Louisiana - Part 4

On Wednesday, March 18th before we left Biloxi we went back to the beach for a few minutes. I wanted to get a few more pictures and collect a little sand before leaving. We didn't linger long because we needed to hit the road for New Orleans.

Upon our arrival to New Orleans, we checked into our hotel. The last time Eric and I were in New Orleans, we ate at Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter. It was really tasty so we decided to go there for a late lunch. At the hotel, we looked up the address and entered it into Eric's phone (that has GPS). We followed the directions it gave us, which seemed like a good idea at the time. We didn't think the idea all the way through because they were driving directions and we ended up doing a lot of back-tracking because of the one way streets. After we arrived at the restaurant and were seated, we ordered a round of beers while we looked over the menu. Eric and I ordered a dozen oysters on the half-shell for an appetizer. Eric has eaten oysters several times and really likes them, but this was my first try. The slimy appearance of the oysters had previously always creeped me out too much to try them. I found them to be not too shabby. I ate mine on a cracker with some Chipotle Tabasco sauce. (I still wasn't brave enough to just slurp them out of the shell.) For my meal I ate a shrimp po-boy, Eric had a combination plate with jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans and rice, and Jim had some fried crawfish. We had a few more beers and made our way out to wander the French Quarter. I wanted to go to Fat Tuesday to have one of their delicious mudslides, but we spotted a neat little courtyard and meandered inside. It was a little bar named, Pat O'Brien's. The courtyard was set back from the street and was full of tables with plants all around. We found a table and started ordering Hurricanes. The drinks were huge, and the bartender was generous with the amount of alcohol in each glass. Before we knew it; it was dark, we had a table full of empty glasses, and we were extremely impaired. I guess I should also mention that our drinks were $10 each. We each had 4 drinks. For the low price of $10 a drink, patrons are allowed to keep their glasses. If you don't want to keep the glass, then you can turn it back in for $3. Well, as I mentioned we had each had 4 drinks so we weren't thinking clearly enough to get our $36 back and just left the glasses on the table. When we finally left Pat O'Brien's we headed across to Fat Tuesday's for the much anticipated mudslides. With mudslides in hands, we stumbled around the French Quarter joining a ghost tour group, grabbing a slice of pizza, and ducking into bars to hear bands. Before heading back to the hotel, the guys decided it would be a good idea to get another mudslide, while I managed to have enough sense to decline. We somehow made it back to our hotel and crashed.
The next day the guys seemed to feel pretty good, but I felt absolutely horrible. We got checked out of the hotel and drove to the market area to find Cafe du Monde; where they are famous for their beignets and cafe au lait. We found a table in their courtyard and ordered our breakfast/lunch. The beignets were loaded with confectioner's sugar and were marvelous. We decided to walk along the river walk a while to look at the boats and rest of the scenery. Jim got tricked into getting a shoe shine by some guy along the river walk. We ended up getting back to the car just in time. We hadn't noticed when we parked there, but we parked in a no parking area. The officer was issuing citations and we managed to pull out of the spot before we got one. After that we headed back to Baton Rouge for a peaceful evening at Jim's brother's house. We went out for a little bit to Buffalo Wild Wings for some wings and beer.
The following day we went to a goodbye lunch with Jim's family at Ralph and Kacoo's (it is a nice seafood/cajun restaurant). From there we headed back to Kansas City. We stopped in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where we had planned to stay the night. Jim went to school there, and drove us around the campus area. Natchitoches is famous for their meatpies. Unfortunately the restaurants where they are served are closed on Fridays. We decided to head on home because we couldn't get our meatpies and we were ready to sleep in our own beds. To help the lengthy trip go faster for me I decided to sleep most of the way home. Jim's long drive ended when we arrived in Olathe sometime around 3:00 in the morning.

