The beginning of our trip, totally blew me away!

          Wow!

         What a rush!

          Coming home last night was definitely not the high point of the last couple of days, but our plane landed (quite skiddingly) and now it’s time to get back to the ole daily grind. But first to share our adventures with you!

          February 9^th started off for me at 3:00 am.  I got up, showered, and packed the rest of my stuff into the small back pack that was allowed as my “personal item” on our Spirit Airlines flight.

          Wendy had stayed the night to make things easier, and we were both ready to go at 4:30 to head over to Algonquin to pick up Kelli. From there it was the trip to O’Hare (which I refused to take the tollroad) but we made it in plenty of time. 

          I still hadn’t even had a chance to get nervous about the actual fight, since flying is definitely not my most favorite thing to do.

          The line through security didn’t take us long and then we were off for tea and coffee and a bit of a wait at the gate.

          Once buckled up in our seats, Kelli and I gripped hands as we barreled down the runway and lifted off into the air. Once the plane leveled out we were both able to relax a little. Wendy was a row behind us and a few seats away. Good enough distance for Kelli to get a good picture of her when she fell asleep up against the window.

          I used the time to get some writing done and was pleased that I finished off 8 pages.

          Landing the reality started hitting. 

          The grass was green.

          Some trees had LEAVES on them. 

          We stepped outside to walk over to the rental car facility, and IT WAS WARM. In the low 70s, the sun was shining and it was gorgeous!

          We were in New Orleans! I felt like I had come home.

          We picked up our car, punched in Lucie’s address on the GPS and pulled out onto I10 east.  I already felt like I was in heaven. I was surprised at how sites I hadn’t seen in 4 years and had only seen the one time, looked familiar.  

          We made it to Lucie’s in about 25 minutes, picked up her and her roommate Corinne and headed toward the French Quarter. With Corinne serving as a co-pilot, we quickly found a parking lot on Decatur where we left the car for the day.

          Our first stop was The Old Coffee Pot on St. Peter Street. Mike and I had been to this restaurant before, and when I saw it on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives recently, it had been a huge catalyst to get me to buy the ticket to make this trip back. I had loved their etouffee and was dying to have it again. The 5 of us sat down and the waitress brought us our menus. The first thing I noticed was no more etouffee on the menu. I asked. Nope, it was gone. I decided to try their shrimp po’boy instead, Kelli and Corinne each had a cat fish po’boy, Wendy went with Jambalaya and Lucie went with breakfast. The girls did a little catching up, we talked about the difference in the weather, what we wanted to be able to see, and just had fun getting to meet our new friends. 

           When we finished up Corinne, asked for a to go container. Not for us to take our left overs home, but because as she said,  “Someone out there is hungry.”

          The waitress brought the container along with some napkins and plasticware in a bag. We packed up a half a po’ boy, French fries and some jambalaya. (It didn’t take Corinne long to find someone to give it to either once we did leave.)

          I made a quick trip to the bathroom (which a blog post all about the bathrooms of New Orleans will appear soon!) and then approached the waitress to ask her if she would please sign my shirt. She began reading it and first the look of sheer joy hit her face followed by sadness. I was instantly being hugged with a “bless your heart, girl”.  She began telling me about her daughter’s own scare with breast cancer, that so far is all ok, but she requires quarterly mammograms now. One of the other waitresses joined in on our conversation and she said, “Just let go and let God darling, just let it go.”

Both of the waitresses signed my shirt and then Shirley said, “You sit down and relax hun, we got something for you.”

I sat down and what happened next not only shocked me, but ended up giving me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes as well.

Shirley began to sing.

She sang Happy Birthday, but not the upbeat happy birthday we are used to. Not the exaggerated off key happy birthday often sung by friends.

No, this was a deep, soulful, meaningful happy birthday. Listening to her was incredible. I was honestly surprised people outside walking by didn’t stop to listen. Maybe no one was walking by, I don’t know. I just heard that incredible voice and was very humbled and thankful. 

When she was done, there were more hugs all around. I don’t think I was the only one with tears in my eyes. 

As Wendy said, “She sang that all the way down from her toes.”

It was truly an incredible experience.

After the Old Coffeepot, we headed right across the street to Rev Zombies Voodoo Shop. What happened there was just as surprising, but since I have to head to work now, that story will have to wait until another time.