Big Vacation

Ten years at TeddyJ has earned me four weeks of vacation, starting in January. I didn't even wait a full month before I embarked on a two-week visit: one week on the Rock Boat and the next in New Orleans for the start of the Mardi Gras.

(Sorry to disappoint, but I didn't visit Antarctica, like Dave on a research ship and Big Dot on a luxury liner. I don't think I'll visit Antarctica until it becomes touristy, because I defiantly love tourist traps. I can see it now: I could get off the boat and there's a spot where I could feed the tame penguins, next to a Margaritaville if I need wifi and artificial light, and then I would hole up in a boutique rehabbed research station.)

We spent recklessly. We almost made it to the last day before we had an argument how to pack the objet d'art we got at Skull Paradise in the French Quarter. (Skull and anatomy posters for the medical bathroom - one in French). We also got this years New Orleans 2018 print from Mousie to go in our Mucha-themed bedroom.

This time we actually visited the Voodoo and pharmacy museums.

Surprisingly, we stayed healthy the whole time, despite these risks:

• It was freaking cold in New Orleans the night we sailed out on the Rock Boat ("The Big Freezy," quipped Tyler, the BNL drummer).
• Similarly, when we sailed back to New Orleans it was raining during the return BNL concert.
• This horse tried to bite Gary when he made kissy noises, as you do with a horse.

• I then made kissy noises and it tried to bite me as well.
• One woman on the flight home was so obviously sick the pilot came back and checked on her. Her fiancee lied and said she was fine.
• The weather, now that we are back, has been insultingly cold. I can think of no other term for it. I go outside and I grow indignant.

There are many more things to post, about the weather and the food and the little girls and the beads and the beer man. But right now I have a headache from working all day, which also makes me indignant. What is this world in which I work instead of idling about the southern shores?

Comments

[~~Silk]

Not a horse. That's a mule. Mules are used on the streets of NO by law, because they cam withstand the heat (reflecting off the surface) whereas horses can't.

So, did you earn your beads the traditional way?

[Ernie]

I too am totally fed up with the cold. We were in New Orleans in July. Holy heat. My 12 yr old son, thinking it was fat Tuesday, overate when we took him to a restaurant. My kids will be in therapy for years because I bring most of our meals with us when we travel. He puked during the night and was still puking a bit when we were in the TSA line. I promise - in case you knew anyone on that flight - he wasn't sick!

[theQueen]

~~Silk - not the traditional way, but I did see a man on a balcony taunt a girl below with beads and insist she show her breasts. She defied him and got the beads anyway. We also saw two women walking about with nothing but glitter covering their nipples, which seems very efficient.
Ernie - I heard from a vendor in NOLA that Saint Louis, where I live, is the only city that equals NOLA in humidity in the summer. I can't imagine visiting there in July,