“Let the NOLA residency begin”
This week was all about packing up and organizing for our “residency” in New Orleans. Diana did a fantastic job of getting everything ready and packed in the Atlas – lots of room thankfully.
Before we left I had one last follow up appointment from my hand surgery. The doctor said it looked great and it was clear that I had been doing all the recommended exercises. I’m not sure McD believes that, but I really have been pretty good about doing them several times a day.
We split up the drive to New Orleans with a stop in Shreveport on Friday night. We didn’t have very high expectations, but were delighted to find the Fat Calf brasserie. What a wonderful meal – one that I would drive the 3 hours from Dallas to repeat – just amazing. We selected four appetizers for our meal – all were excellent. Moules frites, escargots, a duck and foie gras parfait, and quail with dirty rice. I don’t know which was my favourite, all so well done and delicious. We’re already plotting a visit on our return drive.
We arrived in New Orleans at 2pm on Saturday and met our hosts in the Villa Vici furniture store below the condo. Very pleasant folks who helped us unpack and carry things upstairs. The condo is very sleek and modern as advertised. We’ve been enjoying the lovely outdoor spaces – balcony overlooking the street out front (great for people watching), and extensive rooftop garden area out back (gets wonderful sun in the morning for coffee and the crossword.) There are a few sheep happily grazing on the rooftop:
We met Kenny, Kara and crew at the Westin in the French Quarter around 4pm for the Happy Hour show by Kenny’s cousin, Tim Laughlin on clarinet.
It was a real treat to meet Kenny’s Mum, Miss Sue. We really enjoyed the excellent music and time to relax and catchup.
The view of the Mississippi and the Quarter from the Westin are quite impressive.
After that lovely arrival music, the Ogans and Kirschs came back to the condo with us and we ordered Thai food from Pomelo – directly across the street. Pomelo describes their food as “street style Thai.” It was quite good, but different than the traditional curries that we’re used to. We had a great time hanging out and catching up with each other.
Denny and Anne arrived with a Mardi Gras starter kit:
Sunday started with a long walk down the Nashville Avenue “neutral ground.” This is what the grass area between lanes in the middle is called. There’s a nice path winding all the way down. We made a turn on to Freret Street (Kenny’s neighbourhood) and enjoyed a coffee from Mojo before walking back home.
Our appetites were suitably worked up now for brunch at Atchafalaya – one of the more popular weekend brunch restaurants. I absolutely loved my duck confit hash. The blackberries and mangos listed on the menu made me a bit nervous, but they complemented the duck very well. Diana loved her Bayou Benedict.
I made it back to the condo in time to watch the Bengals defeat the Chiefs by 3 points in the AFC Championship football game – the result that I had predicted on a work call on Friday. That was only after a very nerve wracking overtime session.
Kenny and Kara had us over for burgers and to watch the NFC Championship – Rams versus 49ers. The team I was hoping would win was again victorious. It will be the Rams and Bengals in the SuperBowl in a couple of weeks.
What a great couple of starter days to the residency.
I added a new puzzle to my daily crossword routine. “Wordle” is a game that was created by a gentleman in the U.K. to play with his wife. You get zero instructions – just 6 chances to find the Wordle of the day. Each attempt is highlighted with green for the correct letter in the correct spot and yellow for the correct letter in the wrong spot. I think I had significant beginners luck on my first attempts:
This is embarrassing. I read 50 pages of William Kent Kreuger’s “Ordinary Grace” before convincing myself that I must have read it before. It didn’t seem overly familiar but there were occasional passages that sounded just like something I’d heard before. I finally did a search of the blog and found that I read it back in 2018. Silly K!
After those 50 pages, things got too busy for me to settle down with a book. I’m looking forward to making up for that next week with some good book time in the rooftop garden.
Here’s one of my favourites from Tim Laughlin, the clarinetist that we saw on Saturday:
An interesting cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold”:
A favourite from the excellent Tom Waits that popped up on a playlist this week:
And finally something great from Radiohead that I heard on the soundtrack of a show I was watching, just don’t remember which show that was:
Stay safe, calm and kind!