Q’s Adventures: New Orleans

One of my favorite quotes about life comes from Voltaire.  When discussing life, and what we all face in it, he states (quite eloquently, I might add), “Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her.  But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.”  Particularly poignant considering I just gambled in both New Orleans and Las Vegas on the same day yesterday, but that’s beside the point.  It was with this in mind that another Q's Adventure was born.  A newly single father of two and a perpetually single all around nice guy took the cards they were dealt and played to win the game.  New Years is a time of adventure, of new beginnings, and of having a great time with great people.  What better way to set ourselves up for success in 2013 than to head to a place that had treated us well in the past, the Crescent City!

Adventures come about in many different ways.  Sometimes it’s a long standing family vacation, sometimes it’s a spur of the moment roadtrip to the Grand Canyon…and sometimes it’s a gut feeling that there’s somewhere you just belong.  I have many places where I consider myself to be “in my element,” by which I mean I’m happy, alive, buzzing…MYSELF!  Princeville, Kauai, Disneyland, Sharks Games…these things top the list…but the French Quarter of New Orleans does something to me too.  I can be content spending an entire afternoon just wandering around the streets of the French Quarter, looking at the art around Jackson Square and listening to the jazz bands posted up on Royal Street.  It can be a truly magical feeling, if you just open your eyes wide and let the whole experience wash over you.  When Bubs and I started talking about where we should go for New Years this year, I knew the one place I was dying to get back to.

Saturday morning came, and it was off to New Orleans I went.  My parents were gracious enough to drive all the way up to my house from Morgan Hill just to take me to the airport.  Super cool of them.  They even brought a very excited little puppy along for the ride.  Puppy fur everywhere! 

Now, anyone who has read various online profiles of mine may have seen the following statement:  "I think rather highly of myself, and will therefore treat myself to the things I think I deserve. I try to keep this attitude throughout all things in my life, and it seems to be working out pretty well."  In that vein, I decided to treat myself to first class travel on the way to New Orleans.  I had the miles to get out there on American, so I figured it was well worth it!  And boy was it.  First class is really the only way to travel.  This was my first time flying first class since I lost all this weight, and it was a whole new experience!  You see, I have developed a rather boney butt, which poses its own problems during air travel.  Was not an issue up in first class, though.  Oh no, my tookus was treated with the upmost comfort and style.  These are the important things in life!

Made it to New Orleans more or less on time.  Bubba, having gotten in about 2 hours before me, waited around so we could cab it to the city together.  He met me at baggage, where my bag was, no joke, the very. last. bag. off. the. plane.  I wish I was joking or exaggerating.  But no.  My bag came out, got half way around the carousel, and the carousel shut down.  That was it.  How unlucky do you have to be to draw that straw?  Regardless, off we went to the French Quarter and our New Years Extravaganza!

Once we got checked in and unpacked (check out that view from the room!), we changed out of our travel clothes and into much more presentable attire, and hit the town in search for dinner.  After finding 45 minute waits at some of the restaurants on Bourbon Street, we headed down to Chartres to check out our old favorite...Paul Prudhomme's French Quarter restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen.  This place is incredible.  Paul Prudhomme is the man who brought cajun cuisine to the masses.  Emeril Lagasse got his start under Paul's tutelage.  He is probably most famous for popularizing blackened redfish, and it was on this, and turtle soup (a cajun jewel), that I dined upon the first evening in New Orleans.  A phenomenal way to start the trip.  After dinner we meandered down Bourbon Street some, then went back to the hotel to crash.  Long day.

When traveling, I like to experience local things.  This not only includes the cuisine (of which we sampled plenty of), but also the local sports.  On this Sunday, the final day of the NFL regular season, Bubba and I took in a New Orleans Saints game at the Louisiana Superdome!  There were three highlights of this game for me.  First was the pregame meal, which was the most delicious sausage I've ever had...an alligator sausage.  It was just so tasty!  Awesome choice.  Second was looking down at my phone for what had to only be 5 minutes, and looking up to see that the game had gotten out of hand.  I think the following words left my mouth:  "holy shit, when did Carolina go from 30 to 44 points???" and everyone around me laughing.  I'm sorry, I was making dinner reservations and find it hard to care about two non-playoff teams with no defense!  Third and final, after the game was over, Bubba took the following picture of myself:

