CLICK ON ANY PIC TO ENLARGE IT-IT WILL ALSO MAKE IT HAVE BETTER DETAIL
Left Des Moines for Memphis at 5:30 am May 26th. My younger/little brother Doug's 49th birthday!!! He's the one that had squamous cell cancer of the throat. Same thing Michael Douglas had. Self inflicted 95% of the time with cigarette smoking and drinking liquor. Don't let anyone tell you any different, even MD. Doug is 4 years cancer free and going strong! I love my little brother a lot.
Got to Memphis at 3:50 PM and went to check in. Room wasn't clean yet. WTF!? No problem, hit the bar within the hotel for half an hour and mellowed out.
Paul McCartney was singing at the FedEx Forum. There were Australians and English people in the bar and we had fun conversations with them for that 1/2 hour. That's some hard core devotion to travel overseas and have three layovers to get to the US just to see Sir Paul. Crazy is what I'd call it. But that's just me. I don't fly. LOL
Again we ate at the King's Palace. Pretty good food, I must say.
Here's going over the Missouri about 5 hrs from home, heading to Memphis.
Here's heading right into the city of Memphis. I always watch people on youtube that post stupid videos like this and I think they sound stupid
well we do too
fuck
Lame
as all getout
I'm saying, "There's Memphis." "There's Memphis...." Jeff says, "There's a riverboat." "Riverboat." "Riverboat." Me. "Another boat," he says. "Goin' over a bridge," I mumble. Then I say, " I kinda feel like I'm filming the Blair Witch................................................... movie." and Jeff says, "The Lori Witch Project." I giggle (a lot--------------so unseemly), then say, "Too jumpy." Meaning it's too shaky to film. You'd think I was drunk..but I wasn't!!!
Gorgeous city. Yeah!
We took our red 2011 Wrangler. Perfect amount of space for one very large suitcase, one medium suitcase, one cooler on wheels, a duffel bag and makeup case.
Here's Beale Street. Home of the Big Ass Beers.
I kept forgetting to take pics. We went to our fave bar, attached to the King's Palace. The Keg Room. They have this awesome grand magnificent painting of a naked woman hanging high up on the wall behind the bar.
Cool men playing pool. Okay one is not too cool........Just drunk. I think he is the town drunk. But not plausible. This is not a town...it's a city. There's lots of bar drunks.
"HOME OF THE BIG ASS BEER!"
At the end that's Jeff's voice telling me to Stop! You can hear me saying, "I will". Stop! He had that 'serious voice'. But it's some good video, isn't it? He's even watching over my shoulder as I uploaded this.
Pretty good song playing. Drunk Man won. The normal guy kept scratching on the 8 ball. All three GAMES! Bwahahahahahahaha!! Now that's funny. I was saying I needed to protect myself because I was sure that cue ball was coming at my head!!! LOL
Not done yet. BBL.
OKay, I'm back. We are at King's Palace again....like usual. But the food's good and we like the atmosphere with the big black guy playing the guitar and singing the blues while we eat. He's pretty good. I even bought one of his cds a couple years back.
Menu^^^^^ use the scroll bar on the side to see it all.
I kept forgetting to take pics of the food so here's one after we were almost done. LOL
This was Jeff's food. Yes the Rolex is real. :) I had gumbo but the pics are too dark. Ahhh, I'll post them anyway....They have the best gumbo I've ever ate, and I've had a lot.
Have to go out to eat with the in-laws....BBL.
Back!
Like I said, the freeway is lined with trees just about the whole way. It's really pretty and you'd think it'd be boring but it's not.
Then about 30-45 minutes outside New Orleans we start driving on bridges. The whole way into NO we're on a bridge. Here's the beginning of the bridge!! It makes my heart just skip a beat because I know we're almost there!!! And traveling on the bridge is fun and we can see the houses along the swamps. No cars!, just boats, is how they get around.
I'm just going to post a bunch of pics now.....I always look for gaters but I never see any.
Once we get past all the swamp areas, we travel over some of Lake Pontchartrain.
Now to get the real concept of this lake..... it has a 26 mile bridge that goes over it (not the one we're on). When you are in the middle of that 26 mile bridge you can't see land anywhere. Imagine that. Jeff keeps trying to talk me into going over that bridge but so far I've won out with my resounding NO! I have a slight problem with man made objects like planes and bridges. Although I think I could take a cruise with no problem. Just not a Carnival Cruise. hehe
We finally get to the last leg into the city!!
OMG!!!! (click the pic!) A red corvette----what a greeting into the greatest city of all time!! LOL (OKay okay maybe no one gets the thrill of this..but me..LOL)
It only takes a few minutes to get to the Le Richelieu hotel. We check in and get our key. They still use the old fashioned actual big brass keys. We got room 314. So we park the Jeep in their parking lot and grab some bags. It'll take three trips before we're done. I take a LOT. ROFLMAO
We get to our room and OMG we got the honeymoon suite! NO this wasn't planned or booked, it's just what we were given. And truly, the only thing different about this room compared to their other suites is that it had a canopy bed. But this being our 25th wedding anniversary this year it was really kind of ironic and special!
