It's 7 a.m. and I am having coffee at CR Coffee on Magazine Street in New Orleans. JP and I discovered CR Coffee after a 5 mile run a couple of days ago. Cool place in an old house. Nice seating inside, including a couple of easy chairs, one of which I am sitting in right now. Great hidden patio on the side of the house. Very New Orleans. Good coffee, too.
Very different vibe from Undergrowth Coffee, another coffee shop I hit on Magazine after a run the day after we arrived. That place was cool, too, just different. A bit more of a hole in the wall but in a shotgun style building that went back and back and back to a walled off patio that actually was pretty cool.
Where would I be without a place to get coffee in the morning or after a run?
It's been a good trip, though a bit exhausting. Parades, parades, and more parades. I was done and ready to go home last night near the beginning of Bacchus. Jude, of course, insisted on staying until the end, so we did. We walked home, at frozen pizza, and fell into bed.
The house we rented through VRBO - almost a year ago - is fantastic. It's a converted basement in a large house on Camp Street, conveniently located a few blocks from our preferred parade viewing spots on St. Charles and, yesterday, Napoleon. It's a block off of Magazine Street, which has restaurants, bars, and art galleries aplenty in both directions. Three big bedrooms - all with king sized beds - which the boys loved. Four full bathrooms, too, which is crazy.
Certainly, if and when we return to New Orleans, I could see us staying in the same place again.
After a relatively uneventful flight down, Judy and Bob Quinilty were kind enough to pick us up at the airport late Thursday night and drive us to their house in Metairie, where we stayed overnight. Friday morning, we picked up the rental car in Metairie, which was much more convenient than dealing with trying to get a rental car at the airport. Then, it was off to find out house on Camp Street.
We found a decent but not great spot on St. Charles to watch the parades later that day with Jude's friend Jeff - El Jefe, the founding father of Foodbrothers - and his family. It was fun spending time with them all weekend.
Saturday morning, we hooked up with Jude's cousins, Ann and Catherine, and their families for more parade watching. Much to Joe's delight, we had an early birthday dinner at what is maybe his favorite restaurant on earth, Frankie and Johnny's. In his telling of the story, it's the first place he ate fried shrimp, so it's his go to dish there.
Saturday night, Jude and I left our camping chairs and a couple of moving blankets I scrounged up in a new viewing spot on Napoleon Avenue. Veteran move. It secured us a spot for watching the three parades we saw yesterday, although I spent a considerable amount of time defending our turf from others - who had not been out there since 7 a.m., like us - who want to stand in front of us. It was a complete madhouse by the time Bacchus started, as Jude predicted. Everyone, everywhere, all at once.
It's Joe's birthday today - 11 years old - more own that later. I'm ready to get home, which we'll do later this afternoon after brunch with Judy and Bob Quinilty.
A quick trip. Action packed. Lots of parades and a lots of beads (which I have not idea how we will get home).
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