Yup, I brought Niners pride to the Superdome...the site of this year's Super Bowl...a few weeks before the Super Bowl will be there.  I'm hoping the good mojo will lead the Niners to New Orleans come February!  That evening our dinner was at Emeril Lagasse's French Quarter restaurant NOLA.  It was here that my entire worldview changed forever, simply because of the most delicious meal my taste buds had ever been graced with.  The meal:  Hickory-Roasted Duck with Whiskey-Caramel Glaze, Buttermilk Cornbread Pudding, Haricot Verts-Fire Roasted Corn Salad, Natural Jus and Candied Pecans…hold the pecans, of course, because it would kill me.  I am still having dreams about this duck.  It was tender, succulent, and sweet.  The harmony of flavors put on a symphony of deliciousness that I have still yet to fully recover from.  In other words...it was fucking good.  Words do not do it justice.  I finished off my meal with some mango sorbet and a glass of ruby port.  What a meal.

The next day was New Years Eve...the final day of 2012!  Going into 2012, I said the following:  "2012 is going to be a phenomenal year."  I firmly believed that and worked to make it true.  On this day, as we were walking around the French Quarter, doing our shopping and checking out the scene, I had one of those moments.  I think I was standing above Jackson Square, looking back towards St. Louis Cathedral, and I think to myself "wow, look at where I am...as 2012 passes into 2013, I will be visiting a most remarkable city, 2000 miles away from home, having a phenomenal time."  I have these moments every now and then, where I just look around, smile, and marvel at where I am at that single moment in time.  This was one of those moments.  It was amazing.  I decided right then that 2013 was going to surpass 2012.  I made sure 2012 was the greatest single calendar year in Patrick History...and now I was making a promise to top it!  I'm off to a damn good start, I will say that much.

Anyways, once our shopping was done, we posted up at the hotel bar to have some tasty beverages and watch some college ball.  A few tasty beverages turned into many tasty beverages, and life was good.  Then we extricated ourselves from this situation, and wound up at The Court of the Two Sisters restaurant.  There they had prepared for us a special New Years Eve menu, consisting of four courses.  I chose the shrimp appetizer, the turtle soup, the crispy whitefish topped with crab meat, and the creme brule.  All spectacular choices, if I do say so myself.  A quality meal. 

After dinner, we headed over to Jackson Square where Huey Lewis and the News were having a free concert as part of the Sugar Bowl Fan Fest!  Score!  Have to say, them boys still got it!  And when they busted out Power of Love to start the encore...yeah, I was bouncing around singing at the top of my lungs.  Who's embarrassed???  Certainly not I...you would be lucky to be in my presence when I'm this happy.  That night we ended up in Jackson Square with 100,000 or so of our new friends to ring in the new year with the Fleur de Lei drop on top of the JAX Brewery, followed by a 12 minute fireworks show over the Mississippi River!  As all you darling friends and family of mine know, I'm a huge sucker for fireworks, so this was clearly a highlight!  How can this not be exciting???

We eventually emerged from the 2013 madness to hit the sack that evening (but not before wishing the West Coast a happy new year of their own).  New Years Day had to be my favorite day of the entire trip.  And we didn't do much more than wander around the Riverwalk and the French Quarter.  But, on New Years Day, the jazz bands and street performers were out in full force.  The town was alive and buzzing.  There's something to be said for walking down Royal Street, and hearing the amazing sounds of true, homegrown jazz music.

Magic.  Another one of those "in my element" moments, for sure.  It was also 80 degrees on New Years Day, making it very pleasant to walk around.  Light cloud cover, plenty of sun breaking through, and warm weather...jazz music, street performers doing flips over groups of tourists...if this isn't winning at life, I'm not sure what is!

But the gods are not always amused by one’s attempts to win the game of life.  Bubba and I had played our cards too well, it seems.  So the old gods decided to toy with us, just a little bit.  The entire day, as I mentioned, had been gorgeous and 80 degrees.  A particularly delightful day after the cold and wind we had put up with.  But the clouds had slowly been rolling in; rain was due in at some point that night.  As we got dressed for dinner, I thought to myself “Q, you might want to think about grabbing the umbrella when you go out to dinner…never know!”  But, alas, it had been a gorgeous day!  Not a drop of rain!  We’d only be out a little bit…we’ll be fine.  The gods chuckled.

