Off on the Norwegian Spirit to sail the Western Caribbean

We’ve been home to long! Nita and I and Ron and Avie are headed to New Orleans to catch the Norwegian Spirit to sail the Western Caribbean.

Our first scheduled stop was in Hattiesburg at the Purple Patriot, a 5 star white table cloth black napkin restaurant that serves an outstanding lunch at reasonable prices. I believe this is our third stop here. If you ever find yourself in Hattiesburg MS at lunch time it’s a must. We arrived in New Orleans about 2:30 Friday afternoon and was joined by George Best one of Ron’s high school buddies.

We spent an hour and a half in the World War II museum, it’s a three hour museum but it closed at 5:00pm so our visit had to be rushed. I learned more about WWII in our hour and a half then I did in my whole 5th grade history class, but them my mind was much more receptive at age 65 then at age 10. It helped to put into perspective some of the information that I had gathered in Thailand about their war with Japan prior to the invasion of Pearl Harbor.

For dinner at the Quarter View restaurant on Clearview we were joined by Sidney and Diane Cotlar; Sidney was another junior high friend of Ron’s. Both had effervescent personalities and openly shared their stories of pre-K and after-K, which I discovered is a part of all New Orleanians lives. The conversation was spirited and the trout stuffed with crab meat dressing and smothered in a Cajun sauce was a must have again we come back to New Orleans and the char-grilled oysters were something that I will have anytime they are available. These people just keep eating; we finished our evening at the Café De Monde for beignets and coffee.

Saturday morning we were off to Algiers to have brunch with Ron’s Cousin Sylvia Evensky and her daughter Barbee and her children Andrew and Carle. Again more food good conversation and another Katrina story, these are strong people.

The balance of the day was consumed with a guided tour of New Orleans by Ron giving us a view of the city through the eyes of a high school boy. We stopped by the house that Fran and Lee lived in (Ron’s sister and brother-in-law) in the Garden District, then went down to the French Quarter where we were entertained by a group of very talented acrobatic street performers.

Our day was topped off with a delightful evening with Mike and Brenda Moffitt. Brenda and Fran have been best friends since kindergarten. They took us to the Southern Yacht Club for dinner and an insight into another part of New Orleans culture as well as another totally different Katrina story.

This is the weekend of the NFC championship and the New Orleans Saint are playing the Minnesota Vikings here in New Orleans later today. Nita and I lived in Minneapolis for ten years and have continued to follow the Vikings, but after spending these two days with some beautiful people of New Orleans I can say with on reservations that the Saints deserve to win as a payoff for what the have endured and for the mess they have clawed their way out of; I’ll hold my wishes for the Super Bowl until I see what happens with the Colts and Jets. Nita and I grew up in Indianapolis.