Lady
04-21-2003, 09:26 PM
First to answer two questions I have been asked – we bought our po boys at Messina's in Riverwalk and the cost of the shuttle round trip for one person is $10 each way
Red Snapper with Lump Crab
Or also known as Can Life Get any Better?
Sunday – Palm Sunday – we would go to St. Louis Cathedral and go to mass – wanted to see the inside of the Minor Basilica established as a Parish in 1720 in New Orleans and afterwards we would go to Arnuad’s Restaurant Jazz Brunch at 11:00 a.m. – neither happened, one of them for good reason – some of you may remember Cruisin Donna way back when, she and her husband live about 1.5 hours outside New Orleans and a couple of years ago she was kind and sent us Gumbo cookbooks and a slew of various seasonings – it was a lovely gift to receive and turned out to be quite scrumptious too!
We finally caught up with Donna the night before we left on our trip and she could not make the Wednesday night dinner but she would meet us on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. – there went the Jazz Brunch, but meeting old/new friends is more important than eggs with sauce. Donna suggested we meet at the World Trade Center - built in 1965 – we could have a few drinks and watch New Orleans spin by. The lounge at the top revolves and gives you a wonderful view for miles of the city and beyond – they alloted about an hour and a half – Donna told me to call her on her cel phone when we were on our way to the WTC and they would meet us outside the building – they were across the street in Harrah’s Casino – I stopped at the fountain outside the Wyndham Hotel about 11:00 a.m. and said we were on our way – over at the WTC - we stopped outside one entrance but could see around to the side of the building – a couple were standing acting as if they were looking for three people – we gave eye contact with each other for a moment then we waved and they waved and yep we were who we were!
As we made our way to go up in the elevators the woman at the lobby desk mentioned we would not be able to get in since our son was not 21. We replied we would try anyway – once we reached the top we just walked right in and sat down in some cushy seats by the tall windows that overlooked the city – no one stopped us. We had a wonderful time meeting them – they were bunches of fun – warm and personable, how sweet of them to drive the 1.5 hours to meet us for a little while. Donna and I each had two Daiquiris, the men had two beers and Scamp had two coffees. When the drinks were gone and our tongues tired we went down to the food booths by the river and had some snacks together – found a patch of grass and chatted some more while listening to a couple of bands on the stage that was set up as part of the 20th French Quarter Festival –
The food was off but we knew that going it - it was concession food and not like actually being at the restaurants. We make better jambalaya which is what Tramp and Jimmy had – my crawfish etouffee was decent – Donna had the same as me but she only had about three crawfish in her bowl – I had a good ten! I gave her a few of mine. The alligator sausage on a stick, that Scamp had, was good although it was too spicy for him – mom and dad finished it off lol – I tried a Hurricane from Pat O’Brien’s booth – wasn’t impressed – gave it to Tramp to finish
Donna looked at her watch and the 1.5 hours had turned into 3!! We gave big hugs all around and promised we’d keep in touch and next time we are in LA we will most assuredly see them again! Next stop is the IMAX theatre where we saw the 3-D movie “Bugs” – it had just started and the man at the gate let us in through the exit which was faster – there were center seats a few rows from the back and they were perfect. The show lasted about 45 minutes and while Tramp and Scamp looked through the gift shop I went to the Ladies Room.
The Ladies Room was closed, but the men were letting the women use their restroom for a few minutes while one guy kept guard by the door – it turns out as I entered there were only 45 seconds to go, the guy standing guard at the door said, “45 seconds and I let the men in!” Every five seconds the sentry would holler out the time left! I heard all the numbers called down to five seconds left and heard the women scrambling to get out – dang those guys are fast! No sooner had the time run out when there was a line of them about seven all doing their thing along the wall – ackkk – I quickly just left, I should have went to the sinks and washed my hands and acted calm but I didn’t lol – the guys were chuckling – oh well – something to tell the grandkids some day lol
We moved next door to the Aquarium of the Americas and before going through it, I went into the restroom and washed my hands – the penguin feeding was about to begin, it was 4 PM – we skipped the first floor for the time being and went upstairs to see the penguins being fed – they were hungry critters and very cute – watching some of them made us laugh and the way one of the penguins took his fish and walked away from the group to eat reminded me of our dog back home who I was missing very much.
