Friday, June 22, 2018

NOLA

A few months ago, my friend Jackie booked a trip to New Orleans.  She had planned to go by herself, but her mom suggested that she find a friend to go with her, and the only person she could think of who would maybe do that was me! :)

Getting to New Orleans was an adventure in itself -- a delinquent Lyft driver, the slowest security line agent, (and, as a result) a missed flight, a sketchy flight consolidation service, a left behind purse, and the loudest child in the waiting area ever.  Luckily for me, there are more Lyft drivers, people waiting in security lines are kind to people about to miss their flight, sketchy flight services don't know how to write down credit card numbers and you can book the flights they found for you much cheaper(!), a kind woman will wait for you to come back for the purse you left behind, and, when your seated next to the loudest child on the plane and his parent is across the aisle, the parent will give you his aisle seat for your middle seat so he can sit next to his child.

It was a challenging day, with many golden moments. :)

I arrived in NOLA about 5 hours later than planned but it worked out great!  The city was humid and alive with music, and I was so happy I made it!!

Here's the list (missing a couple of brunch places):

Bourbon O Bar
Airboat swamp tour
Wedding parade
Jackson square
Walking along the Mississippi River
Commander's Palace Restaurant
Frenchman St x 2
Art market x 2
Kayaking tour
Three Muses
The Spotted Cat
Cafe Du Monde at night!
NOLA sign
Walking Bourbon and Royle

On the airboat, we ended up sitting next to this guy who kept laughing at everything.  Jackie and I also tend to laugh at everything, so we enjoyed his company quite a bit.  After the tour, which was about an hour from where we were staying, we were thinking about how it would've been nice if we had kept in touch with that guy because we all got along so well.  We never asked him his name or anything about him, though, so we were pretty sure we'd never see him again.  We did both happen to capture a short video of his laughter.  :)

We went to dinner at Commander's Palace that night and, afterwards, I was standing next to our Lyft trying to get a photo of the restaurant sign.  When I turned around to get into the car, I noticed that the guy from our airboat was standing behind our Lyft!!  He started laughing as I ran up to him and Jackie got out of the car to join us.  We couldn't believe we found him!  We exchanged information.  Connected. :)

As we were driving away, Jackie started to explain what was going on to the Lyft driver.  He said, "Oh, that guy?  He was in my Lyft."  The Lyft was dropping him off at the restaurant when we booked our ride!  WUT?!

Our airboat friend lives in New York.  Jackie happens to be heading to New York in October... :) 

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