Step 20: New Orleans day 2

New Orleans: Day 2


I really appreciate that Lynn and Dennis let me share a room with them at the Le Pavillon. It was a good opportunity for me to bond with Lynn. I have never exactly bonded with any of Dennis’ girlfriends for one reason or another. Either I thought they were too young, too crazy, or that he just wasn’t serious enough for me to take the time. But Lynn was none of these things and for the first time I saw Dennis really in love. She is a cool lady and I found it easy to connect with her which isn’t exactly the norm for me.

The three of us woke up on Thursday morning and headed to ‘Mother’s’ restaurant right down the road—Poydras Street—from the hotel.  http://mothersrestaurant.net/index.html

Mother’s is another New Orleans institution, having opened its doors in 1938 and thriving ever since. One of its mottos is: “Nobody gets treated better (or worse) than anybody else. Everybody gets fed. Everybody comes back.” The line was out the door and we waited to make our order. Although the setting was wonderful, I was again finding famous New Orleans establishments weren’t quite what a picky vegetarian like me was looking for and I ended up with one biscuit. Dennis and Lynn on the other hand were quite satisfied.

After breakfast we went back to the room and got ourselves ready to head out. We had decided to go to the New Orleans Audubon Park via the St. Charles Streetcar. The St. Charles Streetcar is the oldest continuously running streetcar in the world having begun operation in 1835! We jumped on and watched the beautiful day: the streetcar goes by the garden district, Loyola University, and Tulane University before we jumped off at the entrance to the Audubon Park.

Lynn and Dennis on the St. Charles Streetcar

We walked and walked; climbed trees with endless branches, found colorful caterpillars and beautiful birds. And then I suddenly found myself under attack. My feet were under attack. I was wearing flip flops and they itched like mad. Sure I’m used to being itchy having had eczema all my life, but this was madness. They were inflamed and swollen and I knew I had to do something about it…where was my benadryl??!!
Since we were nearly through with our walk we got back on the Streetcar and headed back to the hotel. For as much as I loved the streetcar on the way there, I was exasperated by how slow it was on the way back. Once in the room I quickly located my benadryl, took a couple, and soaked my feet in the tub. It was about 1 o’clock.

1 o’clock Thursday. Wednesday morning before I got on the flight I had breakfast at home around 9am. Since then all I had eaten was a 7up (dranken?) and 1 biscuit. I was famished. I needed some food and fast. I went down to the concierge and asked if there were any ‘Whole Foods’ in New Orleans and he gave me directions and public transportation options to get there. I said 'sayonara' to Dennis and Lynn and hopped on the bus. About an hour later I found myself in that glorious place and promptly located the extensive salad bar where I dove in. It is never good to arrive at ‘Whole Foods’ starving. $45 of salad bar and groceries later I was back on the bus.

I found Dennis and Lynn sunbathing on the roof of the hotel next to the pool. That has to be one of the best things about the Le Pavillon. Roof top pool/Jacuzzi. I joined them and we had a relaxing afternoon/ early evening. When we finally got ourselves dressed and ready to do anything it was already 8:30pm. We called Dave and Pam, who had already eaten dinner, and connected with them in the quarter. We all settled down in a quiet restaurant where Dennis and Lynn at dinner and the rest of us ate dessert.

Me lounging in a sofa - waiting for my dessert to come

Dennis and Dave were set and excited to go to a place called “Rock & Bowl” which both of them had been to in the past and loved. However, during Katrina the original ‘Rock & Bowl’ (bowling alley opened in 1941…music was added in 1988) was destroyed and so this would be the first time to the new place for all of us. We found a cab and arrived at around 10:30pm. From what Dennis and Dave remembered of the old place it usually cost from $5-10 bucks to get into and we were all up for it.
http://www.rockandbowl.com/Historypage/history.html

We arrived after—what we all assumed was—a long money hungry cab ride. That annoyed us all for a second but when we heard the music we were jumping into the building. When the lady at the front told us it was $25 per person all of our mouths dropped to the floor. We couldn’t believe it! That doesn’t even include any bowling. There we had just taken all the time to get there and now we were trying to decide if it was worth going in. Dave finally stepped up and offered to pay $80 of the $125 for all 5 of us if Dennis would pay the rest. Hesitantly we all got our wrist bands and went in.

Rock'n some Zydeco at the Rock'n Bowl

Initially shaking off the cost was making it hard to ease into the fun that we should have been having but eventually that wore off and everyone was on the dance floor. It was a blast! I love dancing with my dad’s best friends. Dancing is something his group really loves and is good at.

Dave and Pam swingin- and making it look good!

Since we were 5 one of the girls was having to sit out and the funniest thing was when this short (maybe 5ft flat) latino young (maybe 25 at the most) man asked Lynn to dance while I was dancing with Dennis. The funny thing is that Lynn is about 6ft 1’. We all gave him credit for asking her; Lynn even said it’s pretty rare that she gets asked to dance at all, non-the-less by someone so much shorter than her. So good on him!

Lynn and Dennis...look at the love in his eyes!!

We were there til the music stopped and our cab ride home was a quarter of the time (confirming what we’d thought about our cabbie from before). Thank you to Dave and Dennis for footing the zydeco dancing night bill. Off to bed -- tomorrow Jazz Fest starts!