Louisiana Trip - Part 3

Tuesday morning we got up and hit the road for Biloxi, Mississippi. I wasn't looking forward to this part of the trip because I didn't figure there would be anything to do other than gamble at the casinos. As soon as we got close to Biloxi, I was happily surprised. All along the coast was an exceptionally wide, white sand beach. It was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't wait to take my shoes off and walk in the sand. When we arrived at Hard Rock, we had some lunch and drinks at the cafe before checking in. After we got settled into our rooms we went downstairs to check out the casino. We were underwhelmed by Hard Rock's casino. It was small, so it was fairly hard to find a table. We decided to walk next-door to Beau Rivage to see what their casino looked like. It was very nice. It is owned by MGM, and we noticed it has a similar feel to Bellagio (also owned by MGM). Eric and Jim played black jack for quite a while. I walked around the casino, but wasn't in the mood to gamble so I sat down and people-watched. I noticed that the majority of the people in the casino were over the age of 65. I'm not sure how long I sat around, but after a bit I walked back to our hotel room to read. Eric met up with me not long after and we decided to go for a walk on the beach. We strolled along the beach to find a place to sit and watch the sun set. The view was picturesque, and the sand was soft and cool between my toes. I decided that I wanted to roll up my jeans and put my feet in the water since it was my first time to the gulf. The water was pretty cool at first, but I got used to it quickly. I convinced Eric to test the water as well. The waves picked up and my jeans ended up getting pretty wet while he managed to stay fairly dry. When it got dark we headed back to the hotel to find Jim and get some dinner. Eric and I decided that Mexican food sounded good, so we had the GPS in Jim's car find us a place to go. If I remember correctly we ate at El Saltillo. The food wasn't the best I've had but it was still good. Following dinner we went back to Hard Rock for some more gambling. I still wasn't in the mood to play so I just watched the guys play black jack. A few times I was about to sit down to play, but someone beat me to the open seat. After a while I got tired of standing, and also tired in general, so I went up to bed. The guys continued to play for probably a few hours.

Louisana Trip - Part 2

Monday morning we drove west/southwest to Lafayette where we had lunch at Blue Dog Cafe. The restaurant's walls are adorned with paintings by a local artist that each include a blue dog. That, along with the fine reviews of the food lead me to add the restaurant to our to-do list for the trip. We ate entirely too much food, but it tasted delightful. For appetizers, we had Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms, Andouille Sausage, and Crab Cakes. My main course was the Crabmeat au Gratin. Eric was going to have the special (I don't remember what it was), but they were out so he ordered the Crabmeat Florentine. With full stomachs we drove south to Avery Island. Here is a link to view the restaurant and some of the paintings: http://www.bluedogcafe.com/gallery.php.

Avery Island is where Tabasco is made. We took the dull tour when we arrived. Luckily it was only about 20 minutes long, and we also each got miniature bottles of the regular Tabasco and the Green Pepper Tabasco sauces. After that we went to their Country Store where they have samples and sell various Tabasco items (shirts, sauces, and other touristy stuff). We tried some sauces, as well as Tabasco ice cream, and Tabasco soda. There were two flavors of the ice cream. My favorite was the Sweet and Spicy. While at Avery Island, we also toured Jungle Gardens. I had a great time at Jungle Gardens. It consists of a 5-mile drive full of trees and lagoons teeming with plant and wild life. Jim drove through the area and whenever we saw something cool, we pulled over and got out of the car. Shortly after we drove into the gardens we came upon a large pond where the guys spotted our first alligator. I had them pull over so I could take some pictures. When we first walked up to the shore of the pond, the alligator was probably almost halfway across. After a few minutes he headed our way. Pretty soon we noticed that he must have called for his friends, because there were two more nearby. When he was about 10 feet away from the shore, I decided it was time to get back in the car and move on. All of the alligators we saw were fairly small, ranging in size from approximately 4-7 feet long, but they were big enough you wouldn't want to mess with them. I made Jim pull over pretty much every time we saw an alligator, which was very frequent. There were no barricades separating us from them which was cool and also a little chilling. We assume that the gardens keep an eye on the alligators, since they were mostly the same size, and remove them once they get large. Also I think it would be a liability for them to have the larger, more dangerous ones where they could easily reach the tourists. Jungle Gardens was full of beautiful trees and brilliant pink azaleas. One section of the gardens is labeled Bird City. There were hundreds of Egrets (striking, white water-birds). Swimming in the water under the overlook for the birds, were more alligators. Eventually we checked the time and realized we were going to be late for dinner with Jim's family, so we hurried back to the highway.
All of Jim's immediate family gathered at his brother Brett's house in Baton Rouge for dinner, which was fantastic. We were welcomed by tuna steaks, shrimp kabobs, and asparagus fresh off the grill. We had all kinds of other food to go with our meal. We spent the night at Brett's, so we lounged around his house the rest of the evening.

