FamBam 2018 part 5: Back to New Orleans

On Sunday, August 12, 2018, our ship docked back in New Orleans, and we stuffed our faces one more time at the buffet before hauling our luggage off the ship.

We picked up a rental van, which was once again, conveniently, an 8-seat Toyota Sienna.

We attended the LDS church at 10am, this time staying all the way through sacrament meeting and through Sunday school. (The gospel doctrine teacher happened to help create the detective TV show "NCIS: New Orleans").

Afterwards, the boys walked with me down Charles Avenue to find Anita at her church, which had just ended. She was happy to see us! Apparently she remembered wrong and thought we were supposed to arrive the night before, and had called my parents to find out what was up. She finally gave up and went to bed at 11pm. Good thing, since our ship pulled in at 8am the next morning, as planned. (I should have given my parents our itinerary so they would know).

We gathered up the gals from Relief Society and Sienna from Young Women's (where she had met some very nice girls) and parked Anita's car on the street so we could all go together.

Anita was excited to take us to her favorite restaurant, The Commander's Palace. When we arrived, they were surprised that we would show up without a reservation, but said they could take us in 20 minutes. They also made Adam change his T-shirt for a button-up shirt. This all made us realize this was a pretty fancy place.

While we waited, we Googled the place and found a menu that indicated it was going to be about $25/person, which was spendy for lunch, but it was Anita's favorite place and we thought it might be a good experience, so we were game.

In fact, when my grandfather C. B. Wilson had moved from Arkansas, he had the choice of whether to move to Pittsburgh or New Orleans, and he chose New Orleans because of the food! I wanted the family to be able to try this tasty food I had heard about, and it turned out that this was just the place.

When they passed out the menus, they said that each brunch included an appetizer and a dessert. That was when we saw that it was going to be $45 per person. Our eyes all got kind of big from sticker shock, but I looked over at Anita, who was just happy to be there, and we just shrugged and figured that we would count this as a "New Orleans culinary excursion."

As it turned out, the food was staggeringly good. Adam got some chicken gumbo that was unbelievable, and the steak that I got was the best I had ever tasted. The cut of meat was perfectly tender, and it had a savory sauce that had a spicy bite to it. It was astounding. So then I wasn't sad about the price tag at all, because it was a memorable experience.

As Sienna ate her steak, she said, "This is pretty much the best thing I've ever tasted."

When the waiters came to deliver our food, they came in unison and served everyone simultaneously, which was awesome. Adam later made the comment that "on the cruise ship, they were trying to imitate this, but this was the real thing."

Anita and I had the pecan pie for dessert, which was amazing.



I also tried some of the bread pudding soufflé, and was also very nice.

While we ate, there was a trio of performers visiting the tables. They came to our table and played an old classic song for us ("I'm Going to be a Real Someday" by Fats Domino).

As the guy sang, my whole family thought the guy reminded them a lot of my dad. For example, one time my dad arrived from Oregon, meeting us at Leatherby's ice cream parlor for Linette's birthday, and he walked into the restaurant playing a banjo and singing Linette a birthday song. As this guy played, he had that same confidence and enthusiasm, and even threw in a cute schmaltzy ending.

Talking about my dad, one of the kids said, "He's not the only one!" (i.e., he's not the only who who's like that. Though, he might be the only one in Oregon...)

"No," I agreed. Then I added, thoughtfully (and jokingly), "It's not that he's crazy—He's just from New Orleans!" We all got a greater understanding of my dad that day, and had fun with that realization.



After lunch we dropped Anita at her car, and went and checked in at our same hotel room as the week before. We took a nap and watched "Princess and the Frog," which takes place in New Orleans. The cool thing was that the kids recognized a bunch of local things, some of which they might not have before (gumbo, creole, Bourbon Street, beignets, above-ground cemeteries, voodoo, etc.).

That evening we returned to Anita's house and had her tell us some more of her memories (though some of them were the same ones we heard the week before—the defining moments of her life). She really loves her home, and likes sitting in her chair and watching her shows, and is content with things how they are.

While we were there, we cleaned up a few things and I came across this picture on her shelf that I really like.

Cebus, Anita, Robert and Gladys Wilson

And here's Anita's passport from when she went to Europe with her friend.

Monday morning I went with Anita to sign a paper at the bank, and then picked up my family at the hotel. Anita had originally planned to explore New Orleans with us, but it sounded too exhausting to her, so we told her we would drop back by on our way to the airport.

