Musings from the Monkey Book

Wow–delay much

Last I posted we left off at Hula Hut.

Ahhh Hula Hut….you delightful spot, right on the lake, filled with happy people drinking happy drink and eating happy food!

We started off with cocktails of course. Grass Skirts were the choice of the evening. I am blanking out on the actual ingredients, but I know that Midori, Vodka and pineapple juice were involved. They were amazing! So light and fruity and fun. Far too easy to drink. Possibly dangerous on empty stomachs.

Being the safety girls that we are, we hit up the menu for something to much on.

I went for the Mexonesian Shrimp Flautas. As per the menu, these little nuggets of joy are fried wontons filled with shrimp, bacon, jalapenos and cream cheese and served with a plum dipping sauce. Spicy and warm, yet sweet and delicious……I was a happy girl.

Post Hula Hut we planned to hit up Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar to see the talented rascal that is George DeVore. I love this raspy voiced man. I love when he sings sad songs, silly songs, any songs. I love his zeal for life and his ability to laugh at himself with reckless abandon. We also met up with three lovely ladies I met through Reckless Kelly. We soaked in the music, drank fun cocktails, created scenes with the plastic mermaids that came with our drinks. There were few folks there that night, but we didn’t need a crowd to have a good time.

My friends had plans to hit another club. Kelly and I had plans to hit the sheets…..we were vacation tired, and it was great! We made plans to meet up at Maria’s Taco Xpress to get some sustenance before the Reckless Kelly Celebrity Softball Jam. Kelly and I got back to the hotel. She took a five hour shower (slight exaggeration) and I went straight to bed.

We awoke Sunday morning and prepared ourselves for the day. It was super windy out, but that seemed fine since it was also super hot out. We met our friends at Maria’s and partook of her amazing breakfast tacos. I, to this day, think of that orange sauce from the salsa bar and dream of having it available to me on a regular basis.

Did I mention it was hot? Like Devil’s asshole hot? Well, it was. This fact becomes important later in our story…..

We drove the Cube to Round Rock and arrived at the Dell Diamond ready for a sweaty day of softball played by musicians and music played by softball players. Wait…part of that isn’t true. The musicians played music too.

Since it was so flippin’ hot (seriously….this is important to remember!) I stopped the first beer seller I saw and got me a Bud Light Lime. Yeah, I’m hardcore like that. It took the edge off the incredible heat for a bit, but dang….it was just so damn hot!

The softball game was hilarious. Like laugh out loud funny. No one was taking it super seriously, so it was just a big mess of errors, silly string and trash talking. Good times, good times!

Once the game was over and Cody had been showered with Gatorade for coaching the winning team, it was time to move down to the field to get ready for the music.

They wouldn’t allow us on the field immediately as they had to cover what they could of the field and set up the stage, etc. We stood at the top of the stadium sweating. Praying for a breeze.  When you feel sweat running down the back of your legs, there is very little comfort to be had. We found an inside room that had the AC going and took refuge there until they opened the gates to get down on the field. We went outside, already missing the conditioned air and prepared to sweat for the foreseeable future. All of a sudden a VERY cool breeze kind of came out of nowhere. We thought someone had opened the door of a nearby freezer. We had no idea what they breeze was going to mean.

As we finally made it to the field, the breeze had picked up and it was starting to get kinda dark and chilly. We enjoyed it, at first. When the rain clouds came we cursed them. It obviously worked since they only spit out a little bit of rain. But the icy winds continued. We had been at the stadium for 2 hours plus at this point. When we arrived it was 94 degrees. At this point it was barely 70.

But dammit all to hell, we had some of the best musicians this fine state has to offer up there playing their hearts out, so what else could we do but dance and smile and freeze?

One thing many folks there decided to do was to hit the pro shop and look for heavier clothes. I spoke to the cashier there and she said it was there best sales day ever and that they were pulling long sleeve t-shirts and blankets out of backstock as fast as they could. I am now the proud owner of a long sleeve Red Rock Express t-shirt…and it might be the best $30 I could’ve spent that day!

