So Glad To See You Smiling

A November in New Orleans...it's definitely been different.

It's at least 75 degrees out. The temperature dropped for about a week, but it's been back up. It's strange to have the windows down in November and the heat off. The streetcars are back. For those who are not fortunate enough to live here or even lucky enough to have visited, you probably don't know that the St Charles Streetcar line was the longest continuously running streetcar line in the country. Unfortunately, the streetcar barn was flooded during the storm, and our pretty little green cars replaced the red Canal Street cars for two years as the city decided it was time to repair the line. However, a good portion of the line has been back up for a couple weeks now...and it completely changes the feel of the city. I no longer live uptown, and so the first time I saw a car was last week. I was thrilled--it feels like a movie set to watch the cars pass the historic mansions on St Charles. Of course, it also makes for scarier driving conditions, as we're all used to just barreling through the neutral ground, and now we need to pause and make sure we can cross to the other side before stopping on the street car tracks.

This past weekend was full of Louisiana fun--I think I'm trying to make up for the laziness of most weekends by packing it all into one. On Friday we headed out salsa dancing at Ray's Boom-Boom Room, where Freddy Omar Con Su Banda perform each week and give a little lesson beforehand. However, the lesson was about 20 minutes and pretty much taught us how to go forward, backward, and side-to-side...none of the fun moves that require partnering. Luckily one of the chicos in our group knew how to dance, so he was able to show the others a bit. My often-partner knew how to swing, so we had a bit of a salsa/swing thing going. On Saturday E and I went to the Bywater Art Market, the best art market in the city, where I picked up a few presents and made a mental list of the others I could buy before Christmas. Then I napped and headed out with my new friend A to our neighborhood restaurant, followed by drinks at our neighborhood bar. It's so nice to have a walkable neighborhood with affordable places to eat and drink. I think I've almost convinced A he needs to move to this neighborhood.

Sunday was church, of course. I'd planned to go to the po-boy festival but my dependable partner was holed up in bed with a benadryl hangover, so I had to get gutsy and ask another new friend, J, if he still planned on the fest (I hope I don't make many friends whose names start with the same initial or I'll have to come up with a new system). Lucky me, J and T weren't just going to the festival but were also going out exploring Louisiana afterward. In typical NOLA fashion, we set off late, and the po-boy fest was packed. The theme was Save Our Sandwich--apparently there is a risk that the delicious po'boy might disappear as Subways and Quiznos bring their mass-market sandwich into town. Judging from the crowds sampling the deliciousness, I doubt our revered sandwich needs saving, but hey, this town needs no excuse to have a festival. I sampled the grilled portabello po'boy from Galatoire's restaurant, figuring that's the closest I'll get to this iconic establishment (plus the matchbook I snagged) and a crawfish cake po'boy. We ran into quite a few friends on Oak Street, and added M and W to our car for the exploration. We more or less just did a random road trip, driving down the area's famed River Road, where many of the former plantations still stand (I was able to add a bit of plantation trivia as I was the only one who'd been to any of them; thanks mom and dad!). We explored an 18th-century church and were a bit irreverent in the cemetery as we practiced our jumping photography skills. Then we decided to head down to Thibodaux, in the heart of Cajun Country. J really wanted to see swamps and cajuns (he also gets very excited about egrets/cranes/herons/some sort of white bird; we had to replace him at the wheel). So we fortified ourselves with Sonic slushies and rootbeer floats, took the most amazing photo in the world, and headed south. Nothing notable to anyone outside the car really occurred, but it was quite a time, and made me realize how much I miss random road trips with friends. Hopefully we'll be doing it again, as we studied the map and found other various locations we want to see.

Thanks for making it through the details of my weekend. I hope to finally get the photos from the parent trip uploaded this weekend, so I can fill y'all in...although you've probably already heard about it! And in case you were wondering, I'm off to Baton Rouge for Thanksgiving...not the same as my family, but I'll be home in just a little over a month.


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Now playing: Steel Train - Firecracker
via FoxyTunes