The Weddings Blog #6 (Oysters, a Kitchen Fight & Bob Hope)

     Before I began writing this blog post, I intended the lead sentence to be something like: We finally made it to NOLA and even survived. Now, it's time to write about the first wedding.
     The problem is, so many strange, exciting and even once in a lifetime experiences happened both before and after my nephew's wedding that I'm gonna tell that story first. I promise to do my nephew's wedding justice in just a bit.

     So without any further ado, how about some raw oysters and a kitchen fight to get this blog post started.

Oysters @ The Blind Pelican/NOLA

     Everything, I'm writing is true. Teresa, mom, Julia and I wanted some raw oysters one evening in NOLA. Joe, my youngest, recommended The Blind Pelican on St. Charles Avenue.

     "Why not," we all said. The place is in one of those old businesses on St. Charles. The type of place that's probably been at least a dozen other eateries or such over the years. In this case, they'd done just about everything to make it feel and look like you might expect a place called The Blind Pelican to look like in NOLA.
     We should've known we were in for an experience when the porch smelled like my old fraternity house on Sunday morning and our table had that old, familiar sticky, post-party stickiness to it. Then there was our waitress who I'm pretty sure learned the sound of "raw oysters" and understood two fingers meant two dozen.
     All was going good. The oysters, even though June doesn't have the letter 'R', were good... served with zesty, tingly horseradish, lemon, ketchup and saltines. I was on about my fourth or fifth shelled concoction when a young man dressed in kitchen garb hurried past us and down the stairs to the street. It was seconds later when we heard "YOU'RE FIRED! YOU'RE FIRED! DON'T COME BACK!"

     The kitchen fella did return and the "YOU'RE FIRED... YOU'RE FIRED" picked up again. It all happened pretty fast. I'm pretty sure it's taking me longer to write the story than the time it took for the actual dinner and a show.
   

Café du Monde/NOLA

      Never the ones to let a kitchen quarrel get us down, we pushed on for beignets at the world famous Café du Monde in the French Quarter.
     We asked Julia to drive as she's the only one of us who lives and drives in a city with more than a few traffic lights and speed limits in excess of 35 mph.
     The famous French donut didn't disappoint. We devoured the big, fluffy pastries generously topped with powdered sugar with mugs of steaming hot café au lait. Just like so many years ago, it was still cheap. I think our bill was $25 and that included the gratuity.

     So you see (or read) that we came upon some fun, exciting things before and after nephew Zach's wedding. But the possible once in a lifetime event was still ahead of us.

National World War Two Museum/NOLA

        The National World War Two Museum is rated the number two museum in the world according to TripAdvisor and we couldn't pass up a chance to see it. As if the giant plane hanging over our heads wasn't enough to convince us that we were in for something significant, our first conversation with a volunteer was icing on the cake.

Bob Hope Exhibit/WWII Museum

                     
     We were waiting to get into the first exhibit. Marianne struck up a conversation that went like this....
     "Where are y'all from," asked the volunteer.
     "Texas."
     "I'm from a little further south."
     "Where? Mexico? "mom asked.
     "Further. Cuba."
     "Cuba! How long have you been in the U-S?"
     "58-years."
     "How'd you get out? We're you C.I.A.?"
     "I wasn't. My grandmother worked for the C.I.A. The C.I.A. got my family out and moved us to Montana."

   

               So, if it wasn't the giant plane or the man who escaped Castro thanks to his spy grandmother it might have been the touching "So Ready to Laugh," Bob Hope exhibit or the incredible 4-D movie narrated by Tom Hanks, complete with vibrating seats that made the National World War Two Museum a contender for once in a life time event.

     The food, the fun and the French Quarter are all must Dos in New Orleans. But trust me on this because I speak from genuine experience. I've had a lot of the food, the fun and the French Quarter but the few hours we spent at this museum topped all that previous frivolity.... no question!!!

Bill Robertson