While I would normally be pretty sad when a concert ends, this time I was thrilled. I saw the heater of the Cube in my future. The temperature had dropped to 52 at this point. A 42 degree drop in about 6 hours……OY!

The Cube couldn’t warm up fast enough. We made the drive back in record time as there were long pants and long sleeves in our future. Kelly and I went to the room to change and then headed back out for the after party at Lucy’s. The crazy weather had worn us out….but the after party was not to be missed.

As we walked into the bar it was announced that Osama Bin Laden had been captured and killed. Looking back, perhaps that cold snap was simply hell freezing over?

The rest of the night will be summed up with a list; Tito’s Lemonade, nachos, crab fishermen, live scorpion shots, white girl dancing, American Idol contestants, people watching, girl talking, laughing.

We didn’t stay out late that night. Once back at the hotel we decided that the news of Bin Laden was a good reason to turn the TV on for the first time that weekend and we settled in and watched CNN for awhile (well, I did. Kelly had to take her 5 hour shower )

The next morning it was gloomy and chilly. It seemed like Austin was telling us it was time to go home. We hit up Matt’s El Rancho and had some amazing tex mex and our last dose of queso and headed to the airport.

One scoop of Amy’s Ice Cream, a short wait and we were on our way home.

I didn’t cry when I left Austin this time. I’m so confident that I would be back soon and regularly that the tears would have been wasted…..

We left off at Shady Grove.

My last trip to Austin was mostly spent under the cedar trees here. Sitting at the bar. Drinking Shady Things.  Eating queso. Looking at boys. Enjoying the wonders of daytime drinking.  It was great. When Kelly and I arrived this  trip, it was full (normal) hot (normal) and a great place to people watch. We put our names in, knowing we really just wanted a cocktail and a spot at the outside bar. Buzzer in hand we wandered over and started trying to determine who would be giving up their seats first. Turns out a table of fine looking gay boys noticed our plight and gave up their table. It was nice to know that gay boys still love me! We sat down, Shady Things in hand and just watched and listened and relaxed. The frosty goodness of the Shady Things calmed me down almost to the point of sleep. It was great. We found ourselves at a critical spot in the day….were we going to be drinking the day away (which would’ve been fine) or would we take our vacation to another spot? Once the idea of trashy magazines and slipping our feet in the chilly water of Barton Springs Pool came up…the decision was made.

If I were home, I would have gone home, changed into a bathing suit, brought rubber flip flops to walk in the pool and a towel to lay on/dry off with. However, we were on vacation. So we had magazines, leather shoes, a bottle of water and, in my case, rolled up our jeans to cool off a bit. I am very much in love with the Barton Springs Pool. It exemplifies so much of what I love about Austin. It’s funky and accepting. Hot and cool at the same time. Naturally lovely, but hardscrabble too. You can be as active or as lazy as you want. It’s just amazing.

Once we were sufficiently hot…which didn’t take long….we decided to go into the pool a bit. Warning: buy cheap flip flops to wear into the pool! The sidewalks are bumpy rocks that kill my (admittedly sensitive) feet. Even once in the super cool water (it stays around 68 all year long) they still hurt. So I scampered back to sit on the wall and watch the world. Kelly braved the shallow end of the pool and strolled around on the smoother rocks for awhile. Being there is very meditative. Even though there are all kinds of things happening, you can just get into the zone and check out pretty easily.  Once Kelly had her fill of the water, we found a shady spot under a pecan tree and watched the people use the diving board. We just stared forever. We watched all level of divers. We became fascinated with the group from the Austin School for the Deaf and their animated yet silent communication. Time passed, who knows how much really. But it became clear that once again, we needed to move on or stay where we were forever.

While looking for parking around the pool, Kelly had noticed a little train. Apparently she really has a thing for such trains and threatened to cry if we didn’t go on it. The threat was unnecessary,I was down for it. Tickets in hand we got as close to the back as we could (damn kids!) and melted/waited until the ride began. It doesn’t go fast, but it was still pretty damn awesome. You get a great overview of Zilker Park and you notice how many different types of people take advantage of this lovely oasis, with spectacular views of downtown and Lady Bird Lake. You see Barton Creek and usually get to see some dogs going for a swim. If swimming dogs don’t make you smile….please don’t sit near me! We were the only adults on the Zilker Zephyr that didn’t have kids in tow….AKA, the lucky ones. We didn’t care. A short trip on a little train around a great park should not be wasted on the young!

