The Day After Christmas in New Orleans
Cafe du Monde
Moe and I made our way down to the Mississippi River braving the Arctic gales to stand in line at Cafe du Monde for warm tasty beignets and a hot coffee. As I said it was inhumanly cold. We waited in line for 15 or 20 minutes. It’s a really popular place. Finally, we get the beignets and a cafe au lait. The place was packed so we went behind the building. It was out of the wind and no one was there. Some tables and chairs were chained up but we were able to sit at one.
By now it was maybe half an hour since we first got in line, placed our order, got the stuff, and sat down. I was really looking forward to that first sip of hot coffee. I had a small sip. Sigh. Relief. Feeling better already. I put the cup down to take a bite of my beignet when Maureen accidentally knocked it over. It went splat on the ground at my feet. I looked down and was so disheartened by this appalling turn of events that I didn’t even get angry. I was kind of shocked that my little bit of heaven had been snatched away from me just like that. Maureen apologized. Still staring at the coffee all over the ground, I said, “That’s okay”. But nothing was okay. The line was even longer now. We ate our beignets and returned to the hotel.
Knife Quest in New Orleans
I took off in the afternoon to look for a knife. No, I wasn’t in a murderous rage. I was forced to rip limes open with my bare hands last night. It was messy. This was to get the juice to make my Daiquiri. There’s got to be an easier way, I thought. So I started down Canal Street thinking I’d be back in no time. No time turned into time. After four stores I was still knifeless. All I wanted was a little jackknife. But, nobody could speak English. I was having a hard time making myself understood. Did I mention how cold it was? The wind cut right through my red Irish jacket. I finally found a bartender’s kit with a little knife in it. Praise be to the God of Daiquiris.
I was so happy that when I left the store I didn’t notice that I went the wrong way. As I walked, I realized that I was surrounded by office buildings. It was getting dark, I wasn’t wearing a sweater and now I was far from home. There wasn’t one other person on the streets. There weren’t even that many cars. I did the only thing that a person can do in a situation like that; I retraced my steps.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the New Orleans Aquarium where we saw large numbers of sea animals swimming in huge tanks of water. That night we went to the Pelican Club for dinner and music.
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