Texas Bound

Leaving Saint Augustine was hard, but the prospects of seeing old friends along the way seemed to add a little sunshine on the horizon. We had originally planned on taking a very indirect route so that we could stop over in Nashville and add a new city and state to list of time spent, but once I knew that one of my dearest and best friends was going to be in Alabama while we were on our trek west, our route became more direct. Plus an added bonus, we would be driving through Pensacola, which meant a dinner with one of my college/sorority sisters must be included.

Loren and I

We arrived in Pensacola early Friday evening and it allowed me the opportunity to sneak away and meet up with Loren; a ZTA Sister from SUU, for a drink and reminiscing about the good ol’ days at college and all the life developments since then. It was such a great night of fun conversation and I a reminder as to why I completely adore this lady. Plus I haven’t had the chance to see her since her wedding many moons ago, but seeing her and talking, it was like no time has passed; I just love those relationships where you can get together after years apart and it’s as though no time has gone by, it’s almost as though the conversation started off just where we left it last.

Sunrise view from our hotel room

Saturday was full of surprises and unexpected gifts that all started early. First we were lucky enough to have a beautiful east facing hotel room over the bay, so all we had to do was open the drapes and let the suns painted light permeate our room all while we laid in bed in sipped on our coffee; this was a much needed start considering the early morning loading of the car the day prior. A sunrise call from Stephanie, letting us know she landed safely in Alabama the night before and her ETA to meet up with us for a full afternoon of hugs, laughs and non-stop talking. We quickly devised a plan to meet up in downtown Pensacola for lunch, giving her time to drive the coastline and for us to stop and visit the Air Force Armament Museum.

Tom and the look of joy on his face from staring at planes

The Armament Museum was great, giving Ethel the opportunity to strut her stuff by age old planes and of course my favorite, watching Tom completely geek out at all the aircrafts. His bits of history and information about each plane floored me, I knew Tom loved them, but how much and what he knew was such a pleasant surprise. His giddy reaction and fascination was well worth the stop and total man haven if you’re ever the area.

Beads, beads, beads!!!

From there we were on to Pensacola to find a dog friendly lunch haunt and to meet up with Stephanie. We had originally planned on meeting up with her downtown, but once we arrived we were immediately met with the mayhem of a Mardi Gras Day parade and celebration. We had a bit of time on our hands so we parked the car and took off to explore some of the floats and the crazy antics that were already unfolding. It is these spontaneous adventures that I just love stumbling upon and getting to be a part of, plus the people watching just takes the cake!

Fighter plane engine

Instead of trying to figure out how and where to meet amidst the Mardi Gras crowds, we found a little diner just outside of downtown to meet up at. Fortunately for us we were the only ones outside for the three short hours we occupied their tables, which was wonderful for Ethel, she was able to run amuck and not be bothered to share anything, especially her people. Sorry, y’all I have raised a dog diva!

Stephanie, Bonnie and Tom

Time flew by and before we knew it the sun was beginning to set, at some point the restaurant staff ceased to exist and all that remained was endless conversation. Although Stephanie and I would regularly text and often talk on the phone, there is just something to be said about seeing one of your favorite people in person after a long absence.  I don’t think I realized how much I missed Stephanie until she was standing in front of me and couldn’t stop hugging her; seriously, if people didn’t know us, they might have though us lesbians; especially after the boundless hugs goodbye! You’d think somebody had died!

Crossing the Mississippi as we head back west.. What an amazing year since we crossed it going east!

Next day, we were off to Texas and bound for our new home for the next six weeks. This is the first time since we set out that we have not used Airbnb for one of our extended stays, instead this time we used Execustay through Marriot. Not because of a lack of options with Airbnb, but pricing more or less; I don’t know if it because part of our stay was during spring break or what, but the housing prices were off the charts high for Airbnb. In fact I had checked out the cute little retro place we had stayed at last time we were in San Antonio (click here for that post), but that had close to doubled since our last stay over a year ago.

San Antonio apartment

Our home in Texas was a great location for Tom, less than half a mile to his client, so he could walk to and from work, making the need for the car almost obsolete other than Ethel and I’s adventures during the day. Our cute little apartment was exactly that: cute and little, although we don’t require much. Execustay managed to win us over with everything: new, clean and completely organized for our stay. This is definitely a service we would use again, the fresh new towels, bedding and dishes, pretty much won us over.  Not to forget the pool and the gym, seriously though, the pool was divine at the complex; it almost felt like we had been transported to a Vegas resort! So here it is, our perfectly located Execustay:

Carnival

Mardi Gras falls on that infamous Fat Tuesday, unfortunately we made our NOLA exit before then, but did however get to enjoy a month’s worth of Carnival festivities. Carnival season commences on January 6^th of every year and is full of parades, masquerade balls, beads, decorations and of course king cake; New Orleans is the only city I can think of in the United States that can pull off two months of celebration on such a grandiose scale; the Krewes, the city and citizens have it down to a science!