Their rooms are dated but super clean and we had 5 rooms! Yeah! FIVE! For 180.00 a night. We had a full kitchen with full sized fridge, a huge bathroom, walk-in closet, living room and king sized bedroom. We even had our own balcony! We were also on the end/corner so we had windows on the east side and north side. Quite nice.
Kitchen. Fridge is to the right of me. To the left is a disabled stove and stovetop, and upper cabinets. Below is a view to the living room taken from next to the kitchen.
The bathroom is huge! And has a veeeeery long countertop for all my junk!
THE BALCONY! I seriously couldn't get on it the first day we were there. Once I had some magaritas and Bud Lite into me, I was fine. I even Pulled the kitchen chair out and sat there all 4 nights. I tried to pull one of these upholstered chairs and I got one on it, but Jeff's wouldn't fit. Like I didn't know. <smirk> No confessions here tonight. LOL
They definitely need a bigger TV!!!
I LOVE that there is a bathtub. I know, gross, but I do take a bath in them. I scrub them real good (even though you can tell this one has been cleaned super good) because I hit the LUSH store on Decatur!
BUT.
GUESS.
WHAT?
Lush was fucking closed! No shit! I would have known that if I would have checked their facebook page. BAH! I was bummed. So no baths for me this trip. <sniffle>
We did hit the St Louis Lush on the way home and I spent 276.00. hehe
Here's my haul!!!!!!
One yellow Fun
One pink Fun
Sexy peel soap
Demon in the dark soap
Lust soap
One Madame Bubble stick
One Mum bubble stick
One Mum Tulip bubble stick
One Blue Skies bubble bar
Two Twilight bath bombs
One Rub Rub Rub shower scrub
Four Rose Jam bubbleroons (a fave, can u tell?)
One Luster glitter powder
Three Blackberry bath bombs
One Fizzbanger bath bomb
One Phoenix Rising bath bomb
One Space Girl bath bomb
One Yuzu & Cocoa bubbleroon
One Sex Bomb bath bomb
One Comforter bubble bar
Two Dorothy bubble bars
One Enchanter bath bomb
One Avobath bath bomb
One Dragon's Egg bath bomb
One Lust solid perfume
Jeff said I could spend 500.00 and at one point I thought I was done and was only at 185.00 and so I went back and got more. LOL Today I used the Twilight bath bomb and it makes the water so soft and it took a long time to melt too! I was pleased with it. It started out pink and foamy and eventually it got to a blue inside that melted even faster than the pink outside. It had a nice fragrance too. I will get more of these someday.
OKay, back to New Orleans. I don't know why but the last few trips we've ate at Margaritaville the first night we get there. We always ask for the balcony because it's really refreshing after the 6 hour drive from Memphis. Their food is good, mostly mediocre and nothing to write home about, but we like it anyway. Jeff ordered fried pickles which were really good! They had a Cajun sauce for dipping.
My salad had mangoes and pecans in it. It was good, just okay...like I said nothing to write home about. In New Orleans you have to have at least good food or you'll never make it. There was a street performer begging for money below us. What's new. He wasn't a bad singer just couldn't get to the second verse. LOL he was funny and had personality though. He reminded me of Chris Rock.
Looks like a grumpy ass son of a bitch doesn't he? He is! LOL Well okay maybe 20% of the time....40%??? LOL
We ended up giving the singing man $5.00. At least he entertained us. Kinda like this guy:
We were walking down Royal and all I see is this fake dog in the middle of the road. I knew it was probably an act and I said, "OMG is he using one of those fake dogs!!??" He was talking to people as we walked down the street. He only posed like this when he saw I was taking a picture. So we gave him five bucks too. LOL We started down the street and about a half of a block later we heard this scream! Some lady (new to New Orleans) was walking by him thinking he wasn't real and he moved and scared the crap out of her. All the people on the street were laughing. Great time! I loved hearing all those people laugh. You could hear her talking to him saying. " I didn't think you were real!!" LOL
Be back later to post more....................
We always hit this local grocery where I buy tasso (smoked ham--these are turkey since I already have ham from the last trip) and andouille sausage.
It keeps well for a max of 2 yrs in the freezer. I place them in freezer zip lock bags for extra protection.
I make jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans and rice. My red beans and rice is very good. It's on my Allrecipes.
The second day we hit the French Market, and wandered the Quarter. I love the shopping. I found this bohemian type shop and bought some really cool stuff. $150.00 later I had two skirts, some brass knickknacks, a brass water bong (I think it's for hash) and a stone covered book to write in. Yeah, the covers of the book are like made of stone or a heavy resin made to look like stone. It has blank pages within, so it can be a diary or poem book. The red day of the dead wobble head doll was from another shop. The small little blue topped jar has solid amber perfume in it! Smells really good too. I love amber.
