Family Outings And Unique Finds

As I'm sure you've noticed, any given post written here is seldom about a single place or event. There'll be a few days- or a little longer- with nada, then suddenly five paragraphs detailing a trip all over town throughout the course of an entire day. That's just what we do, I guess. It comes from before we lived in Beaumont ( or "in town") and would save all of our outings for one long, busy, fun-filled day as a family. Every two weeks on payday, we'd do it all- lunch at our favorite chicken wing eatery, the same order in the same booth every other Thursday; then we'd go to the mall or run where ever we needed to go to pick things up; a quick trip to Spec's to refill the wine cooler and then off to the grocery store before heading back home to unload groceries and cook supper, usually followed by a rented movie. I know that sounds terribly routine and mundane, though there's something comforting about having that one regimented day per week to look forward to. I miss those much anticipated regular outings, but we're starting to get into a rhythm here. There's much more fun to choose from, and we're learning to incorporate it!

Now that I've given you a tiny glimpse into how we roll, let me share where we've rolled it (you know you love my dork-ness)! We started by heading down to the Quarter, since most of the tourists had left post-Mardi Gras. Greg's was having a The Tourists Are Gone, Let's Celebrate! sale, so we wanted to see what they had this month. We found a gorgeous antique armoire that we picked up for just a little over $200, as well as vintage milk glass cosmetics pots I'm going to turn into candles (at some point...). Being the most successful lagniappe [lan-yap] magnet I've ever seen, Shelby was given a tiny glass bottle and a pin that says "Shoney's is #1!" that she picked it out of the trinket box they usually have at the counter, for free. I swear, by the time that girl is 16, she'll have been given a free car and a full ride scholarship (let's hope that last one really does happen!). Along with an extremely heavy, three dimensional metal fleur de lis, little did I know that we were also making another purchase. There was a headless, handless statue of a Roman or Egyptian slave we had seen the last time we made a trip to Greg's. It was genuine marble, carved by an American sculptor in Italy back in the mid 1800's. It had been salvaged from actress Becky Allen's home after her death. I'd made several comments about how much I loved it, and to my great surprise, when I got back from Texas last week, it was standing in my living room! Dustin bought it for my birthday this coming Friday and had it delivered just hours after I left. And at 400+ pounds, I'm glad I wasn't here to watch those poor men deliver it. We're having some local sculpture aficionados from one of the auction houses do an informal appraisal, and things are actually getting quite interesting! Whether it's worth a fortune or barely what we paid for it, I love it just the same and love that Dustin surprised me with it.

After yet another rewarding trip to the antique store, we walked around Decatur a bit. We had coffee and their amazing flourless chocolate cake at Envie, then explored a few of the other kooky antique/thrift shops in that part of the Quarter. One such place had an interesting array of vintage military uniforms from all over the world, old Mardi Gras outfits, hats and a bunch of creepy, naked child-clown dolls.

Once we were done browsing, we got the car and drove to Dauphine where I wanted to buy some books for my grandparents. I'd been to Dauphine Books once last year before we moved. I love it. Over crowded with stacks of books everywhere and a lazy cat roaming around. When I told the woman what I was looking for (who actually remembered me from almost 10 months ago)- books about Uptown and the history of the area- she handed me an old aluminum flashlight and directed me to a thin, dark space between bookshelves to find my treasure. It sounds annoying to have to use a flashlight to find a book, but it added some excitement and adventure to the experience, and with the unique collection of books they have, it's why I'll keep going back. I decided on a small book with photos and histories of the iconic establishments in town, as well as a purple cookbook with about 50 or so New Orleans recipes that came to a little over $20.

Afterwards, I headed back to the car where the rest of the family waited patiently and we went to Samurai for sushi. It was great, as always, but be careful where you park. We didn't see any problem with parking near the House of Blues as there were several other cars. But when we came out, they were all gone, the HOB barricades had come out and we'd gotten our very first City of New Orleans parking ticket.