Once our ride was over, it became imperative that I have a shower. More specifically, another shower. We cooled off in the AC of the cube and made our way back to the hotel. I don’t know about you, but when I am hot, I am not hungry. However, when I cool down, I am hungry. I also know that being outside and then hungry, can make me grumpy. This had to be nipped in the bud! Luckily we had spotted a Taco Cabana on the frontage road near our hotel, so we stopped to get a snack.

I believe Taco Cabana to be what Taco Bell wishes it could be. Simple menu. Tasty food. Real margaritas (not available at the drive thru unfortunately). Great value. For some folks our Cheese Enchilada Dinner and Brisket Taco Combo may sound like a meal, but we hadn’t eaten since brunch and all that fresh air can kill ya! So snacks in hand we went back to the room and chilled out. I took my shower and I was a new person! We knew that the next stop was the bats on Congress Street Bridge, but we weren’t sure what time they would be making their appearance. Luckily Austin has a bat hotline to call. The hotline told us that the largest urban colony of bats in the world (or US?) would be showing up around 8-8:15. This allowed us only a 20 minute nap, but it was a refreshing 20 minutes and we didn’t want to miss the bats.

Turns out….we could’ve slept longer. It was admittedly early in the bat season (which runs March-October, best views in late August) and apparently the females are pregnant, so they aren’t as active as when they aren’t pregnant (can’t blame them) so it wasn’t as crazy a sight as I have seen when I’ve seen them while attending ACL Fest. But those little mosquito eating (thanks for that) mammals did make an appearance, eventually.  They didn’t come in a huge wave, but more like puffs of smoke. You could see their movement before you could see them. Then, the birds with no tails (as they appear) would be flapping overhead. The bats weren’t super impressive, but it was a fun experience. It’s not often you can say you’ve been stood up by 1.5 million flying mammals!

It was after 9 and time to eat again. We pointed the Cube toward Lake Austin (I just can’t get used to Lady Bird Lake) and cocktail and snacks over the water at Hula Hut! Yes…I may be obsessed with all things owned by Chuy’s….sue me. But they take time to have fun food, drinks and ambiance. We were told it would be at least an hour wait to eat, but the valet was unaware of the power of the Cube. We bypassed the main dining room and set our sights on the outdoor Tiki Bar–which is where we wanted to be anyway!  Two stools were available at the bar and we were on our way to a life changing experience. That may sound like an exaggeration, but some life changes are small, yet important and come in cocktail form or wrapped in a fried wonton…as these life changing experiences did.

Come back to get the details of how my life was changed over the waters of Lake Austin!

Wow….sorry for the gap in posting. But hey…that’s how I roll.

Since it’s Mardi Gras, it seems like a good day to jump back into these memories. It’s kind of odd how much I remember about this trip, nearly a month later. That NOLA, gets in there and holds on!

After the Ninth Ward, etc… we went back to the hotel to figure out what was next. The only thing that came up was Cafe du Monde and the French Market. So we grabbed a cab and off we went.

We were dropped off at Aunt Sally’s Pralines. My mom has been an Aunt Sally since she was a teenager…so she was pretty excited. Plus, we had been threatening to buy pralines since we got to town.  Aunt Sally’s is a big ol’ gift shop with all kinds of Nawlin’s paraphernalia that seems like a must buy at the time, but then sits on shelves. But they are KNOWN for their pralines. Once my mom made the choice of which tote bag she was going to buy, she proceeded to pick up the largest box of pralines she could find. It was only 12, half original and half chocolate, but if you’ve ever had a praline, you know that a little goes a LONG way. And PS, pralines ain’t cheap! After she dealt with the sticker shock of her purchase, we walked next door to Cafe du Monde.