Front of the book is a fairy, the back is a rose. It's heavy!
The butterfly is from the Jamie Hayes Gallery. It's such a neat shop!! Jamie was actually there this time. He is an interesting person. I always find something to buy there.
I also got three more spoon rests. Now I have 5. Yeah.....I'm a little compulsive obsessive.
Now I have it on the top of my hutch in the living room. It matches perfectly with the green and yellow. Even Jeff looked at it the other day and says, "That fish IS kind of cool, isn't it?" !!!! He's not a big compliment giver because 1. He really doesn't give a shit what I buy and 2. He really doesn't give a shit about what I buy! LOL Thankfully he lets me decorate any way I like. That's why we have a Mexican/Cajun themed sun filled kitchen, a Jimmy Buffett bedroom, a red, pink and animal print bathroom, and a bohemian/gypsy peacock living room!!! bwahahahahahaha My house is a rainbow!!!
There was also a woman that painted bottles and added pourers on them so they can be used for oil, vinegar etc. I bought two of those for my kitchen.
This blue one below is from Jamie Hayes. The second one I bought from there I gave to my bestie.
Another company that I like for their bath items is Senica naturals. I first found her (Benardett) at the French Market about 6 years ago. She showed me her products and I bought her Sweetness brown sugar scrub, Sweetness shea moisturizer and Bay Bay bath salts. It was when she first went to the name of Senica because it was Nica Naturals as you can see by two of the jars in this photo. I haven't found her at the Market since so on her facebook page I found a co-op that sold her items and we drove there while in new Orleans. I bought Bay Bay shea moisturizer, Bay Bay brown sugar scrub, some more Sweetness shea and more Bay Bay bath salts. LOVE THIS STUFF. Best smelling and the most awesome shea moisturizer ever and I'm not a big lotion type person....but I love spreading this stuff all over my body after a Lush Bath.
Fickle little freak.
Here's a couple pics of pretty balconies in the French Quarter. Walking around this is all you see, huge plants, gorgeous architecture, people and shops.
Still not done posting yet. BBL
Bah, been a bit, eh??
Here's another restaurant we ate at. It's been there for years but it was our first time. It was so good! Now I forget the name! Bah!
6-29-13 It's the Pere Antoine!! I enlarged a pic and got the name from a menu on a table. Ingenious aint I????!!
http://pereantoine.com/pages/menunew.html
I asked the nice fun dude that was wandering around what was their best dish and he said the Catfish Antoine so that's what I got. It was heavenly. One of the best dishes I've ever had in New Orleans. Jeff got 'The Ribeye" (he's not much of a risk taker and tends to order what he knows. No sense of adventure!!!) It was superb also. This will be a restaurant that we go to every time we're in NO and we both wish we'd found it many years ago.
There was a couple outside that had just gotten married!!
Here's some more random pics of New Orleans.
Sitting on the Riverwalk. It was breezy and about 85 degrees. Very nice outside. We sat there for almost an hour just soaking it all in!
In line for Acme House!!
Chargrilled oysters!!! We also had some raw. Jeff wouldn't touch oysters for years. Then I heard about these at Acme. We'd been to NO about 5 times and had seen Acme but had never stopped. Usually we'd eat at Felix's or Desire. But I'd heard about Acme's chargrilled oysters and decided to try some. I made him eat one because they were sooooooooooooo freaking good and he was hooked. Now we stop there every single time we're in NO. The oysters this time were HUGE!!! They have garlic, parmesan cheese and butter on them. Once the oyster is ate there is a delectable butter sauce in the shell that you soak up with the bread. MMMMMM mmmmm good!
Above: a penthouse on top of a building while waiting in Acme's line. I was also feeding the pidgeons.
We ate at Coop's Place...another of our favorite dives. Great Cajun food.
There's Brooklyn Joe tucked into the corner with his ball cap on. We bought him a drink. He has no idea who we are even though we've spoke to him 4 or 5 times over the last 10 years. ROFL He recommended the book 'A Confederacy of Dunces' to me many years ago. Hellish book!!
Then we went back to Johnnie Whites!! There was a dude dressed like a woman that I got a pic of. The second pic I took with just my hand around the wall and when I got home and uploaded my pics he was giving me the finger!! bwahahahahahahahahaha!! I got the biggest kick out of that and laughed out loud!! Most of them want money for pics. Effin' beggars...LOL 
The last day we just drove around. Had never been to the ritzy side of town before....
The cemeteries are above ground because the city is below sea level......
This was back in our neighborhood heading back to the hotel....on Esplanade.
This is a storm right before St Louis on the way home. I kept watching this cloud because I knew either a tornado had just gone back up....or was in the process of coming down. It's was huge and scary!!! later after we reached home we did hear that a tornado had touched down right before we got to this spot and to the north. We were heading north...and I know this was that tornado!! It was round! I was taking a pic from the passenger side through the driver's window. This cloud was round in shape!
Here's some more clouds driving home...
Well that's all folks!!
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