Other than the penguins another highlight was the pregnant seahorse – he was really cool to watch – and so plump! I stood there and imagined a mass of tiny seahorses popping out at any moment.
We walked back to the hotel for Happy Hour, freshened up for dinner and caught a cab to Galatoires - Galatoires is the restaurant that Tennessee Williams mentions in Streetcar Named Desire, Stella takes her sister Blanche to Galatoires while the boys play poker. We stopped at the intersection and walked a few feet to the door to the restaurant – we were at last on Bourbon Street – I gave a quick glance at the carnival up and down the street and smiled as the door to a culinary experience was opened for us.
We must state that the food was scrumptious – we enjoyed eating this evening – Scamp and I had the Turtle Soup followed by Sautéed Red Snapper with Lump Crabmeat for me, Grilled Red Snapper with Artichokes and Mushrooms for Tramp and a dish of Broiled Jumbo Shrimp with Mushrooms, Peas and Artichokes for Scamp – we really enjoyed it! What we did not care for was the lack of proper service that a restaurant such as this should command.
We were seated at a table with no place settings and waited for a good five minutes before anyone brought any to us. We were served water from a glass container that was still sitting on the table from the last party to sit there – it was not taken away and a fresh one brought, the server just poured from it – ewww – believe it or not we had to ask for napkins!! I went to the bar area for a moment during the meal and the two bartenders behind the bar were talking about a rap song or such and were singing it softly but enough for me to hear “Bitxx I got your number!” In front of a female customer – this was unreal! While Scamp was still eating his soup the server said “are you done?” as if it were McDonalds – at least “sir may I take that for you?” would have been somewhat better – I was finished with my soup but he just left it there in front of me til our entrees came out.
Our plates were taken from the wrong side – at one point the server actually reached across my husband to take a plate away – that was the topper! When dessert time arrived, Tramp and Scamp were each given a dessert menu but I was not – I had to wait til Tramp was through with his. A restaurant like that should not be this way - as we said, the food was scrumptious – but the service and the lack of propriety was beyond belief – at least we can say we’ve been there – we will not be back though when we return – yes another trip is already in the works !
We came out of Galitories on Bourbon and began cruising the street – stopped in one of the many beads/masks/boas/fuzzy hats/shotglasses/plastic alligators/bumper stickers/t-shirts/saxophone figurine shops and I purchased a mask with pretty burnished feathers and green sequins around the eyes and wore it on the back of my head as many were doing and the three traditional beads, purple for justice, green for money, gold for power – Tramp and Scamp bought a few beads also – with our drinks in our hand we began walking – oh the sights I could mention – well just a couple maybe -
In one doorway a girl was moving her hips around with a tight top on sort of frilly – Parisian and had her back to us, you could just see her butt which had nothing on it – a barker was telling us to come on in – a few door people at the various bars actually reached out into the street and grabbed some women who walked by and pulled them into the bar – this was done nicely though and the women were laughing and wanted to go in, I was walking on the street side of the sidewalks as was taught while young for that type of situation otherwise the man walks on the street side - and most of the time we walked in the street, it is closed off to traffic
We passed one place and looking up to the balcony above I saw four girls – swear they were 18, if that – wearing hardly anything and just walking back and forth across the balcony – there was another that had a woman stripping in the window above with just her silhouette showing in the window – three college girls were walking towards us in the street and we were a little bit back behind Scamp – didn’t want to be hanging on him – give him some room lol – he asked the girls if they wanted his beads – the three of them all lifted their shirts for him – OMG Tramp just howled that his son would luck out so – I felt it was cute in a rite of passage sort of way – Scamp announced we should move there the following week if not sooner!
We walked down to St. Phillipe and were standing outside the Old Absinthe House and I could see that there was not much of anything more so we turned around and started walking back up the other side – what a street it is – dang – what you can’t get on Bourbon I’ll never know!! I had three more Daiquiris while walking around, we went up and down Bourbon three times - saw a guy get cuffed by the police and slammed against the side of a building – what a hoot it all was – we caught a cab back to the hotel – stopped off in the bar area – grabbed a night cap and headed to the room – another wonderful day in New Orleans!! Tomorrow we meet Rosie for the first time!! We were looking forward to seeing her!
