New Orleans

Kim, Amber and Jelly
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Breakfast at The Old Coffee Pot with Jelly and her friend Kimberly and her daughter Amber, three characters all. Tom and Don met Jelly - real name Jill - two years ago and have been friends since. In just the last year Jelly had cataracts removed from both eyes and a double mastectomy so it hasn't been the easiest year for her, but in true New Orleans fashion she has decided that instead of having "classic reconstruction" she has opted to have two Fleur De Lys tattooed on her chest. Her plastic surgeon introduced her to Kim in the waiting room thinking they would hit it off and they became instant friends. Within 20 minutes of meeting Kim, she offered all of us her house across the lake in Slidell if we needed to evacuate the city over the weekend and gave me both her cell and home numbers. People are like that here. The Old Coffee Pot is a place we have breakfast at every year. The food is great, especially the Pain Perdu, the creole version of French Toast and last year I had my first "milk punch" - bourbon, half and half, sugar and nutmeg - for breakfast, but what keeps us returning is the same four (five pre-K) waitresses we get to see year after year. Wilhelmina was our waitress today and she was at the top her game. When trying to serve the biscuits she yelled at Jelly for motioning her hands too much and getting in her way, saying "she's like a baby with her hands flying but you give em something to eat and they shut right up" and then when James said a friend in North Carolina said he gets cheese in his grits and can he have cheese in his, she said, "I grew up in North Carolina and I never heard of such a thing". Jelly then asked for cheese in her grits as well and Wilhelmina mockingly said,"like they have in NORTH CAROLINA?" Somehow breakfast ended up taking 2 1/2 hours which was about 1/2 an hour too long.

meal worms on an apple in the cafeteria - yummm.
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Rick and I then decided to go over to the brand new Audubon Insectarium in the old U.S. Customs House on Canal St. They have insects from all of the world including a special New Orleans Gallery. We got to pet several insects including a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, a Patent Leather Beetle and a Two Horned Beetle. The boys are much bigger than the girls. They also have a walk through underground gallery with insects 100 times larger than normal which was exceedingly creepy - it was very dark, the floor was spongy and a giant animatronic spider jumped out at us and Rick screamed like a 5 year old girl. There was also a six minute animated film that had fun/silly effects like bumblebees under your seat, a wasp stinging your back, a centipede running up against your ankles and the smell of a dung beetle blasted into our faces via a puff of air - mmmmmmm. On the wall of the cafeteria was a large print of a caramel apple covered in mealworms. This was supposed to make us hungry?

Joanie and Charlie
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After a walk through the warehouse/gallery district we made a quick stop for a snack of Zapp's potato chips and a frozen iced coffee and a quick rest before dinner.

For dinner we met up with Charlie and Joanie, a couple from Florida that Tom and Don met years ago and see every year. They were also staying at the Monteleone so we all went out to The Gumbo Shop for a nice meal. They have a daily vegetarian special and today's was seasoned black beans and rice. Rick also had Corn Mache Choux which is a cajun dish of fresh corn, cream, peppers, onions and Tabasco sauce. We then walked around the Quarter for a while and saw two cowboys with two miniature ponies which Rick had to pet and then we headed over to Oz and had a beer on the balcony overlooking the street. We spied Charlie and Joanie holding court with their hand grenades (one part each of gin, grain alcohol, melon liqueur, rum and vodka with ice and sugar to taste) so we went over to talk to them and take pictures of Joanie (did I mention she's 72?) defacing public property (see attached pictures). On the way back to the hotel we passed a gentlemen's club holding a Gustav party ("No cover!").