Normally it is an open air patio, but since it was chilly and windy, they had dark green curtains pulled down to protect us. Probably to also protect innocent bystanders from getting pulled into a cloud of powdered sugar! Luckily I had read a lot about how to act like a local in NOLA and knew that there was not “hostess” and that if you saw an open table, it should be grabbed, even if you have to step on children and push over the elderly. Well…maybe not the last part, but it was first come, first serve….or at least first come, first seated. The menu is on the napkin dispenser and is beignets and beverages…..and souvenirs. We pretty much knew what we wanted and once I saw a souvenir plastic cup….I also knew I’d have to get cafe au lait later. I am a sucker for a souvenir plastic cup….for real!

It should be noted that there are numerous Cafe du Mond uniformed workers milling about….like almost too many. Or perhaps it just felt like too many once we noticed that few of them were actually doing any work. I’ll admit…it’s a total madhouse in there. Lots of tiny tables. Lots of people. The take out line seeming to never end, etc….but it seems like an empty table should be a sign that we needed some service. Eventually a VERY OLD woman came and I think she took our order, but to this day, I’m still not completely sure. What I am sure of, is that we didn’t see that lady for a LONG time. I started to be concerned that she had died and was perhaps being trampled on by Marathon runners in need of a fried dough and sugar fix (yeah…the New Orleans Marathon was that weekend, no, I did not participate!). I could imagine her trying to catch one last breath and instead inhaling powdered sugar and just coughing to death….. it could SO happen!

Anyway, we did eventually get part of our order…the old lady wasn’t dead!!! Then we got the rest of our order, had a strange exchange of money (I think she was a gypsy!) and went about the task at hand.

On our table were two orders of piping hot squares of fired dough, nearly smothered by a PILE, and I mean pile!, of powdered sugar.

This would be a good time to tell you how much I DO NOT LIKE powdered donuts. The texture is weird and I always choke on the damn sugar! However, I was all about the beignets.

I picked one up.

Dusted a bit of the sugar off.

Opened my mouth.

And proceeded to cough. This sent a cloud of powdered sugar toward my mom, who was doing her best Johnny Cash impression and was dressed in all black. The whole thing was in slow motion….I watched the sugar spread through the air, travel towards my mom and then settle all over her. Seriously, ALL over.

This, of course, made me laugh…which sent another cloud out. My mom was using damp napkins to clean up the mess. Take note, water and powdered sugar combine to make glaze! Add a cheap napkin and you have a glaze with big chunks of lint. Good times. Good times.

But the beignets were AMAZING!

Best to use as few fingers as possible to eat them. It helps avoid getting an eye full of powdered sugar later…..

Let ME learn things the hard way for you

Once we finished our beignets, we headed out with no real destination in mind. Although, I will admit, I wanted to hit the Casino. Much like plastic souvenir cups, I am a slut for a casino. The noise, the lights, I love it!

There are LOTS, and I mean LOTS, of crappy t-shirt stores in the Vieux Carre. But there are also lots of crappy mask stores, that aren’t really that crappy. I can honestly say that I never knew one could do so much with a partial face mask, lots of glitter, lots of feathers and a bit of imagination. I could probably have spent hours and lots of money on them….I never found the perfect one, however. Plus…there was a daiquiri store just down the street.

It would seem pretty cool to have a daiquiri place just down the street. However, they are EVERYWHERE…which is, also, pretty cool.

For example…the photo above was taken of the daiquiri place around the corner from the daiquiri place that was around the corner from our hotel. It was also across the street from numerous other daiquiri places. Simple storefronts with around a dozen whirring machines filled with cheap alcohol and artificial fruit flavors.  It’s kind of like heaven.

I was somewhat dumbfounded when faced with that wall of cheap, sweet, alcoholic goodness. They had frozen Red Bull and Vodka….why didn’t EVERYONE have that? There were basic margaritas and a veritable artificual fruit salad of flavor to choose from. I went with the bellini…aka, fake peach and cheap alcohol. It was like the best slushie ever. 20 oz of goodness just waiting to be consumed. Be warned…these make for killer brain freeze…at least according to my mom. It makes sense though….they are so tasty you just want to go to town on them….but they are so cold, so be careful!