About half way into our walk to dinner, the heavens opened up, and I heard “Q, you really should have brought your umbrella with you tonight.”  Naturally, I replied, “Nah, it’s gorgeous out!  Besides, we’re almost to dinner, what’s the worst that can happen.”  It is not wise to tempt fate!  One snort of contempt later, and the deluge began!  Where I started the walk to dinner looking good and feeling overly confident (not an entirely unusual scenario), by the time we had made it the last 5 blocks or so to dinner on Bourbon Street, I looked like a drowned rat!  The raindrops fell fat and furiously (yes, fat, they were big ol' wet raindrops); numerous in quantity, and true in their aim. 

Never tempt fate…when you have that premonition that maybe an umbrella would be wise, heed the warning.  Especially in the South when it’s been 80 degrees and somewhat humid all day.

Dinner that night was delicious…but since we had dined on a large lunch, we kept it light.  Red Fish Grill on Bourbon Street has, for my money, the best gumbo in New Orleans…their alligator sausage and seafood gumbo is worth the trip alone.  A bowl of that, and a cup of one of the better Yellow Squash soups I’ve had, and we had ourselves a meal!  It paired nicely with the Spicy and Stormy I had to drink (think dark and stormy, but with regular spiced rum, and orange bitters, with the ginger beer).

Holed up in the bar to watch the football game and have a few more drinks after dinner (after a much less wet, but not entirely dry, walk back to the hotel).  Then it was time to pack up for our journey home.

As I mentioned in the intro, Wednesday, January 2^nd, I decided to test something out.  Both New Orleans and Las Vegas are gambling towns, you see…and my layover on my flight home just happened to be in Las Vegas, the home of slot machines in the terminals!  I decided to see which of the two towns was luckier.  That morning, after breakfast, I ran across the street and put a single dollar into a slot machine at Harrah’s.  Bust.  Damn.  The flight to New Orleans was uneventful (finished Season 2 of Game of Thrones, and watched the movie Ted (yawn) on the journey).  Got off the plane in Las Vegas, found a slot machine to my liking, put in a single dollar…BUST!  DAMN!  Are New Orleans and Las Vegas just equally unlucky?  …or maybe I’m the unlucky one!  I dunno, between this and being the very single last bag out of the plane in New Orleans…I’m starting to get a bit of a complex.

“They call you lady luck, but there is room for doubt.  At times you have a very un-lady-like way of running out.”

It was about this time that the signature tones of Frank Sinatra graced my head with their presence:  “Luck let a gentleman see just how nice a dame you can be.  I know the way you’ve treated other guys you’ve been with.  Luck be a lady tonight!”  When I got back to San Jose, my bag was NOT the very last one off the plane this time!  Hey, looks like my luck is already turning around!

“A lady never leaves her escort.  It isn’t fair.  It isn’t nice.  A lady doesn’t wander all over the room, and blow on some other guy’s dice!”

I will bring this Q’s Adventures to a close by saying simply this…life is what you make of it.  You can sit around planning for the future, worrying about everything that happens and never having any fun…or you can grab life by the testicles, and drag it around with you on your epic journeys.  Or you can follow some middle path.  Over the last few years, I’ve been far more in the latter camp than the former.  I’m nowhere near being able to buy a house, or provide for a family…but I’ve had an incredible time having numerous adventures.  It’s been, quite simply, the best time of my life.  I’ve grown, I’ve changed, I’ve become bold and assertive, and I’ve taken charge of my life.  I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have been dealt some pretty good face cards.  What I do with them is entirely up to me.  And when I get a 2-7 offsuit…well, a good bluff never hurts, either!

New Orleans was a phenomenal adventure, in an incredibly interesting city, with my best friend and brother.  We ate phenomenal food (still dreaming about that Hickory Roasted Duck), drank a little too much, enjoyed some wonderful jazz music, and took in one of the better countdown parties in the country.  We saw an NFL game, caught a Huey Lewis and the News concert, and generally had no problem having a pretty phenomenal time.  All things considered, we went way past winning…now we’re just going for the high score!

Straight Flush.