Still more to come...

Louisiana Trip - Part 1

Last week I was on spring break, so Eric and our friend Jim took off work so we could make a trip down to Louisiana to take part in a crawfish boil with Jim's family. We left home early on Saturday, March 14th and spent the entire day driving to Jim's mom's house in Southern Louisiana. We didn't arrive there until around 10:30 that evening so we just relaxed a while before heading to bed.

The next day (Sunday) we got up and prepared for the crawfish boil. It was such a cool experience. Jim's uncle went to the crawfish pond in the morning and brought back almost 4 full bags of crawfish, which was around 150 pounds. Eric and I watched the entire process enthusiastically. Outside, a gigantic pot was used to cook the crawfish. In the pot was a bag of crawfish, sausage, onions, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, garlic, crawfish seasoning, and oranges. When it was ready the mixture was dumped on the picnic tables that were lined with newspaper. Eric and I received some lessons from Jim's family on the proper technique for getting to the crawfish meat. (We later discovered that various people have their own preferred way of doing it.) I was a little nervous that I wouldn't like the crawfish. I was happily surprised that it tasted marvelous. I still can not believe how much I liked it. Quickly, everyone had a large pile of empty shells in front of them. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long for the next batch to be ready. All too soon we got full, when there was still so much delicious fool to be consumed. After a while, I had to help myself to some apple pie a la mode. We spent the afternoon eating, drinking, and socializing with Jim's family. Besides enjoying the food, I loved listening to everyone's southern accent. I found myself envious that I'm not from a region that I would develop a cool accent.
After everyone left, Eric, Jim, Brett (Jim's brother), and myself drove a short distance to see the family's old plantation home. Jim's aunt gave us a tour of the house and provided us with interesting historical facts about the home. We stayed there for a while and had a few drinks with his aunt and uncle before heading back to his mom's.

The remainder of the evening was spent relaxing in front of the TV and planning for the rest of the week.

(To be continued)

Day 3 Napa/San Francisco

I've been so busy procrastinating I "forgot" to post about the rest of our trip. Its been like 3 months now, so we'll see how much I can remember.

On Saturday, we left our hotel and headed back for the gorgeous city, San Francisco. On the way back we took Highway 101 so we could drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. (On the way to Napa we took the Bay Bridge.) After maneuvering around several busy one way streets in San Fran, we located our hotel and a parking garage. Our hotel was so close to the Bay Bridge, it was almost under it. I was disappointed to find the hotel lobby under construction. After leaving our luggage in our tiny room we took off for a stroll along The Embarcadero. I enjoy walking along the water. It is soothing to me. Along the way we decided to head over to China Town to see if we could find any restaurants that would strike our fancy. Nothing jumped out at us, so we went north to Fisherman's Wharf. We ended up sitting outside and having some yummy clam chowder in bread bowls. The area was surrounded with pigeons begging for food, so we shared. While we were at Fisherman's Wharf we paid a visit to the sea lions. I love them. Their barking, or whatever you call it, makes me smile. ( I also posted a video I took of them at night, so you can hear them) The rest of the afternoon we bar hopped. At each bar we had some beer, my beer of choice was the local beer Anchor Steam, and watched college football games on TV. That night we walked back towards our hotel and decided to stop in the Little Italy area for some pasta. The restaurant we decided on was Calzone's. The wait was long and the food was pretty tasty. After finishing our food and wine we concluded our walk to the hotel. The following morning we left fairly early for the airport to come home.

I Can't Believe it's Not Tuna!

Becca was kind enough to fix me dinner last night, so I'm reluctant to post this and risk it never happening again, but I'm going to take my chances.

She had been craving Tuna Casserole all day yesterday, and even sent me a text during the day stating that she was going to fix it for dinner.