Red Snapper with Lump Crab
Or also known as Can Life Get any Better?
Sunday – Palm Sunday – we would go to St. Louis Cathedral and go to mass – wanted to see the inside of the Minor Basilica established as a Parish in 1720 in New Orleans and afterwards we would go to Arnuad’s Restaurant Jazz Brunch at 11:00 a.m. – neither happened, one of them for good reason – some of you may remember Cruisin Donna way back when, she and her husband live about 1.5 hours outside New Orleans and a couple of years ago she was kind and sent us Gumbo cookbooks and a slew of various seasonings – it was a lovely gift to receive and turned out to be quite scrumptious too!
We finally caught up with Donna the night before we left on our trip and she could not make the Wednesday night dinner but she would meet us on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. – there went the Jazz Brunch, but meeting old/new friends is more important than eggs with sauce. Donna suggested we meet at the World Trade Center - built in 1965 – we could have a few drinks and watch New Orleans spin by. The lounge at the top revolves and gives you a wonderful view for miles of the city and beyond – they alloted about an hour and a half – Donna told me to call her on her cel phone when we were on our way to the WTC and they would meet us outside the building – they were across the street in Harrah’s Casino – I stopped at the fountain outside the Wyndham Hotel about 11:00 a.m. and said we were on our way – over at the WTC - we stopped outside one entrance but could see around to the side of the building – a couple were standing acting as if they were looking for three people – we gave eye contact with each other for a moment then we waved and they waved and yep we were who we were!
As we made our way to go up in the elevators the woman at the lobby desk mentioned we would not be able to get in since our son was not 21. We replied we would try anyway – once we reached the top we just walked right in and sat down in some cushy seats by the tall windows that overlooked the city – no one stopped us. We had a wonderful time meeting them – they were bunches of fun – warm and personable, how sweet of them to drive the 1.5 hours to meet us for a little while. Donna and I each had two Daiquiris, the men had two beers and Scamp had two coffees. When the drinks were gone and our tongues tired we went down to the food booths by the river and had some snacks together – found a patch of grass and chatted some more while listening to a couple of bands on the stage that was set up as part of the 20th French Quarter Festival –
The food was off but we knew that going it - it was concession food and not like actually being at the restaurants. We make better jambalaya which is what Tramp and Jimmy had – my crawfish etouffee was decent – Donna had the same as me but she only had about three crawfish in her bowl – I had a good ten! I gave her a few of mine. The alligator sausage on a stick, that Scamp had, was good although it was too spicy for him – mom and dad finished it off lol – I tried a Hurricane from Pat O’Brien’s booth – wasn’t impressed – gave it to Tramp to finish
Donna looked at her watch and the 1.5 hours had turned into 3!! We gave big hugs all around and promised we’d keep in touch and next time we are in LA we will most assuredly see them again! Next stop is the IMAX theatre where we saw the 3-D movie “Bugs” – it had just started and the man at the gate let us in through the exit which was faster – there were center seats a few rows from the back and they were perfect. The show lasted about 45 minutes and while Tramp and Scamp looked through the gift shop I went to the Ladies Room.
The Ladies Room was closed, but the men were letting the women use their restroom for a few minutes while one guy kept guard by the door – it turns out as I entered there were only 45 seconds to go, the guy standing guard at the door said, “45 seconds and I let the men in!” Every five seconds the sentry would holler out the time left! I heard all the numbers called down to five seconds left and heard the women scrambling to get out – dang those guys are fast! No sooner had the time run out when there was a line of them about seven all doing their thing along the wall – ackkk – I quickly just left, I should have went to the sinks and washed my hands and acted calm but I didn’t lol – the guys were chuckling – oh well – something to tell the grandkids some day lol
We moved next door to the Aquarium of the Americas and before going through it, I went into the restroom and washed my hands – the penguin feeding was about to begin, it was 4 PM – we skipped the first floor for the time being and went upstairs to see the penguins being fed – they were hungry critters and very cute – watching some of them made us laugh and the way one of the penguins took his fish and walked away from the group to eat reminded me of our dog back home who I was missing very much.
