New Orleans - Day 3

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Monday, August 25, 2014

We were up around 6am today. It was cooler and windier and not as sunny so the heat index was only around 96 to 98F. That doesn’t sound like a lot but you could really feel the difference from the 106F heat index of previous days even though you were still sweat soaked within minutes. At least I wasn’t so hot all day that I felt like vomiting and collapsing.

So since we were up and the sun wasn’t shining on the balcony, I went down and got coffee and ice and Clay went over to Croissant d’Or and got himself a breakfast sausage croissant and a raisin Danish and for me a cheese Danish and a chocolate croissant. They were delicious and I am sure I ate at least a half stick of butter! It was a pleasant way to watch the French Quarter come awake and we were high enough off the street level to catch a nice breeze and low enough to catch the shade from the building across the street.

We set off walking about 8am. We were headed for Dauphine Street towards Canal Street. One of my favorite fictional characters is Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. His ancestral  and boyhood home was across the street from 439 or so Dauphine Street and he met his future wife at an Audubon home a block or so away. I know his fictional home Maison de la Rochenoire burned, but I wanted to see where it was. There is a parking lot there now. It was kind of anticlimactic.

Even though we walked slowly we still arrived at the Audubon Insectarium, our destination, far too early. I guess we were so fast because really nothing was open yet so we didn’t make any stops on the way. But, just down the street on the other side of Canal, Harrah’s was open. It was super cold in there, too. So, we wandered around inside and found they have a location of Acme Oyster in there. We used the restrooms and found another Starbucks where we sat and had cold drinks. About 9:45am, we went back out and across to the Insectarium, unlike the Aquarium yesterday, they did not have an outside ticket window nor did they open early. The Insectarium is in the US Customs House building and evidently it is still a federal facility because we had to have our bags x-rayed, remove our watches and jewelry and go through a metal detector as if we were visiting the US Mint.

We spent about 2 hours in there and I enjoyed it more than I had thought I would. Being Monday, there were far fewer children running and screaming than were at the Aquarium. That was a good thing. They had an animated movie about bugs with padded action seats reminiscent of It's Tough to be a Bug at Disney World and Disneyland. We had the whole theater for a private showing. My favorite part and the reason I went was the Butterfly House/Garden. It was beautiful and serene and interesting, if a bit hotter than the rest of the museum. The museum is laid out in a loop and the butterflies are the last stop before the gift shop and exit.  

We left and walked up to Acme Oyster Bar for Clay to have a snack. He said he would only go if I had something. So I had a root beer float and he had a dozen oysters and an Abita again. He really liked it and as a bonus he got to finish my ice cream. We are skipping lunch today.

We walked back to the Villa Convento and refilled our water bottle with ice and used the restrooms. Then we got the car lot key and went to pick up the rental car. We drove back to Villa Convento to return the key and then set off to fill the gas tank and to Plum Street for sno-balls. We got there right at 2pm (which is their opening time) and found they had opened early and we were not the first customers. I got vanilla crème and Clay got peach crème. We sat under the umbrella on the bench outside and enjoyed them in a nice breeze. 

Back in the car to return the car to Hertz. You have to drive to the 4^th level of the Fulton St. Parking Garage and park in a designated spot. Then you take your filled out paperwork and key to the Hertz office on the corner of the building (Andrew Higgins St. side door).  

We walked down to Julia Street and past the Convention Center to the streetcar stop. They were running about every 20 minutes then. We got on and I paid $1.25 and Clay showed his 65+ ID and paid $.40. We rode a crowded car to Dumaine St. and got off and walked to Central Grocery. You might imagine where this is headed. Outrage! Central Grocery is closed on Mondays and evidently always has been. Central Grocery does not even have a website. Clearly Clay was hallucinating in a delirious dream of muffuleta fever when he convinced himself over several months that he would buy one on Monday for Tuesday’s flight. Now he has a serious case of muffaleta envy over Margie’s sandwich on Saturday. He can’t imagine when we will be back and get the sandwich of his dreams. We walked down about 2 doors and bought one from Frank’s. It should be similar enough (for me anyway). I will have to let you know what Clay thinks after tomorrow. (He liked it well enough, but wasn't sure it was quite exactly the same. He did watch them make it and said that they put extra ham on and he thought that helped. Now you know.)

