NOLA

[dancerjodi]

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, grabbed the rental (a freaking white minivan that we ended up nicknaming the trooper transport or the supah-mobile (for super trooper). After checking in and freshening up we strolled down to Magazine Street for a bit and had dinner (awesome polenta) at http://semolina.com/site.php . We headed back to the hotel to hang out with the groom and friends in his large suite - it was so much fun to spend the weekend with Sandweasel (that monkey butt has to move back to Boston). Dinner was next door at http://www.superiorgrill.com/ with some of the local wedding party folks. It was crowded and took a while to get a table but we had an excellent time and the food was great.

The rehearsal was on Friday morning, so we were up, dressed and enjoyed what would be the best of the free hotel breakfasts of the week (these little english muffin things with egg, cheese and bacon on top). I was really happy with the http://www.hamptoninn.com/en/hp/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=MSYGDHX - comfy room, nice free options (food, drinks and toiletries) and very accommodating staff. Over breakfast we learned of poor Leah's journey in the storm from Texas - she got stuck in the massive flooding about 15 minutes from the hotel, waiting with her feet up on the seat and water coming in for the tow truck at about 3:00 AM. The AAA driver didn't have a clue, towed her and the car to the local Nissan dealer but found it with locked gates and left the car across the street instead. When he was backing out to leave he HIT HER CAR doing some additional damage. Jennifer (one of the NOLA bridesmaids) sent her husband out to grab Leah and helped her Friday morning with calling AAA, getting another tow company to tow the car across the street to the dealer, calling insurance companies and all of that crap. Its been a bad month for poor Leah, please keep her in your thoughts.

We went through the rehearsal at the Tea Room http://www.auduboninstitute.org/specialevents.html and headed from there over to an old train car yard in Jefferson that the Tiggerette's parents volunteer at. They don't do this typically, but they arranged to have a rehearsal luncheon inside of one of the old restored cars and after lunch, we were able to go up into the engine of another and learn about how steam engines work (this yard provided some cars for the recent Benjamin Button movie). K and S were far too generous with their gifts to those of us in the wedding party. In addition to a lot of toiletries and some bridal party jewelry they selected individual gifts of personal significance for each of us - I now have a new charm to add to my Pandora bracelet (a little band of silver hearts). After lunch Brian went off with Sean to get his tux fixed (way too long) and the rest of us headed back to the hotel to change into something more comfy. We drove back via the Mississippi (there is a stretch behind the zoo that you can drive by) and down Magazine, left on Washington so that we could find Lafayette to prepare for our Saturday tour.

It was nice to have some time to relax in the room and clean things up a bit before DW arrived and before the bride and her bridal party ladies had to head off for their class. We had a pole dancing class (!) at the nearby http://www.crescentlotus.com/ which was a lot of fun (we need one of these schools in Boston - I know that there are lots of teachers but putting it into one neat space with funky local art on the walls is excellent)! We came back to change and headed out with more of the ladies in town for diner in the quarter at http://www.napoleonhouse.com/menu1.html and then strolled down Bourbon to meet the guys for some debauchery. There was some kind of massive flooding or underground fire (depending on who you want to believe) that resulted in a massive chunk of the quarter being out of power for days. Going into clubs lit entirely by candlelight and some generator powered construction spotlights was - warmer and stickier and more humid than your normal NOLA experience, though the Bride and Groom seemed to have a VERY good time together.

On Saturday we had a bit of free time in the morning so we walked down Prytania to Washington for a Lafayette Cemetery tour with http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/tours/index.htm . We saw St. Louis #1 the last time we were in NOLA but missed this one, so it was one of the things I really wanted to make sure we were able to do. Our guide was excellent and we were followed by the cutest little kitty for a good part of the tour. From there we walked down to Magazine for lunch at http://www.juansflyingburrito.com/ (a place I really wanted to return to) and it was even cooler than I remembered.

A quick stroll back to the streetcar and back to the hotels to freshen up, we were off in the car to find http://neworleanscitypark.com/ for the "mixer". Since there were a lot of folks that didn't know each other going to the wedding, and since receptions are so much shorter in NOLA than we're used to in Boston (only 3 hours) the bride wanted to give folks a chance to get together and mingle before the big day. We had a small room (the Raccoon House) that's normally reserved for kid's birthday parties to congregate for food, conversation and to pick up our name tags (imperial or rebel). K & S purchased free ride wristbands for the wedding party, so we were able to hop on all of the park's rides for free and had a lot of fun on the bumper cars, tilt-a-whirl and this crazy matahorn-like tugboat thing. We rode the train that goes through the park and got to see a bit of it (the dueling oak near the art museum, the sculpture park, a good deal of flooding from the crazy Thursday storm).

Though there were a lot of nice thing to see still in and around the park (Metarie Cemetery) we headed back to the hotels after the mixer to change and head out into the quarter again for a bit. Our intention was to get dinner somewhere and then some of us were splitting off for the ghosts and vampires (bluh bluh) tour with http://www.neworleanstours.net/tours.html . There were some bridal party snafus and frantic phone calls, and so we ended up missing dinner, inhaling some beignets from http://www.cafedumonde.com/ and then power walking to the tour meeting spot. We caught a live jazz band and bride and groom with their guests doing a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_line just as our tour was beginning, so our guide paused a bit so that we could check it out and take some pictures (we had been hearing of this in preparation of one that would be done at our own reception on Sunday). The tour itself was as cheezy as we expected but was a nice way to wander the city and see some things we didn't see on the last trip. It inspired the lot of us, and for the rest of the trip we were giving each other fake tours of fake things that happened on various sites (in 1731). It was a FREEZING night, so after our tour we headed back on the streetcar to the hotel and sat up chatting in the lobby for quite a bit discussing the wedding party craziness of the evening. I want to say that DW and I fell into bed at around 3:00 AM. Brian was down the hall with the groom and Sandweasel in the suite until about 4:00 AM or so.

