A note about pictures in the blog for this trip — there will definitely be duplicate subjects from the already published 2012 and 2014 trips and I’m sure there’ll be duplicates going forward when I do 2017 and 2022. It’s all good, I take pictures of things that catch my eye at the time and tons of things in New Orleans are very eye-catching!
We woke up bright and early at 6:00am for our latest New Orleans adventure. After showering, last minute packing, and saying bye to the cats we left the house at 7:45am and picked up McDonald’s on the way to the airport. While going through the security check point I lost my sunglasses in the scanner. They had been in the tray but were nowhere to be found on the other end. Though I had to wait a few minutes the TSA guy was really great and was able to retrieve them for me.
We had an uneventful flight to Charlotte at 10:50am, landing around 11:30am. While changing between concourses A and C we walked through the hub area where they had some really cool trees, like an atrium. We got some crappy ham and cheese “paninis” (in name only) and Michelle got a salad. We boarded around 12:45pm bound for New Orleans (despite the gate sign saying the destination was Little Rock — the horror!).
Our seating was very nice — an exit row with plenty of leg room. Also we got lucky and got the last of the ginger ale to enjoy with our pretzels. We listened to a person nearby talking with the flight attendants about their job as a Mississippi cruise ship worker. Apparently they work six weeks (seven days a week, fourteen hours a day) then get two weeks off. Sounded brutal!
We landed in New Orleans and resisted temptation to stop at the airport’s Café du Monde in favor of getting our luggage. Michelle and I got our luggage but Genetta’s was nowhere to be found. We talked with the luggage assistant and they assured us they’d send it along when it arrived. We grabbed a taxi to 1427 Charters and while the guy didn’t talk much he was nice. Though he did get a little lost near the Mint requiring me to guide him to the house.
On arrival we said high to mom, dad, and Greg and relaxed a tiny bit before showing Genetta around the place as it was her first time. Greg, Genetta, and I went to Café du Monde to get some beignets (two orders — Genetta had three, me two, and one was to go home for Michelle) and three frozen coffees. We also went to Kulture Vulture, a store with lots of cool metal and rock memorabilia including a Ghost shirt that Genetta had to have and a Papa Emeritus III figure that I wanted (but resisted).
We returned to the house and relaxed a bit before heading to Royal Sushi & Bar for dinner around 5:00pm. I had two helpings of Gozya pork dumplings (ten total) which were great! Michelle had spring rolls and shrimp sushmai, Genetta the ramen miso base, and Greg a ginger salad and Sex in the City sushi. Mom had ginger salad and spring rolls while dad enjoyed calamari and Gozya pork dumplings.
After dinner we returned home and chilled. I worked an hour or so catching up on mail and had Café au Lait and Beignet ice cream while listening to music emanating from the street corner until they stopped playing around 11:00pm. Just as we were about to head to bed the airlines contacted Genetta. We headed out to the corner and waited for her to arrive around 11:30pm then headed to bed around midnight.
