John was up and about early, and I got up a little later, but with plenty of time to make a fried egg and some toast. It was very nice for a simple breakfast, since we had plans for most of the day. It was supposed to be rainy and cool, and it was definitely cool enough for me to wear my leggings instead of shorts.
We then took the trolley over to The National WWII Museum. It's an enormous museum, with a huge theater in the center that has a good hour's movie with Tom Hanks in it that goes over the whole history of the war. There's an entire wing for just everything up to the US entry due to Pearl Harbor, an entire floor of one building for the European Theater, and another for the Japanese and Asian Theater. The movie was pretty solid, and used things like being able to shake the seats, bringing in an entire bomber fuselage, and other fun things like smoke and bits of snow to evoke the feeling of the moment.
There were thousands of exhibits, it seems, each battle in the African theater, most of the Asian Pacific fighting, all of the European fighting with a HUGE amount of information leading into the plan at Normandie (of course) and all the fighting that followed. How each of the airborne divisions the night before D-Day were deployed, lost, or found and then following the actions of a great many troops through the vast global war. It was a lot, and we only got to about half of it before we were pretty hungry from lunch. So at about 1pm we headed out to Mother's, a restaurant in the heart of the city.
We shared a crawfish etouffee with a good blob of cheesy grits right in the middle of the bowl, and while we were ordering the lady couldn't believe that that was all we were getting, so we also ordered one of their amazing buttermilk biscuits. It came with a huge slab of butter and a generous serving of jelly, and it was hot, tender, and crisp on the edges.
The etouffee was wonderful, with plenty of crawfish tails, and it was spicy, rich, and thick with flavors. Mother's known for their hams and their roast beef "burnt ends" and "debris", just the meats that are leftover from the neat slices that are served with most of the meats.
You can actually order a biscuit with an egg and debris or a debris po'boy sandwich with au jus to soak it in. We may be back for that some time when I can eat that much. My tooth is still a little tender, and I get to see the dentist in the morning to make sure I don't do more damage. But even with my tender teeth, the etouffee was absolutely wonderful to eat, comforting and familiar. The waitress said that it was her favorite dish as well, which was a lot of fun. The restaurant is set up so that you order at the front, you go to a table, a serving person picks up your ticket, and then gets you your food.
After lunch we walked toward the waterfront and when we got out there, we were greeted by this
lilting, off-key, odd calliope-like music. It limped in and out, a little off-key, a little drunk, cheerful and wandering, but all-pervasive and weirdly directionless, until we got all the way out to the water and then it was obvious it was coming from the great paddleboat "The City of New Orleans", a huge white ornate creature that was parked by the side of the water. Eventually, it faded away as a real jazz band started up on the ship itself as they started to board their paying passengers; but even as that died, we heard an urgent drumbeat and high singing brass from Jackson Square.
I loved seeing the beads hanging from the fist of this particular marble statue, as we headed toward the music. At the Square, by the church, a group of a dozen young men with brass, drums, and a couple of cardboard boxes played exuberantly. A block later was much gentler and no less skilled collection of string musicians. The musicians were out, and the rain wasn't falling as forecast for the day, so we decided to wander some more through the French Quarter. I got a single praline, some post cards, and a t shirt as all my old NOLA t-shirts have long become rags.
We went back to the antique shop so I could get a closer look at the glass lighting, and found that it was made by local glass blowers. We stopped at the police station so I could buy a t-shirt from the front foyer of the 8th District police station and brag about it. *laughs* We also stopped at Café Beignet for a single tray of three beignet and no more coffee because our next stop was the French Truck Coffee, a bit further up the trolley line. The sparrows at Café Beignet were so fat with sugar they were amazing. We arrived, bought some roasted coffee for our breakfasts, and got to talk a little with the guys. One guy was super into talking with us about the roast, the particular blend, and which one tasted more like a breakfast blend and which had more character to it. It was fun.
The sky started spitting a little rain, but we had nice marble steps to sit on and the first trolley that came by was so full of people that I just couldn't... after two years of COVID, it's hard to get into a crowded tram without some fear. The second wasn't so bad, so we got on, and I got to respectfully ask an old black man if I could sit next to him, and he nodded very slightly and I said, "Thank you." He sat up straighter and put his mask completely on and we were good.
John and I deliberately got off ten blocks past our stop because we'd discovered that there was a Creole Creamery that way, and we were "going to just check it out." Of course we went in and got a single cone, and they were happy to put two flavors on the "single" cones, which was wonderful. Our dinner reservation isn't until 8pm, as that's all that the Commander's Table had left (along with a recommendation that one wear a jacket along with no shorts, John has the long pants, but we'll get to see if the jacket "recommendation" is actually a requirement). Since dinner is going to be so late anyway, we decided to indulge a bit.
We walked part of the way home, rode the trolley back for a bit of the way, and got home in the rain and cool. It was perfect weather for a hot mug of PG Tips and a splash of milk while I wrote. So I'm mostly caught up for the day.
A funny thing happened, as John realized we'd actually made reservations for April 12th instead of March... and we went back to the site to see if we could change the reservation and it turned out that there was one half an hour earlier.
The Commander's Table turned out to be entirely accommodating, including allowing some other folks in with just a phone call instead of the online reservation, there was no mention of John's lack of coat, and it was no worry at all to go in and get what we wanted on the menu.
John and I started with a strawberry salad, that turned out to have pineapple and dried strawberries and a sweet crisp of pecan flour. There were also little pearls of some kind of starch that had been soaked in Meyer Lemon. The creamy dressing reminded me of those Southern salads with a mayo and sweet whipped topping and fruit, but was definitely an upscale version of it with more greens, texture, and variety. It was delicious and it was perfect that the two of us shared it as I couldn't chew too much of it.
John got the lacquered shrimp and I got the collard Cannelloni topped with crawfish tails, and a tiny crawfish waved at me from the top of the cast iron skillet. The dish was amazing. There were beets, shitake mushrooms, chewy bits of crawfish, tender pasta wrapped around an amazing cheesy bechamel lapping tender, tasty collards. I was so happy with the dish. Dessert was a lovely bourbon custard pecan pie topped with a fragrant vanilla ice cream. And it was accompanied by an astonishingly thick bodied coffee, mine was even decaf and was so dark the cream didn't make a dent in the color for quite some time. All so very good and all served in a golden dining room with little stuffed song birds all perched semi-randomly on perches on the walls.
There were two birthday parties with the Guest of Honor donning chefs hats. Most of the parties were gently dressed up or hiding the fact that they didn't have dresses under raincoats.
And just as we were about to leave we heard thunder roll outside and when we stepped outside the valet asked us if they could get us our car. The rain was pouring. It made us laugh. I just zipped my expensive purse under my raincoat and we headed into the downpour. I was in my Teva sandals and while my hose were pretty much a lot cause they were probably a decade old. We splashed home through puddles, and the hot shower back at the apartment felt amazing. Another adventure I'm glad we attempted.
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