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Published: January 13th 2009
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In the morning we woke up to get breakfast from the hotel, which was pretty average. They had an okay selection but none of it was stunning. I grabbed a couple of packs of the grits that they had there so that I could take them home and show them to people who have never seen them before. After we had eaten we grabbed things from our room and headed out to Jeff’s dad’s place which was in a beautiful part of the country. We spent a few minutes talking but had to head out pretty quickly to get to New Orleans and meet up with Dater’s brother Andy. The drive south was a lot of fun, the scenery was beautiful, even from the road. We listened to the Sister Act soundtrack amongst other things with really helped to pass the time, especially as it turned out we like a lot of the same music. The drive into New Orleans itself was especially beautiful as I got to see all of the older houses in the different neighbourhoods. We met Andy and his wife Callie plus their two kids James and Gracie in their local park. When we got out of
the car the heat was incredible, so very warm. All of Louisiana seemed to be on a different climate than the rest of the country that I had seen so far. We hung out with them for a few minutes and then went to leave our things at their house. The house was lovely - loads of white and very modern, beach-house décor. The night before we had seen a television programme about a place in New Orleans which served amazing po-boys so we all went there to get lunch. I had the recommended roast beef and gravy po-boy which was outstanding and very messy. All of the food there was great and the downstairs was a great bar. It was an Irish place called Parasol’s and on St. Patrick’s Day they explode into the street below and hold huge, infamous celebrations. We separated after we had eaten, they went back to the house while Daters and I went on into town. We headed downtown and parked in one of the multi-storey car parks there, it was pretty high up so I managed to get a bit of a birds’ eye view of the city. We headed for the casino
so that I could see what it looked like - Daters had $5 on some of the $.01 and $.25 machines which seemed to last for ages, she was doing really well. It was very loud and hot inside and going back out onto the street was great. We had a wander around the downtown area and saw some of the architecture and looked in the little shops and different districts. We ended up by a market and wandered through to see all of the local art, and tat. After we were done we walked back along the river which was a little bit cooler but not a lot. I was so unbelievably warm that day, it was far too much for me. When we got back to Andy and Callie’s house they were having friends and their child over so we gave the kids their Christmas presents and then spent time with Andy, Callie and their two friends while the three kids played together. We had a very relaxed but delicious dinner and watched ‘Burn After Reading’ which was bloody funny, in a macabre Coen-ish way. I was exhausted by the end of the film and went to sleep
as quickly as being in a house with two young kids would allow!
We slept to a reasonable hour and had Sunday breakfast with Daters’ family. I had realised the night before that I had to sort out my Amtrak ticket and so we headed there first, it was crazy traffic on the way there because the Saints were playing the Panthers and the stadium was next door to the train station. I went and started talking to the guys and because the woman in Memphis had been so useless the routes that I wanted to take were all full. If the guys at the desk had not been so brilliant then I was about to give up and get an earlier flight back to the UK. I had to pay around $100 extra to manage to get onto the trains that I wanted. Also, I was not able to get a ticket to Toronto as planned because the pass doesn’t cover Canada and that would cut my days too close so, on their recommendation, I got a ticket to Boston instead. They helped me out for about an hour and gave me all of my tickets and schedule which
was brilliant. After such a long delay, Daters and I finally headed into Magazine Street which has loads of little fun shops on them. We parked outside a coffee shop which has a blackboard outside with a quotation on. If a customer knows who said the quote then they can have any free coffee that they want and it stays up until someone gets it correct. This quotation was from Ben Franklin and no one had guessed it in two days until the woman who went into the shop before me and myself. It was a very good gimmick and a pretty good cup of coffee. Without realising it we had parked in the wrong place so ended up walking through a very residential area of Magazine Street with some shops at either end. The first place that we went into was a candy store called Lucky You (http://www.luckyyoucandy.com) owned by a great woman called Tiffany. She had sweets from all over the world, including some Swedish ones that I loved and some English chocolates that Daters bought. We had a great time talking to her and she showed us around, it was a really amazing shop. After that the
flood gates opened to shopping. Daters bought a beautiful dress and a jumper from one place, then I bought a pair of brown boots, something that I had been looking for since I was in Maryland. We ended up walking a good part of the street and headed into Whole Foods to grab something to eat. We headed back to the car and set off to pick Jeff up from his friend’s place. The journey there was good for the first two thirds and then the heavens opened and the rain was so bad that we couldn’t see the road at all, let alone the cars around us. Thank goodness for Daters being a good driver. We met up with Jeff, who had managed to damage his neck since we left him, in a car-park so we didn’t have quite as far to go. It was a better drive back and we stopped off to get some things to make dinner with before heading back to Callie and Andy’s. They had a babysitter for the kids but we took over and Daters got the kids sorted while Jeff made dinner and I helped/got in the way. We had pizzas which
were amazing and sat down to eat them while watching a football game, which I was finally beginning to understand after coaching from several friends along the way. When Callie and Andy got home we had a brief chat with them before getting into bed.
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