Unfortunately, there would be no Tuna Casserole for us. Not for lack of effort though; Becca spent a good half hour preparing it. Chopping celery and mushrooms for the sauce, preparing the noodles, etc. She then spent another 45 or 50 minutes baking it.

We began eating the much anticipated casserole, and though it was good, it wasn't quite the same as usual. It just seemed to be... Missing something.

It turns out, it was missing a key ingredient - the ingredient from which the dish itself garners its name: the tuna.

We had a nice laugh while eating the rest of our tuna-less noodle casserole.

"I don't know why they call it Hamburger helper. It does just fine by itself." -Cousin Eddie

Day 2 Napa Valley/Sonoma Valley

Neither Eric nor I slept well the first night of our trip. Our air conditioner was not working so it was very warm in our room. On our way out in the morning I requested that maintenance get the problem fixed while we were out for the day. Leaving Fairfield we headed west on Highway 12 until we reached Sonoma. We parked near the city square and walked around Sonoma to get a feel for the town. We went inside Sonoma Cheese Factory. They had free samples of assortments of cheeses. Everything I tasted was delightful. Eric and I considered purchasing items for a picnic lunch (meat, cheese, olives, and wine). After some more thought we decided against it since we would need plates, knives, glasses, and a corkscrew. That all was going to add up. Instead we walked down the block a little further and had lunch at The Girl and the Fig. We each had a glass of Hahn Syrah and a salami and brie baguette. The baguette was served with red onion confit, sherry mustard and a side of delicious bean salad. The wine was outstanding.
Following lunch we hit the road heading north out of Sonoma toward Glen Ellen. We toured Benziger Family Winery. The tour consists of a tractor-drawn tram ride through some of the vineyards, a walk through the cave, and a wine-tasting. We stopped several times on the ride for information about the winery, to pick grapes from the vines to taste, and to check out the area where the grapes are fermented. The cave is where the barrels of wine are stored. Wine needs to be stored at a constant fairly cool temperature, so caves are a cheaper alternative for storage for the vineyards. We tasted six different wines, and I found a chardonnay that I really liked (2006 Reserve Chardonnay). With our purchase of the tour we were given a coupon for free tastings for two at Imagery Estate Winery just down the road. It was not on my list of stops, but I am not one to pass up a good deal so we decided to check it out. I was happy that we did because we were able to taste eight different wines and they were all wonderful. Some of our favorites were Wow Oui, Viognier, Sangiovese, Malbec, and Dragon’s Leaf Red.
There were so many places I wanted to stop, but was unable because of the vineyards all closing between 4:30 – 6:00. We made quick stops without going in at Chateau St. Jean and Ledson Winery and Vineyards. They were both beautiful. We then left Sonoma Valley and drove east into Napa Valley. The drive over the mountains was stunning.
Our next stop was in the town of St. Helena (pronounced Saint Hel-een-uh). Our stops in this charming little town included: Beringer Vineyards, The Culinary Institute of America, and St. Helena Olive Oil Company. After checking out CIA, Eric thought it might be a good idea for us to head out west for him to attend school there. At St. Helena Olive Oil Company we tried an assortment of olive oils as well as marinara and barbeque sauces. Just south of St. Helena was V. Sattui Winery. We sampled some fantastic wines while Eric solicited advice from the pourer. It worked well for us, because we were able to try several of the reserve wines that we had not paid for. Unfortunately, V. Sattui does not sell their wines in restaurants or shops – the only places to get them is at the winery so we purchased a bottle of 2006 Syrah. Before leaving we stopped at their gourmet deli for a late-afternoon snack of salami, smoked Gouda, smoked cheddar, and a fresh baguette. We ate our snack at the picnic tables located in front of the winery beside the vineyard.
On the road again we drove on in to Napa and walked around parts of the town we had missed the night before while looking for dinner options for the evening. As we contemplated our decision we went back to Downtown Joe’s for some beers. We sat on the patio again and after a while we ended up having dinner there. Following Joe’s we drove to our hotel to try to finish the movie we started the night before. When we got there we were disappointed to find out that our air conditioner had not be fixed so I had to call the front desk and request a new room. We packed everything up and moved to a nice cool room. After getting settled we started the movie. Eric made it through this time around, but I did not.