Wedding day - 7:00 AM wake up call (so you do the math - ugh). I got showered and grabbed my things and walked over to the B&B across the street where the bride was staying http://www.hubbardmansion.com/ and where the ladies would be getting ready. Craziness ensued, but we all got ourselves pretty and together according to schedule (thanks to a lot of help from the two hairdressers, Miss Sheila who runs the Inn and some of the groom's family members - I feel so sorry for the other folks staying at the Inn that were not a part of this wedding) and after pictures piled into the shuttle to head to the Audubon Tea Room (the guys were dressing at the hotel across the street and took the first shuttle over). Once we arrived we piled into the tiny "Queen's Room" that was available for the bridal party to get some respite and we did the final ceremony planning, lining up and all of that. K's friend and teacher from Boston (Christopher) was conducting the ceremony, and he was there with us to make sure we were OK, do some mediation exercises with the stressed out Bride and to smudge all of us with sweetgrass http://www.asunam.com/smudge_ceremony.html .

The weather was just perfect - sunny and not humid and mildly cool (though the locals were freezing). Everyone looked lovely, the ceremony was lovely and appropriate given the couple and their situations. Pictures took much less time than expected out in the zoo park area proper under the oaks (which amused all of the normal zoo patrons greatly). We got back to the tea room and into the Queen's Room again to bustle the bride and line up for our procession. I know the DJ was a friend of the family or something, but wow - he got people's names wrong, didn't do a great job transitioning between songs and kind of scolded the crowd for not getting out there dancing a ton (blaming the Boston folks, saying that receptions aren't as long here as in Boston so you better get out here . . . I'll point out that most of the folks that were dancing WERE the Boston folks, so nya). The food was awesome, details lovely, music selections great (only because I think they were painstakingly selected by the bride and groom . . . I think if this guy was left to his own devices we may have had something different). Toasts were done by Rob (groom's brother), Jay (groom's long-time childhood friend), Sandweasel Brian (groom's more recent best friend) and myself (which I ended with "So say we all!). I'm happy to say that Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" had a special mention in the program as "the best song ever". They had the DJ play a Prince song for me (Let's go crazy) and Sandweasel did his Humpty Dance, though the locals didn't seem to know what to make of it. After the reception was done those remaining behind to help (THANK YOU DW) gathered up things that had to go to the hotel and loaded up the bitchin' white minivan. K & S had reserved a room at the main hotel off of the lobby for everyone to put these things so that they could sort and pack for the drive home the next day.

We were all absolutely beat, so we changed, headed into the quarter for wandering/dinner a bit (ate at http://www.clovergrill.com/ where I was happy to return - best tater tots ever!). After that we headed down Decatur and found drinks at http://www.myspace.com/pravdaofnola . Folks were REALLY happy with their absinthe - particularly Leah given her bad experiences as of late paired with her small size. We lounged there in the courtyard for quite a long time, and I really could have stayed there all night, but folks wanted to continue wandering. We went for more beignets at Cafe Du Monde but this time took them to go and sat in Jackson Square getting high on sugar, some of us on the absinthe to go, and listening to Sandweasel's fake ghost tour (while other legitimate tour groups walked by). Sean called and asked if they could come out to meet up with us (they were parking at a lot around the corner), so we found them on Decatur and walked around a bit more before finding http://www.originaldungeon.com/ . We had a ton of fun here back in 2001, but they've changed the setup a bit since our last visit and it was more bar-like and less club-like. Folks got some drinks and we checked out the wall o' skulls on the second floor (they won't let you take pics though) and the bride and groom got in some dancing. The party was not digging the place for the most part, so they took their new drinks to go (something purple - grape juice and everclear maybe?) and we wandered a bit on bourbon before we were all too tired to keep walking and dealing with the drunks. A streetcar back to the hotel with a crazy guy sitting next to and talking with Sandweasel (how does he manage to attract these folks all of the time?) and we were back 'home'. We spent a while in the hotel lobby again chatting about the day and the weekend with friends.

We got to sleep in a bit on Monday before showering, packing up and heading down to the lobby. The plan was to get breakfast at http://neworleans.citysearch.com/profile/4427320/new_orleans_la/bluebird_cafe.html but Lori and Scott walked over and found it closed, so we scrounged for remains of the free hotel breakfast as the staff were putting it away. We sat for a bit with our free tea and coffee before saying goodbye to the bride and groom and heading out to the airport. The overpriced airport lunch was surprisingly good, and after boarding late, sitting on the plane for over an hour so that they could fix a mechanical issue we were in the air and home by around 9:00. Boy, was I glad that I decided to suck up the cost of paying to park at Logan! We got dinner, dropped DW off and headed home to see our crazy affectionate cats.

The bride and groom were happy and lovely and are now enjoying a honeymoon in Disney. I'm so glad to be home, so glad that we're through this and mostly glad that we took today off of work to try and get back to normal life. Until we leave in almost a month for our trip to Italy! :)

Photo sets are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tk7602/collections/72157616151287646/

Comments

[dancer.livejournal.com]

You have NO idea!

After tax season, we need to get together. :)

[tiamatlady]

Oh, I have ideas. I just want to see if they match reality.

:)

And YES we do, I'm still eager to take you guys out for a nice dinner (and Lizzies this time) and I'm hoping to take you up on using your dress form (or Boba) at your convenience.

*hugs* glad you're home safe and sound.