We don't know what all was going on in the French Quarter, but finding a decent room at a decent price was a bit of a challenge. We ended up at one of our old favorites - the Omni Royal Orleans. We've stayed in this hotel many times, but this trip we ended up in one of the smallest hotel rooms known to man and it was right next to the elevator. Ugh! Even though we had to practically "crab walk" around the bed, we had a nice view of the courtyard and watched a candle-light wedding on Friday night.
In New Orleans - well, almost anywhere with me and Jerry - it's all about the food and we definitely ate our way across the French Quarter. We kicked off our feeding frenzy at Maspero's with some pretty impressive poor-boys, followed by a long walk out Rue Royal.
The UofH Alumni Association had organized a nice gathering at Walk Ons that afternoon before the game and we headed over there about 5pm. Game didn't start until 7pm, but we snagged one of the few remaining tables and split a burger while we watched the flow of red-clad UofH fans pour in. Soon the place was completely packed and we ran into several people we knew - y'all know Jerry doesn't go anywhere without running into friends.
We hadn't been to the Super Dome since December of 2006 and, at that time, it was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. I have to say that I was impressed with both the exterior (new sponsor and lighting effects) and interior (fully remodeled and updated) this trip.
We took this photo when we first arrived, but soon there were a lot more Houston fans around us. Houston had a much better showing than Tulane and I guess the final score of 73 to 17 says a lot about why the "Green Tide" didn't show up to support their team. Go COOGS!
Friday morning, we were up and out the door before anything opened and hit the streets for a pre-breakfast walk
... followed by Cafe Au Lait and a couple of Beignets at Cafe DuMonde. It's such a tourist trap we never go there, but we were early enough to grab a good table and a bad waitress.
This is a shot of the kitchen (out back) where you can see them frying up those Beignets. I guess it's a bit like "sausage making", if you saw this first you probably wouldn't enjoy them as much ... although that powdered sugar does dress them up a bit!
Friday was Veteran's Day and it was interesting to see the LSU and New Orleans Saints flags replaced with rows of US flags along Bourbon Street. There were several celebrations for servicemen around town.
Later, we were back on Rue Royal, looking for interesting art, and literally ran into Tony Bennett walking out of a gallery. It's always strange when you see someone famous just walking down the street like the rest of us. He seemed like a nice guy, he had a few "handlers" with him and was friendly to people who approached him. Looked great for his age!
Here are some pretty scenes from around the Quarter ...
All of the buildings have a lot of character
We had dinner Friday night at NOLA and the food did not disappoint (no Emeril sightings). I highly recommend the Shrimp & Grits (sweet/spicy creole version) and the Warm Ooey-Gooey Cake. Check it out the next time you're in the Big Easy!
Although we'd walked all day, we thought that Ooey-Gooey Cake might need to be worked off a bit, so we headed towards the river and back through Jackson Square.
In New Orleans, you always see street musicians and performers of all sorts, but this was something different!
So while we were livin' it up in New Orleans, our cat sitter - Ray "cat whisperer" Waller - was running back and forth from Houston to Deer Park instead of kicking back after work and enjoying riding his bike in Memorial Park, like he normally does when he's on cat duty.
Wednesday night, Toni and I were exchanging texts and confirming everything about Ray's stay with the boys, and she mentioned that Jerry Lee had a strange, swollen spot on his leg and was walking with a limp. We talked about a stop-gap treatment to get him through the night, but when Toni arrived home from work on Thursday poor Jerry Lee couldn't even stand up and the leg was badly swollen with an open wound.
Ray raced home and they took Jerry Lee to the vet where he was diagnosed with a Copperhead bite! YIKES!
The only place he had been was in the house and in their back yard, where Memphis plays along with Annie the Border Collie and Jasmine the cat. It was sort of a miracle that Jerry Lee lived through the day on Thursday with that much venom, but I guess he's such a large dog that kept him alive.
Here is a photo of the canine patient - he's had two trips to the vet where he got six shots each time - everything from anti-venom to antibiotics - and he'll be headed back for a check up next week.
And this brings me to the last topic of this blog post - cat ears. Although the feline patient did not cooperate with Ray, he was able to get the Silvadine cream on the ear while we were gone. Elvis missed 4 doses of his antibiotic, but we resumed full treatment Saturday afternoon and I think the surgical site looks much better.
The ear is still thick in the center, but the "bulb" has definitely contracted and the edges around the original hematoma seem to be getting wider.
Unfortunately, they're also getting more "ruffled".
This is a good comparison shot, where you can see his normal ear on the bottom and the damaged ear on top. We need to get a little more swelling out of the tissue at the top of his ear (so it's not as heavy) before we'll know for sure if the ear will ever stand up again. Of course, it will always be "crinkled", but we would be happier if it would stand up. Aside from making him look like a dog, he hates the way the ear feels flapping around up there.
We've expanded our veterinary prayer circle to include Jerry Lee and hopefully they'll both get through their ordeals without too much permanent damage!
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