We drove around Uptown a while, just enjoying the scenery when our dear friend Frank, a paramedic with Dustin, called to say he'd be getting off work soon and would like to meet us at New York Pizza for a drink. En route, we got to see another common fixture in our community- a stumbling drunk. Stopped at a red light, we saw a man holding a beer can and walking his bike down the sidewalk, right next to the car. He paused, looked around, and then in slow motion half fell, half laid down on his bike. He just kind of held that pose for a minute, then started shaking his foot and talking to himself. I asked Dustin if we should call anyone, but there were already people taking notice (and cruel though it may seem to some, it's a fairly common occurrence) so we continued on our merry way. Frank was late, and he told us it was because he'd responded to the call about the drunk we'd seen. The man was unhurt, refused medical care and asked to be pointed in the direction of home. Having heard the joyous news of another bum left unscathed by their degenerate lifestyle, we had a few beers and some pizza to cap off a perfectly New Orleans day.

Red Beans & Rice Ice Cream, Anyone?

On our first official full day as a family in NOLA, we went for lunch at our favorite sushi place, Sekisui Samurai, in the French Quarter. We didn't think about it being Sunday until we were bombarded by a sea of black and gold as we made our way by the Super Dome. The Saints were playing and fans were out in fine style. We even saw some fluffy little pooches dressed in their Sunday (football) best riding in what looked like a tiny black and gold streetcar. It was mayhem, but aside from the tourists who insisted on walking in the street in front of us (Bourbon isn't closed to traffic until night time, hello!), we loved all the craziness. At Samurai's (what we call it since we can't pronounce the first word properly) we got the usual two and three roll lunch special, respectively, and shared our non-spicy, cooked rolls with Shelby. She loves sushi and when she gets her own, likes their snow roll- a mixture of crab meat and who knows what else. But it's very tasty. Dustin got the usual Philadelphia, spicy tuna and crawfish rolls. I had the California and the tuna & avocado. The tuna wasn't my favorite color to see on raw yellow fin, but that's what I get for ordering it on a weekend, right? It was still fresh enough to smell right, so it's all good. The lunch special comes with salad and soup, both yummy, and we got tempura broccoli & sweet potato as well. After indulging in our favorite raw fare, we passed by the extreme tailgaters and got another show on our way back to Uptown.

I was very excited to try out a place we've been meaning to find for a while- the Creole Creamery. Ya know, in the name of research. Shelby had no objections, of course. I like the fun, sort of vintage-y atmosphere. They're known for having all kinds of funky flavors, like lavender honey, black pepper & sweet corn, and the afore mentioned red beans & rice. The flavors, made on site, rotate occasionally and on this day it was gorgonzola and walnut. It was tempting, but I was too chicken to ask for a taste. Shelby got blue cotton candy (the first bright color she saw), Dustin got bananas foster- one of his favorite desserts- and a cup of coffee, and in honor of the Saint's 7-0 record (now 8-0) I got the black & gold crunch. It was fantastic. I forget what all was in it, but I know there were Oreos, chocolate chips and chicory ice cream. We all got one scoop in a cone and barely finished. Trust me, one is enough, the scoops are huge. They also have plenty of special treats, like parfaits, ice cream sodas, sorbets and sundaes. There's also the famous Tchoupitoulas (Chop-a-tool-a's)*- made with eight scoops of your choosing and eight toppings, whipped cream and cherries. It looks good on TV, but I'm sure it's quite intimidating in person. If you want to give it a try, there's the reward of being on their wall of fame if you finish it without help. Good luck with that! Even though it was a bit chilly out for ice cream, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I hope all our adventures are as tasty as Sunday's. With all the great restaurants in town- some mere blocks away from where I sit in my living room at this very moment- I doubt finding good eats will be a problem.

*Because I was, and still am, embarrassed to attempt pronouncing some of the words so common locally, I'm going to do my best at offering phonetic pronunciations for you good people when I can. Hope it helps!