What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #1

Day 1 (Saturday)

Getting to New Orleans - Frank (Grandpa) joined us for the start of our trip by driving down from Edmonton, Alberta (>1600 miles).  With Amanda acting as our chauffeur and Mikey as an upbeat companion, we started our journey from the airport in Albuquerque.  Our Southwest flights included a stop in the “Big D” – lots of ten gallon hats and cowboy boots were seen.  We arrived at the New Orleans airport and quickly found Cindy’s sister Carol-Lynn who was every bit as excited about the trip as we all were.

Airport Shuttle - We arrived in the late afternoon and took a shuttle to our hotel.  The shuttle driver was part driver and part tour guide.  He was quite knowledgeable about the “French Quarters” as he called them (we only found one though). I’m pretty sure our driver was a former movie actor - if you’ve ever seen the movie Elf and can remember the African American department store manager then you’ve seen our shuttle driver.  He was heavy on the horn as he drove and talked but he didn’t know much beyond his script - someone asked him “what kind of tree is that” and he said, basically, “how the $%#& should I know”.  He did mention on several occasions how much federal money they needed to rebuild the city after Katrina and pleaded for more (not like I have any say in the matter).  After a 45 minute drive/tour we arrived at our hotel but the driver/tour guide was not too happy with my stingy $5 tip – I guess he didn’t realize that I pay taxes and that I have already been helping rebuild his stupid city over the last 8 years.  Oh well, welcome to New Orleans.

 
Hotel & Dinner – Our hotel was chosen for its proximity to the cruise terminal.  It was rather expensive and not much to write home about.  But the staff was friendly and the room was able to comfortably accommodate the four of us.  The hotel proved to be especially confusing for Carol-Lynn.  After being given a room key, she was encouraged to commit to memory our room # (since it wasn’t written on the card).  She struggled with that task but not near as much as trying to remember what the name of the hotel was and what city we were in – I kept a close eye on my Sister-In-Law from Montana after that.  Dinner was an exercise in spontaneity and compromise.  Spontaneity, because we hadn’t picked a place to eat ahead of time and compromise because everyone unavoidably has their likes and dislikes.  This is why Mike likes to be in charge.  We plan ahead and do what I say – no deviations, no last minute changes, no freedom, no agency, clean, efficient – I think this approach has been tried before.  Anyway, with spontaneity and compromise in full swing, we walked around for what seemed like hours only to end up eating at an exotic New Orleans eatery, L’ Fudd Ruckers in a smokey casino (not exactly Cindy’s first choice).