New Orleans June 6-9, 2019
We came down to NOLA for an engagement party for Michael
and Jeanie given by her parents (George and Cheryl) and by her godparents (Doug
and Gigi).
On Jeanie’s recommendation we stayed at the Peter and
Paul Hotel, now open about 7 months. The name of the hotel has nothing to do
with Russia. The hotel is actually an old Catholic boys’ school, refectory,
church, and convent (dated about 1861). M&J have block booked about 20
rooms here for their wedding weekend.
At the airport Connie talked me out of my rental car and
into an airport limo. From then on, since Michael’s car here, my 2001 Acura
MDX, was broken down, we depended on Uber (which necessitates another
paragraph).
When we got to the hotel Mac at the front desk
recommended room 314 which is one of the rooms on the tromp d’oeil stage. The
stage also doubled as the basketball court when the boys were in school here,
so, other than the three rooms on the stage, all the third floor rooms have
loft beds. These are probably not the best rooms for those who plan to drink a
lot.
Thursday night we settled in and had a light meal and
drink in the courtyard of the Elysian bar- a very stylish and upscale place.
Friday after a long hot walk along the river and thru the
French Quarter, we had lunch uptown on Magazine Street with M&J at Saba, an
Israeli restaurant they are considering to cater the wedding reception. We had
a great waitress and we tried pretty much everything on the menu- all kinds of
hummus, tabouli, etc.
It was excellent.
This was the night for meeting the parents- J’s Dad
George and step mom Cheryl. We met them and M&J at the parents’ favorite
uptown restaurant, Ciro’s Cote Sud, a French restaurant that took over an
Italian one and kept the pizza oven. It was on Maple Street in the 7700s which
I thought was up near the Camellia Grill but wasn’t quite that far. The dinner
went well, the parents were great, and they seem to like Michael a lot.
The next morning we walked in Crescent Park which is
along the river running east and ends at a ready reserve Navy ship, the USS
Cape Knox. The park is green and extends for about two miles.
We met Barry and his wife Charlotte, Rob W, and Janet B
for brunch at Paladar 511 (511 Marigny so right down from the hotel and very
near the prospective wedding venue). The brunch was great (egg pizza) but
seeing these old med school buddies for the first time in a long time was
probably the highlight of this trip for me. We all look pretty much like school
and we had fun wondering and discussing old classmates.
Saturday evening was the potentially most stressful event
for me- the engagement party at G&C’s house in Metairie. There were about
40 people there including several of M&J’s friends and lots of the parents’
friends. We didn’t really know but two or three of the people but it was a
friendly crowd and ended up not being stressful. We met the godparents, Doug
and Gigi, their daughter Mary who is J’s childhood best friend, another friend
Katie who works at the WWII museum, a couple that share Brie’s middle name as
their last name, the people behind Whitney Plantation (which has details and
more details about the life of the enslaved people on the plantation), J’s two
brothers and their wives and children, and many more.
For Sunday morning’s walk we went down into the French
Quarter up and down the shady blocks. The city was busy cleaning up after the
Pride Parade which must have been quite an event. There were discarded beads
and bottles and Hurricane cups everywhere, plus a number of participants still
drinking in at least one bar.
We met M&J for a mini brunch at the Elysian Bar- B
sprouts, okra, duck egg omelet, and grits- all wonderful.
When I was in school in NOLA we would never have stepped
foot on the east side of Esplanade. I guess the destruction and then the influx
of cleaning up after Katrina changed the Marigny and Bywater areas. While the
streets still have potholes and uneven, cracked sidewalks, and while there are
many homeless folks sleeping on the street, the houses are a real mix of renovated
ones and fixer uppers and one can tell gentrification is underway. I think the
people coming to the wedding will be shocked at the graffiti and the dirt and
the kooky characters walking the streets, but in the end they will probably
look past that like I do and enjoy the character of the city, booze oriented as
it is.
A word about Uber: Prior to this I had only taken two
Uber rides. On this trip we added a few more to that roster. We got all types
of drivers including an LSU grad earning money to take his family to Asheville
NC in the summer, a Jazz basketball fan much younger than I and who said he
used sleep in his Dad’s arms in the dome at games, a real gay yat from
Yatville, and a woman from California who seemed to have a hard time with the directions
the app gave her.
All part of “life’s rich pageantry”.