After the daiquiri stop we were on our way to Harrah’s. There isn’t really anything special about this casino…or any casino for that matter. But the noises and sights and smells always make me happy. Well…not so much the smells. SO MUCH CIGARETTE SMOKE….like Vegas in the 90′s levels. It doesn’t seem as though they have upgraded to the super mega air cleaning systems they have in Vegas….but that’s alright, they had Jackpot Party!  The best slot machine EVER….until that night, when it failed me. I never even got the Jackpot Party bonus, aka the whole point of playing the game!! Luckily they had Village People Party…which is basically the same, but I got the bonus a few times. Once again, the gays have my back!

There is also an amazing creation in the gaming world known as The Sex & the City Slot Machine! It’s glittery and pink and shows clips from the show and the bonus rounds have you trying to get the most Manolo’s etc…..it’s FAB.

But, as it normally goes in Casinos…the house won. I was down $100….which isn’t bad, but since I was playing nickel slots is pretty sad, and my mom was overcome by the smoke, so we grabbed a cab back to the Hotel Dauphine.

There is a funky, yet nondescript place across the street from the hotel that looked like it might hold a place to get some food. It being New Orleans, it did! I had red beans and rice (according to the waiter, it had been a red beans and rice kinda night) and they were delish! Creamy beans, super hot andouille and fluffy rice. Just what I wanted to eat. Things just seem to hit the spot in NOLA. The city knows what you want/need more then you do….and it provides.

Coming up: a trip across the longest bridge over water in the world and revisiting a new friend.

I can’t seem to think of a subtitle for this post.

I think it’s because this day may have been the most important day of my trip. This is the day that NOLA got into my heart and I’m pretty sure she’s there for good. This was the day when the giddy flirtation and newness became more serious. She showed me what she looks like without make-up on and I didn’t mind her morning breath.

Since we had our pricey breakfast the day before, I was tasked with checking out the free continental breakfast provided at the hotel. I had dreamt of having cornflakes with 2% milk for breakfast. Guess what was on the first table in the room that held the continental breakfast? I cannot express how many little things like that happened in New Orleans. This is a city that aims to please and is usually right on target. I grabbed some cereal and pastries and went back to the room.

It was decided that we would start the day off with Po Boys. But from where? I think you could easily spend a week in New Orleans and only eat Po Boys from the places that were considered “best” and never eat the same thing at the same place.  I had seen Anthony Bourdain visit Domilise’s. Countless people had mentioned Parasol, but there had been some recent ownership changes, etc…that deterred me from going there. President Obama had gone to a place called “Parkway Bakery and Tavern” immediately after landing in New Orleans AND they had a surf and turf Po Boy—-so they were the winner. We went right at lunch time, which seemed both stupid and great. The restaurant is new Bayou St. John, in a neighborhood that has probably seen better days, yet also seems to have better days ahead with all of the new construction. We parked underneath a section of bead trees….yeah, the trees in New Orleans grow BEADS! Don’t believe me…..check out these pics!

I wish I could tell you exactly what to do when you walk into Parkway so you don’t wander like we did. But the wandering all worked out and we got a table right by the front window so we could watch the neighborhood go by. Apparently in the bar is the only place you get table service and we had a delightful and cute bartender take care of us. We ordered our Barqs and set off to make our sandwich decisions. I knew that I wanted the Surf n Turf  (slow cooked roast beef topped with golden fried shrimp and roast beef gravy) But my mom wasn’t sure.  She saw the grilled ham option on the menu, and as she is known to do, wondered if it would compare to the long lost B&L Inn in Niles, Mi. She decided to take a chance. We got both of our sandwiches “dressed” (lettuce tomato mayo and pickles) and settled in. Look how happy my mom is

I didn’t take any pictures of our food. We kinda tore into it too quick for me to think about it. If you had been in our place….you would have done the same! I don’t recall being handed a sandwich wrapped in white paper that had such heft! When I unrolled this culinary gift, I understood why! The roast beef was falling out bringing piles of fried shrimp with it. I squeezed the fresh french bread to make it more manageable and lost some more shrimp. There were just SO MANY SHRIMP! The meat was as tender as Sunday Dinner at Mom’s. The shrimp were fresh and fried to perfection. The sweet potato fries we shared were crunchy and sweet and salty, as they should be. My mom’s sandwich wasn’t quite a B&L, but it was damn good. I don’t believe that either of us finished our sandwich…and we got the regular size! I saw folks with the large ones that were twice as big and figured that they must have planned on having the remains for dinner that night, possibly breakfast the next day.