Our first stop was Lafayette Cemetery No. 2, which had those above-ground graves (necessary because of the high water table that would otherwise float the caskets to the surface).

This one looked like it had been broken open from the inside! :O

But the occasion was not too somber for a few selfies...

Next we parked near Bourbon Street, and walked up it to see what was going on. Incidentally, my dad played the piano "professionally" on Bourbon Street when he was younger. (At least technically—He went into a bar to get out of the rain during his paper route, and the guy bought him a soda.)

There was a jazz cafe with some bronze statues that we had fun with. Linette was pretending to hold a cup like this guy, so I Photoshopped one in for her.

And then I Photoshopped a guitar into my hands for the same reason.

There was a lot of voodoo stuff around town.

Sienna and Kalija. (Kalija was a wooden Indian, so the song goes...)

As we turned the corner onto Orleans Avenue, we stumbled across Arcadian Books & Prints, which looked chaotically intriguing from the outside.

Inside, we found an amazing display of books, shelved high and then stacked precariously up to 10 feet high. It seemed like a Harry Potter spell kept them in place.

Here is the seat where the owner sits to sell books.

We all thought of Dad's study, of course. But this guy took it to a whole 'nother level. Literally.

Still, we couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't some cultural influence on my father's book collecting approach.

Sienna was in heaven. I think we could have just dropped her off and picked her up in a week.

The books were organized in areas by rough category. Linette and Erika sat on the old couch, leaning against stacks of books placed there. Everyone found something to read for a few minutes. It was amazing. Sienna bought a book on the way out. I suspect the owner is a bit more interested in acquiring books than selling them.

After that we continued our walk, poking our heads into various art galleries, including one (Craig Tracy) that consisted completely of photos of painted bodies against backgrounds that made it really hard to tell where the person was in the photo. Another one had such gloppy blobby paint that it seemed like you could lick the paintings.

Here's Erika trying out a wooden mask at one place.

There were all sorts of people in New Orleans, which I thought was great.

When we arrived at Jackson Square, a band was playing some nice jazz.

And this street performer was standing there frozen. So Erika joined him for a moment for the picture. Then I dropped some money in his bucket, and his front hand turned into a thumbs up for a couple of seconds.

There were various artists selling their wares around the square. And Erika and Jared are always up to something.

Jackson Square has this classic statue of Andrew Jackson tipping his hat from atop his mighty steed.

So of course Jared and Erika reenacted the pose. (An African-American lady and her daughter were walking by as we did this, and the lady said, "That's cool!")

We crossed the street to the Cafe Du Monde, which is famous for their beignets, which are fried bread covered in powdered sugar. (Did Dad bring that idea from New Orleans? That's how we've always done scones).

The powdered sugar was not kind to Adam's all-black outfit.

I couldn't say much, though, because I was covered myself.

Erika was creative with her leftover powdered sugar.

Silly Erika.

Everyone sat on a bench in the shade in Jackson Square for a few minutes, and then we went into the cathedral there, which was mercifully air conditioned. (It was pretty hot and humid outside).

New Orleans has great iron railings on its balconies.

Finally we returned to Anita's house for one last visit before we went.

It was so fun to visit with her, and I think she really enjoyed the company.

Anita gave us some Mardi Gras beads to shower Shaylee with when we saw her (oops, I think we forgot to do that). Here Kelsi is trying to bend Jared and laughing because he's so ridiculously strong.

We all waved good-bye as we pulled out. We enjoyed our visit with Anita.

As we went through security at the airport, little Sienna put her thousand-page book on the security scanner, and the security guard picked it up, saying, "What in the world is this!?" He was surprised when he saw who was reading it.

Anita made the comment when we were visiting that she loved how everyone got along so well. I did, too. Here are the girls all walking arm in arm towards bag claim.

When we got home, we unloaded our bags and then zoomed over to finally welcome Shaylee home from her mission.

The Kartchners had been kind enough to delay their vacation to the British Isles by one day so that Shaylee and Erika could see each other before they both ended up at school.

Adam dealt with a cold for a week after the trip, and Kelsi and I picked it up and held onto it for a while after that, but it was totally worth it, because this was a Grand Adventure with the FamBam.

My favorite parts of the trip were snorkeling with the stingrays, the Greenwood Great House, the food at Commander's Palace, visiting with Anita, and especially spending a week with my hilarious family.

Erika was soon off to USU in Logan, and Jared is soon to leave for Guatemala, so I'm so glad that we could have this time together.