. We went to Loretta's. Where I met Loretta! She chatted with us for a while, and asked Steph's friend (who apparently frequents Loretta's quite often) how his family was, etc. It was such a great friendly, hometown place! I had three pralines: original, chocolate, and peanut butter. The original was my favorite.

By the end of the afternoon, Aidan was pretty tired and ready to go home. As I packed him into his little car seat, I smelled something. Something like fried chicken! I thought maybe he had stuffed a piece into his pocket or his pants. No. We ALL smelled like fried chicken. My purse smelled like fried chicken for DAYS! Aidan's diaper bag smelled like fried chicken. For days. And it bummed me out because I was reminded every time of that heavnely chicken. Oh, how I miss the chicken.

New Orleans 2008: Day Five

On Wednesday, Steph and I wanted to do something nice, but she had to work. We decided we would go have a nice lunch at The Rib Room in The Quarter while Nate took Aidan around Tulane Hospital. Apparently, all the women Nate works wanted to get a glimpse of the little man. And of course, Aidan loves to flirt with the ladies, so he was happy to be shown around.

So, I got us all dressed up. A small feat for me! It was pretty hard to get myself ready, and the baby ready, and then to get all of our gear into the car (I was thinking of hiring a Sherpa). Then I had to drive in New Orleans traffic. Whew! But then we got there, and Steph and I had a lovely lunch -- thanks, Louisiana Bar Association, for that great gift certificate!

As we were eating, I looked up, and there was a parade passing by! A random parade! There was no meaning behind it. No protesting. Nothing. Just people getting together, playing music for the enjoyment of others. It was truly a beautiful sight. Alas, none of the pictures turned out. The window was my camera's enemy.

After lunch, the baby and I headed home, where we got into our pajamas and took a well deserved nap. It was a long day!

New Orleans 2008: Day Three & Four

On my third and fourth days in New Orleans, I was needed to babysit. I thought, "I can take care of a baby for a few days. No problem."

I had no idea. None.

I have no wnicknamed my nephew "Destruct-or!" He is total boy. He pounds things together, throws things on the floor, and smacks things with his open palm, all just to make noise. Yup. He just wants to see what these two things sound like when they hit each other, and then these two things, and boy, oh boy! They make a different sound! Amazing!

Amazing I survived.

I jest. In all honesty, I did pretty well. We played, watched TV, took naps, and ate. It was harder than I thought it would be. For some unknown reason I assumed that Aidan would want to do all the things I wanted to do. He certainly has a mind of his own though! And he did enjoy doing some of the things I wanted, like go for a walk around the neighborhood (boy, her neighborhood LOVES Halloween!) and take a nap. In summary, it was a beautiful way to spend a week of vacation.

New Orleans 2008: Day Two

On our second day in New Orleans, we decided to grab some breakfast at a local cafe called, aptly enough, The Oak Street Cafe. The place was packed, mostly because there was a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure the same morning, and all the racers were stopping in for some post-run grub, but we were happy to wait for our food while a little jazz ensemble played for us. I mean, where can you get a jazz ensemble playing for you while you eat your breakfast? New Orleans.

Then Steph and I decided to do a little shopping, but then we didn't really get around to doing much shopping except for at Target, but we did find time to stop at a great little local bookstore called Octavia Books. We had so much fun perusing the store and deciding which fresh, new book we were going to buy!

It was really great to be in New Orleans and have a little tour guide. Travelling to different places is always nice, but when you have a local to weed out all the awful touristy places, it really is a great thing.

OH! And this is also the day we got to see with our own eyes a real second line. A second line is a traditional New Orleans funeral where people come out of their homes and follow the funeral procession, which usually includes a brass or jazz band. It was truly an amazing and beautiful sight, and the thought did cross my mind to take some pictures, but I didn't want to disrespect the dead.

Sometimes I can muster SOME decorum.

For The First Time in My Life...

I LIVE IN A BLUE STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

After living in Idaho for 26 of my 31 years, I thought living in a swing state was exciting: party rallies, actual political candiates visiting the state instead of ignoring you because your vote wouldn't even come close to counting. But now, now I live in Nevada. A blue state. It makes me a little teary eyed.

Congrats, Obama, the 44th President of The United States!

New Orleans 2008: Day One

When I got to New Orleans, Steph already had plans for us! We ordered a quick pizza and then we headed down to the Quarter for a spooky ghost tour!

OK. It wasn't that spooky. Or ghost-y for that matter. But it was a fun way to start off the week! For $20, we got two-for-one drinks at a couple of bars (SURPRISE!) and we got to hear some really cool stories about how New Orleans started and used to be. It was pretty gory and violently graphic. So I loved it!!


Here we are at one of the mandatory drinking stops. Errrr, I mean "bathroom breaks." At least, that is how they described it. Because you know, we ladies can hardly control our bladder for AN HOUR!!! So we have to stop and go to the bathroom. Instead of using the vile facilities, we decided to drink. A PBR for me and a Cuba Libre for Steph. Oddly enough, the bartender didn't know what a Cuba Libre was. (You may not either. Don't feel bad. It's a rum & Coke.) But when you are that close to Cuba, and a bartender in the biggest drinking town I've EVER seen, you might want to catch up on your bar lingo.



This is a picture of Steph and her Bloody Mary. Now, the story on the Bloody Mary: We were "forced" to wait for the tour to start in a bar where we got aforementioned two-for-one drinks. The bartender asked me what we wanted, and I told her I wanted a Cape Cod. She looks at Steph, who says in a HEAVY Southern accent, "Y'all got Zing Zangs?" But it came out like "Y'all got Zing Zaaaaaangs?" And as I turned to see who this stranger was ordering a drink with me, a totally hot guy standing next to us looks at Steph and asks her what Zing Zangs is. She replies, this time with a little less South in her voice, "It's a Bloody Mary mix. And it's fuckin' goooooooood."

Now, I was surprised that this beautiful man was speaking to us, but more surprised that Steph had picked up a Southern accent, but even more surprised that she said fuckin' to a complete stranger.

I seriously laughed about it the entire ghost tour, and I constantly asked her if Zing Zangs was fuckin' good.



A random shot of the French Quarter, or Vieux Carre, as they say in Nawlins. This is where we started our tour.



I had to post this on my blog even if it is a horrible picture. (My camera is getting the boot. It SUCKS!) But I had to post it because our tour guide had this outrageous story of this house that pure evil and vile things happened here, and we were all engrossed in the story, and then all of it turned out to be fake. But Nicholas Cage owns the house now. Seriously scary.