on Thursday, I barely managed to sneak away from work to make an early flight to the other city of sin. on the way i had just enough time to stop for 10 minutes at home to say goodbye to Alla. i was surprised to find a van with strange pig pipes entering the house, tin foil type pipes like they had in E.T, but no aliens here (well, perhaps the workers were aliens) just pipe vacuums, I need to borrow these pipes to suck all the leaves from the grass. after a super quick lunch i rushed to the airport, and for the 1st time, the economy park is full, forcing me to waist time and park else where, forcing me to run to the airport with 2 suitcases, lucky it wasn't raining, but made it breathlessly on time.
few hours later I landed in New Orleans and drove away from the city to the other side of the big lake (which is not really a lake, more of a fjord, with a narrow channel) driving over the longest over water highway of 24 miles and right to bed after studying on the plane, having a test on Monday and an out of town weekend together is not a desired combination. the reason for this trip is a Bar Mitzvah of my uncles grandson , Dylan. a kid i met just once before at my own wedding, so you might say we never actually met.
next morning began with a good omelet at the hotel followed by a beautiful warm day in the city, the sunshine was so good.
we reached the French quarter and I liked the city right away and started clicking at anything that moves (statues and such), but you cannot capture the ambiance, its a fun place to walk around. you have human statues, cute souvenirs, street dancers, street musicians, flee market, art galleries , a Nutela truck (which gives free bread with nuttela!), Bengt which is a doughnut which is covered with tons of flower sugar, lots of jazz and lots of tourists. the nearby Mississippi hosts large river boats sounding music and cruise ships preparing to depart, Jackson squares stands impressive amongst the many 2 storey house and color full verandas. after a 2 hour tour of the city and the market we headed to Oceana- a sea food place which this city is known for. I can do shrimp, and like seafood chowder (mostly for the cream) but the other stuff which was orders is just nasty, i don't know how fish can eat this stuff all the time and stay silent. but I tried a pasta with chicken which was very tasty and this place is added to the good places list (mental list). we kept walking next to the galleries when a woman approached me saying she can tell me where i got my shoes, exact city and state!. perhaps it was the closeness to sea food, but do I stand out as live bait? i didn't even think twice and said OK. then she said that i "got" these shoes in new Orleans Louisiana, which is right, she explains that she didn't say purchase or bought, but got, then she proceeded to shining my shoes, which were sneakers, but it is a part of the scam, then she asked for 10$ per shoe! well i was only a part time sucker and gave her 5$ total, for which she gave me the (i survived hurricane Katharina while you yank were doing nothing to help kind of insulted) look and walked away to find the next mark. a few days later on an evening visit , we saw this trick applied on other just as lucky victims. we returned to the hotel for an early dinner, one of the many Bar mitzvah event followed by a 2 hour Kabalat shabat, which i didn't attend since,,,perhaps never, the cantor was very happy and sang out loud, and Dylan read and sang on stage. after wards there was dinner (yes, more food) finger food this time with fake candles battery operated.
my aunt is a character, no mouth filter whatsoever; but she liked this candles, so she borrowed them indefinitely from the temple on a Saturday!
after the food ended with speeches and more speeches, we returned for the hotel where i kept studying.
the next morning was the bar mitzvah day itself, woke up to another omelet, more studying and purchasing of food. as part of a Barmitzva project, Dylan gathered sports equipment for kids without dads program and also gathered food for a shelter inviting all guest to participate on donate, i don't recall even knowing what social responsibility was at age 13, but times are different and this is a nice deed. unfortunately the supermarket i went to wasn't cheap, could have gotten more food if i knew the area better. next time.
so back to the synagogue and now in my wedding suit for few more hours of prayer and song and a nice haftara reading from Dylan and the cantor. at one point during the ceremony , my aunt shouts out that the rabbi is tired!, out loud, I don't think he was, but told you, a character.
in the traditional candy tossing at the end (you are suppose to throw at the now barmitzva boy, but throw gently) and my nephew Daniel, threw the pitch of his life hitting the cantor in the for head, lucky it wasn't a baseball, she survived.
after the service came, well, the food. later back to the hotel for more studying(yes, its a theme now) and in the evening , we returned for the party. in a fancy place- a light display naming Dylan high up on the wall, the theme this evening was hunger games (also related to the food we brought, help with the hunger of the poor), they had cups with hunger games logos. a different kind of cup with the log, water bottles! with Dylan's name, they gave fake bows, fake glasses from the movie, the cake looked like a tree from the movie, the tables had branches on them, the long kids table was completely hunger games decorated. impressive.
on the out side they had a kids area with bow and plastic arrow shoot, tattoo artists and Lazar tag. the other outside are for grown up had lots of finger food (weird new Orleans things, not for me, except the chicken) and a Schnappsless bar.
my uncle snatched a couple of tray from a passing waiter , leaving the poor girl shocked bewildered. I never seen this done before, not in a movie.
then we entered the big hall, for food... various types of line dancing, including the chicken dance, and well, party. this is age 13 for many guests, Dylan's entire class, and i didn't expect them to be so fancily dressed, in high hills in which some girls could barely walk.
i took home some silly prizes which i will use next Halloween or scavenger hunt.
later back to the hotel for more studying which is what i did the next morning after my omelet. at brunch time we headed for my cousins home where i took some nice photos of the house and the family. I then went with my dad to a 2nd trip to the city.
we walked around the colonial garden district, took lots of photos of pretty houses, the former home of Ann rice (author of "interview with a vampire") the home used in the Benjamin button movie and other nice homes. we returned to the french quarter with more photos of curious bar stools (shaped like a horses ass), cute store sign, T-shirts, street art and the great ambiance of the city. then i noticed that the camera chip was missing, which means all my many photos that dare are gone :(. well we kept walking and i enjoyed the views, remembering them without photo taking for once. we walked to the river walk mall and tried the famous Bengt with the tons of sugar powder. we went again to the french quarter for Bourbon street to see it at night. the Saints, local football team just defeated the falcons and many locals and tourists were wearing their team jerseys and celebrating, the street was closed to car traffic and was full of pedestrians.
at one point my dad had to go and all places do not allow free bathroom goers, we entered a color full pizza place which doubles as a dance bar. i got a slice of cold not very good pizza and avoided obscene dancing from the locals, i wish i had my camera to show you, then again, i might get beat up. locals were hustling tourist with the shoes scam, but mostly people were having fun, drinking , with lots of jazz and blues playing from the many bars.
we returned to the hotel full of excitement and empty of photos and i studied some more, went to sleep early for my flight back over the fake lake, got into the plane on time...and then.
heavy fog in Baltimore (my connection) followed by "the plane doesn't start"... i became tense since i had a test that day, about 4.30 hours later a new plane, a working one this time, came and we rushed to Baltimore, the lucky thing is that my connection, due to the fog was delayed and as soon as i de-planed, i boarded to Cleveland. i was scared that my suitcase wouldn't make it, especially since i was wearing short pants (nice and warm in the south) and was welcomed by a freezing Cleveland, but it was there, but no time to waste, wore my jeans over my short pants at baggage claim and rushed to the car and made it 34 minutes before the test, which went well i think.
cheers
again, sorry for the lost photos, have no choice but to go back