Our favorite parades were the kick off of parade season, “Krewe du Vieux” and “Krewe Delusion” and they are geared directly to the locals. Now for my Utah folks, think the Park City Follies and just take that, amp it up about ten times, and then put it into parade form. These parades are full of satire, humor, nudity and crass entertainment; I doubt we saw a single sober person while watching this parades and it was pure awe and amazement for close two straight hours! 

We were lucky enough to find a balcony at Mimi’s in the Marigny and had a great view of the parades, we had access to the bar and convenient bathroom and I’ve heard these are the crucial points for pure parade enjoyment. Not only did we have an ideal location, but we got to hang out with a bunch of locals and witness the parades through their eyes, which made the experience that much more informative and fun; they were an encyclopedia of knowledge about the Krewes and if there was a float Tom and I didn’t quite pick up on, they were quick to explain the satire behind it. 

The floats were amazing; seriously, try and visualize a twerking Governor Jindal robot! Yeah, we pretty much had two hours of this non-stop entertainment! And for folks down on the street, well they were keeping their buzz, beads with airplane liquor sized bottles attached to them were being liberally handed out by those in the marching groups. Now these parades are not cheap to put on, they are free to the public and not paid for by the city. That is right the Krewes put on their parades and pay for the floats, the flare they throw, and then they get ranked; of course the wealthier and more creative parades landing over Mardi Gras weekend, with the exception of the two we saw on kick off weekend, meaning they start off with high expectations and end on an even higher note!

Although it would have been great to stay for Mardi Gras weekend, alas it wasn’t in the budget this round, double for one week what we spent on rent for an entire month. So Mardi Gras will stay on the bucket list, even though we did get to see a bit more of a local aspect of the parades, from what I’ve heard there is nothing quite like Fat Tuesday on Bourbon Street!

Sunset Prior To Parade Starting

First Float Out

Us in Our Mardi Gras Attire

Sampling of how the homes are decorated

And me with a random stranger, but its the only picture with my tutu!

A Night of Randomness

We had one really bizarre, random and coincidental night while in New Orleans and it was just too epic to not share it!

To set the scene, Tom’s brother Todd gave us the contact information of an old friend of his, Sean, in the New Orleans area that is a magician and plays in a band. So Tom reached out to Sean, and we were lucky enough that Sean totally hooked us up with tickets to one of his shows at the House of Blues in the French Quarter.  We are thinking awesome, it would be great to go out listen to some music, hit up Bourbon Street and catch the end of the parades on Canal Street; little did we know that our night would be full of random coincidences!

Now onto the events of the night, the house we rented in New Orleans is just right around the corner from Jacques Imo’s, so we never need to call for a cab, we literally just walk around the corner and grab one from the many tourists that are being dropped off at the must eat restaurant in New Orleans.  This night we needed to wait a bit, there was a bachelor party of about 12 guys ahead of us, their entire party didn’t fit into one cab so they invited Tom and I to share in the second one with the other half of their party.  I’m sitting in the front seat talking back and forth to the cabbie and the bachelor crew, kind of having a party in the car and of course we have our “go” cups, so it’s all fun at this point.  We end up telling the guys where we are heading and then I start talking about this promo that was on the news today about a show at The House of Blues, called Bustout Burlesque, and I am telling them about how this girl literally ice-skates on some foam pad during her burlesque routine and I am thinking how cool it would be to see it, and at this point I’m trying to convince Tom into staying for the later show, but with no avail.

We get dropped off just off of Canal Street, due to parade routes, and walk over to the House of Blues to pick up our tickets at will call. Now we totally think we are seeing the band St. Augustine play, but low and behold it is tickets to no other than Bustout Burlesque! Imagine my delight! Now we are talking burlesque here, not strippers, this is in an entire different realm, even though clothes do come off, it somehow magically done tastefully and classy. Plus they have ice skating on foe ice, a full jazz band playing behind them and a magician, Dante the Magician that is. Yes, Todd’s friend, Sean that got us the tickets was our MC and magician for the night. This show was so much more than I expected and made for a great night of entertainment, and for your viewing pleasure, just click HERE and it will take you to the news version, the clean version that I saw early that day. 

After the show we took a stroll down Bourbon Street to take in all the crazy Mardi Gras season goers in full spirit; beads and boobs were everywhere; no worries, mine stayed put! This was more about taking it all in and imaging the crowds 20 times thicker and the craziness that would ensue the following weekend! Did you know that they literally grease the light polls so that people cannot climb up them during Mardi Gras, needless to say, I was floored, the concept of needing to actually grease a poll to keep people off of them, never even crossed my mind. 

 

At the end of Bourbon Street we pop out onto Canal Street and catch one of the parades and walk our way up the road, catching beads as they fly freely from the floats and wondering where we are going to catch a cab home. We end up walking up and over to The Roosevelt and the lovely door man hails us a cab, and as we step in, it’s like the night just started, same cab driver that dropped us off; so we ask how often does this happen, only his second time in six years of driving cab in New Orleans!