Other than the penguins another highlight was the pregnant seahorse – he was really cool to watch – and so plump! I stood there and imagined a mass of tiny seahorses popping out at any moment.
We walked back to the hotel for Happy Hour, freshened up for dinner and caught a cab to Galatoires - Galatoires is the restaurant that Tennessee Williams mentions in Streetcar Named Desire, Stella takes her sister Blanche to Galatoires while the boys play poker. We stopped at the intersection and walked a few feet to the door to the restaurant – we were at last on Bourbon Street – I gave a quick glance at the carnival up and down the street and smiled as the door to a culinary experience was opened for us.
We must state that the food was scrumptious – we enjoyed eating this evening – Scamp and I had the Turtle Soup followed by Sautéed Red Snapper with Lump Crabmeat for me, Grilled Red Snapper with Artichokes and Mushrooms for Tramp and a dish of Broiled Jumbo Shrimp with Mushrooms, Peas and Artichokes for Scamp – we really enjoyed it! What we did not care for was the lack of proper service that a restaurant such as this should command.
We were seated at a table with no place settings and waited for a good five minutes before anyone brought any to us. We were served water from a glass container that was still sitting on the table from the last party to sit there – it was not taken away and a fresh one brought, the server just poured from it – ewww – believe it or not we had to ask for napkins!! I went to the bar area for a moment during the meal and the two bartenders behind the bar were talking about a rap song or such and were singing it softly but enough for me to hear “Bitxx I got your number!” In front of a female customer – this was unreal! While Scamp was still eating his soup the server said “are you done?” as if it were McDonalds – at least “sir may I take that for you?” would have been somewhat better – I was finished with my soup but he just left it there in front of me til our entrees came out.
Our plates were taken from the wrong side – at one point the server actually reached across my husband to take a plate away – that was the topper! When dessert time arrived, Tramp and Scamp were each given a dessert menu but I was not – I had to wait til Tramp was through with his. A restaurant like that should not be this way - as we said, the food was scrumptious – but the service and the lack of propriety was beyond belief – at least we can say we’ve been there – we will not be back though when we return – yes another trip is already in the works !
We came out of Galitories on Bourbon and began cruising the street – stopped in one of the many beads/masks/boas/fuzzy hats/shotglasses/plastic alligators/bumper stickers/t-shirts/saxophone figurine shops and I purchased a mask with pretty burnished feathers and green sequins around the eyes and wore it on the back of my head as many were doing and the three traditional beads, purple for justice, green for money, gold for power – Tramp and Scamp bought a few beads also – with our drinks in our hand we began walking – oh the sights I could mention – well just a couple maybe -
In one doorway a girl was moving her hips around with a tight top on sort of frilly – Parisian and had her back to us, you could just see her butt which had nothing on it – a barker was telling us to come on in – a few door people at the various bars actually reached out into the street and grabbed some women who walked by and pulled them into the bar – this was done nicely though and the women were laughing and wanted to go in, I was walking on the street side of the sidewalks as was taught while young for that type of situation otherwise the man walks on the street side - and most of the time we walked in the street, it is closed off to traffic
We passed one place and looking up to the balcony above I saw four girls – swear they were 18, if that – wearing hardly anything and just walking back and forth across the balcony – there was another that had a woman stripping in the window above with just her silhouette showing in the window – three college girls were walking towards us in the street and we were a little bit back behind Scamp – didn’t want to be hanging on him – give him some room lol – he asked the girls if they wanted his beads – the three of them all lifted their shirts for him – OMG Tramp just howled that his son would luck out so – I felt it was cute in a rite of passage sort of way – Scamp announced we should move there the following week if not sooner!
We walked down to St. Phillipe and were standing outside the Old Absinthe House and I could see that there was not much of anything more so we turned around and started walking back up the other side – what a street it is – dang – what you can’t get on Bourbon I’ll never know!! I had three more Daiquiris while walking around, we went up and down Bourbon three times - saw a guy get cuffed by the police and slammed against the side of a building – what a hoot it all was – we caught a cab back to the hotel – stopped off in the bar area – grabbed a night cap and headed to the room – another wonderful day in New Orleans!! Tomorrow we meet Rosie for the first time!! We were looking forward to seeing her!