Our next stop was the Lower Ninth Ward. I knew the general direction we needed to go, but decided to look up where Brad Pitt and his Make It Right Foundation were building homes. I typed a street name into Betty and we were off. Going to an area like this, I had to wonder how much of the dilapidated sights we were going to see were Katrina related and how many were poverty related. I will never know….but there are some sights that are 100% Katrina…and I will never forget.

I thought I took a lot more pictures in the Lower Ninth then I actually did. I guess I just have some very vivid memories of what we saw. Apparently they just got official street signs in the last year. Perhaps in Katrina’s world, the fifth anniversary gift is street signs. The roads are still horrible. I would assume they weren’t the best maintained roads in the area before the storm, but now, they are barely roads at all. Three weeks under water does crazy things to city streets. Makes them a LOT like country roads. I wish I knew how densely populated the are had been. It seems like it was probably pretty dense, but so many of the lots are so overgrown that you can hardly believe that houses were ever there. Then there are the lots where you can see evidence of foundations. Then there are the houses. The photo below is a good example of many of the houses still there:

This could be a great ad for the Dish Network, if there had been any chance that there was TV service during or after the storm…..but at least the dish held on. This double shotgun house doesn’t look like it would take much to finish it off. I wonder who used to live there? Was it one of the many houses in the Lower Ninth that had been passed down through families and no paperwork existed to say who owned it when the storm hit?  I wish I could do the CSI photo zoom and see if there had been anyone found in this house….but that piece of information has been hidden by the “house numbers” painted over the rescue crew “x”—-I suppose that helps the pizza guy? Do they have pizza guys in the Ninth Ward these days? They do have people living there. Living in homes that have been fixed up after the storm. There is no way to think they got through unscathed as it is all one elevation in the Lower Ninth and that elevation is all below the levee wall. Yet, you see people living in homes. Next to homes where people died. Next to empty, forgotten lots.Next to homes that look like they will fall over with the slightest breeze. The saddest thing I saw was a little brick house. You could tell that they had tried to clean away the rescue team “x” but it was still very much there. How horrible must it be to walk in your house and see that every day? Then again, maybe they are just glad they can walk back into their home? Maybe they decided that the mark should act as a reminder that these people persevere, but never forget. There was a fella checking his mail as we drove by his house and I wanted to scream “I am so sorry this happened! This should never occur. We should have taken better care of our own people!” But I didn’t. I smiled at him and he smiled back and hopefully that makes us both feel a bit better about things…if only for a bit.

Now…don’t get me wrong…there are some great things happening in the Lower Ninth. The Make It Right folks are not just going in and throwing up cookie cutter houses. They are building architecturally amazing structures that are all eco friendly and able to withstand stronger storms then mean ol’ Katrina. They are DELIGHTFUL!  All are very colorful. They are little boxes of hope growing from the rough ground around them.   They are just like the funky places yuppies build when they come in and takeover a neighborhood. However, you have to have lived in the Lower Ninth when the storm hit to get these houses. You also have to help build them, not necessarily yours, but somebody’s.

How flippin’ cute are those?!?!?!?!?!

They’ve built around 20 so far and have 20 more in the works. There are plans to do at least 150 total. The Lower Ninth is where more then half of the people killed by Katrina in the state of Louisiana died. Currently only 19% of the population has returned, some 5.5 years later. But there is a current of vitality in the area. They haven’t given up and if they haven’t given up at this point….I doubt they ever will.

Next up: Why you shouldn’t wear black to Cafe Du Monde.