Martini Tour 2009 - Friday

As mid-summer was approaching, Daddy and I were gearing up for our big trip to NOLA to visit with Molly and partake in the latest Martini Tour group event.

We hopped in the car mid-afternoon on Thursday and embarked on a 7+ hour journey through the piney woods of east Texas and downward through the cedar stump swamplands of southern Louisiana. This road trip proved to be plenty entertaining as we tuned into KBON 101.1 out of Eunice. To a person that isn’t familiar with the dialect and thought process of the swamp inhabitants, words cannot even describe how incredibly humorous this radio show is!

With a late-evening arrival, daddy and I headed straight to Molly’s house to chat for a bit before calling it a night. Lawd knows we needed plenty of rest for what we were about to endure in the following days. Oh, I almost forgot… Jacques-Imo took the trip with us and I finally got to introduce him to his Auntie Molly and cousin Boudreaux.

Friday morning came pretty early and we were all up-n-at-em. Molly had to leave for work pretty early and dad and I both had plenty of work to do for the majority of Friday. While we were on conference calls, checking emails and messages, searching our computers for appropriate documents, and all other forms of work, the dogs were left to play. Let’s just say it was somewhat hard to concentrate with daddy doing business over the phone and listening to the over-sized, bug-eyed, snotty-faced, snorting monster Boudreaux trying to eat Jacques in the background. Luckily, I did manage to get a significant amount of work done.

Once we completed our tasks for the day, we headed out to meet up with my parrain, Billy Boy Bratton for a delicious lunch at a hole-in-the-wall po-boy shop, Crabby Jack’s. As soon as you enter the door to this disgusting building that clearly hasn’t passed a health code inspection since it’s been opened, your mouth is instantly watering. You are greeted with a wall of nothing but a variety of hot sauces and you immediately feel a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart {that will soon move to your stomach and then so on….}

Dad and I decided to split a regular sized po-boy, which was way more than either of us needed, plus a cup of gumbo. Talk about D.E. Licious! We went for the infamous shrimp remolaude and fried green tomato po-boy and I was getting full eating the shrimp that fell off my sandwich before I could even get to the actual meal. We thought we had lost Uncle Bill for awhile, but we found him. He was just buried underneath a heaping pile of fried shrimp & oysters. YUMMY!!!

{Hi, this is Lane. Can you please send a janitor to office 256 to clean up the drool that has just engulfed my desk. Pronto! Okay, thanks! }

Following lunch was a nap was a mingling with the locals as we boarded the ferry to ride over to Algiers Point. History lesson: New Orleans is also referred to as the Crescent City. The reason being is the Mississippi River curves at a certain point, forming a crescent around the south side of the city.

{I see you scrolling your mouse over to the X button now… Don’t you dare deny me this lesson!}

Anyway, the turning point of the river is called Algiers Point, which forms a nice little community on the other side of the river. After working so hard at consuming and digesting such a fabulous meal, we were in definite need of a refreshment. We stopped at the Dry Dock Bar for a beer, then a cocktail.

Moving on… we drove through the streets and admired some incredibly precious houses for sale before heading over to the actual point to get a glimpse of the Quarter and Jackson Square from across the river. Turns out it was pouring outside so the view wasn’t clear. With disappointment in our hearts, we stumbled across The Old Point Bar, one of the original old dives in some shady-looking building. The weather forced us into the bar and grab another drink. Dammit! What a cool venue it was. Here is where we discussed my wedding {I hear y’all snickering out there} and the fact that dad would be more then willing to pay for a wedding that included a bar crawl through Nola. Hey – I’m down for that!

Exiting the bar, the sun was as bright as could be with rays beating down on my naked eyes and fair skin. We tried the Algiers Point view again and Success! I saw this:

I see you’re not really impressed with A) my photography and/or B) my subject. But when you cross back over the river and get close, you see this. Isn’t she a beaut?

Finally, we called it an afternoon and headed back to Uptown for a quick change and to pick up the sister. Our plan for the night was to head back down to the Quarter to meet up with Newfield and JP {his first NOLA trip since turning 21 a month ago! Wahoo!} at Muriel’s. However, while parking, we were sidetracked when we spotted this bad boy.

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It is without a doubt we had to stop for a few photo ops. I’m pretty sure I’d like to get this sweet paint job done on the Cerv.

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Finally, we sat down to eat {again!} and ended with a Pimm’s Cup nightcap at The Napoleon House. Please note: I said PIMM’S CUP…not PIMP’S CUP. A low-key night was definitely in order if we were going to get up extremely early on Saturday for the main event of the weekend.

Blog to come…