The last snafu of the day (I hope) came when we asked to put our sandwich in the community refrigerator behind the desk. She put our room number on it and put it in there. Then Clay asked her about arranging a cab for 6:15am tomorrow. She gave him a cab company card and told him to call 15 minutes before he wanted it. This is not what the last guy at the desk told Clay. He asked her again about it and she said since it is so hot and their business is so slow that they would lock the office overnight tonight and no one would be on duty again until after 7am. Clay asked her, then how will we get our food out of the fridge before we leave here at 6:15am. She admitted that would be a problem. Then she checked her computer and told us suite 400 was vacant tonight and has a fridge in it. She made us 2 keys for #400 and we took the sandwich up and put it in and we'll get it out in the morning. Clay asked her how we should check out and she didn’t know. I volunteered that we would just leave the keys in our room and she thought that sounded right. The weird thing is we aren’t the only 2 people here tonight. When we were here in the afternoon, a couple came in off the street and followed me up the stairs with my ice bucket and went to one of the 2^nd floor rooms down the hall from us. So, there are guests here tonight in at least 2 rooms.

I am typing this between 3 and 5pm which is about the hottest time of day. We plan to go to Ralph & Kacoo’s after 5pm. Well, we went and it was a pretty big disappointment after all Clay’s restaurant research. I had picked it originally because we thought we would stop on the way back from returning the car. That didn’t work out, but Clay said it was still a highly rated restaurant and that we should walk back over there anyway. The menu was much more expensive than the menu they had posted on their website. So beware! There was only one dish for me, blackened chicken primavera. The primavera was bell peppers! Disgusting! The whole dish reeked of bell peppers. I picked them all out and I am still burping them. Clay ordered a combination fried seafood plate. He got 6 oysters and 5 shrimp for over $20. As I said, disappointing.

I refused dessert there and told Clay we could stop at Café du Monde as we passed it on the way back and have a last order of beignets. I walked out the back so I could see them working one last time and that was a mistake! They weren’t working on beignets, but were mucking out the fryer vats with a big wooden stick, like a broom or mop handle. It was quite disgusting. Good thing we only make it to NOLA about once a decade.

Well, we have an early morning tomorrow, so I’ll stop here and hope to get these entries posted online with photos as quickly as I can. (Ha!)

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

We called United Cabs about 5:15am. I have no idea why we were up and ready so early. I got up when Clay woke me and was my usual slow morning self. Anyway, we went outside and waited no more than 5 minutes after calling when a van showed up for us. At this hour, there was no traffic anywhere and we got to the airport quickly. No line at security and we had TSA pre-check status. The TSA people at MSY (unlike at RDU!) went ahead and accorded us that status without having a special line open. This means that you leave your shoes on, you don't have to take out you liquids or empty your pockets. Here at MSY, it also meant no full-body scan, but a walk through the metal detector. If MSY can honor pre-check it makes you wonder why other airports can't or won't. Anyway, all flights on time and full. No problems. We took TTA bus route 100 home. They increased the fares on August 18! Mine went up from $2 to $2.25. Clay's went up from free to $1.25! We walked home and it wasn't as hot or humid as New Orleans so that was good, but we still worked up a pretty good sweat before we got home. Clay broke his rolling duffel's wheel a couple of blocks from home. Mine had several holes and rips in it so we threw them in the trash after we unpacked. We got them for the Antarctica trip for about $35 each at Target so we more than got our money's worth out of them. They will be missed!

Well, I'm finishing getting these entries just in time. In a couple of weeks, I'll be back with some more seriously delayed posts!

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