Great Convention!

Well, we survived the convention! Great food, great fellowship, great music, and wonderful speakers. We finished off the convention on Wednesday and headed out to Houston Texas on Thursday to see brother Mike. Here is a summary of the last few days of the convention.

Kim partied with the band at Pat O'Brien's

Our Friday night cruise on the stern wheeler was wonderful. We were seated across from a Rotarian couple from Ecuador who spoke no (zero, nada) English! It was truly a gift! Kim and I managed to communicate in our minimal broken Spanish to make a couple of new friends. The Mr was a civil engineer, the Mrs was a Mom. We had a great time, communicating with words and signing. It was cool. We also met a couple from Puerto Rico, and a couple from Malawi (Africa). We spent the night sharing stories, and the sights of the Mississippi River at flood stage. It was truly memorable. Food was good too. Jambalaya, garlic potatoes, gumbo, creamed spinach, and other great food. Had plenty.

Kim and Bengie toast $.25  drinks at the Commader's Palace

On Saturday we attended a concert. The Sounds of the South featured four different groups. A gospel jazz vocal trio, a great blues jazz band, a Cajun zydeco group, and a traditional New Orleans Jazz band. They were all delightful! Kim insisted on buying some CD's afterward (which took about an hour). Dinner was with friends from 5190 at NOLA's in the French Quarter. We thought we were being prudent in splitting the hickory smoked duck. However, they got to us with the $13 glasses of wine!! It was great food (and wine) and excellent company!

Crawfish Boil Salad

After the convention activities on Sunday, we had a great party at Pat O'Brien's on Bourbon Street. Nowadays folks associate the name with the liquor, but it was really named after the French/Spanish noble family of Bourbon. It was a great party, lots of beads, food and drink. Hurricanes are a drink made of 4 oz of rum and some sweet juice (not sure what it is, but it is red). Back in the thirties, folks had to buy 4 cases of rum before they could purchase one case of scotch or bourbon from the bootleggers because there was such an 'over supply' of rum due to the huge sugarcane crops in the Caribbean. So, they came up with a drink that would "use it up"! They were tasty, and killer! We danced to jazz and ate jambalaya, and a deliciously seasoned turkey (not sure if there was a local name for it). It was a long night, and the walk back to the motel was grueling! We made it, and survived!!

Woody, Sky King, and Geronimo yuck it up at the reception
Tuesday evening

On Monday, we attended several more great sessions at the convention. Afterwards, we just came back to the the motel and relaxed with some house wine, and red beans and rice! It was a nice breather.

Tuesday, we had lunch at the "Commander's Palace". Apparently this is a very well known and high end restaurant. I had Couchon De Lauit, and Kim had a "Crawfish boil" salad. The Cosmopolitan martinis for $.25 were a welcome switch from the expensive meals. Afterwards, we hurried back to the convention center to listen to Bill Gates talk about the fight to eradicate polio. It was awesome. What a wonderful effort to be part of!! We had a reception for 5190 after the convention activities were over. It was very nice, in a local art gallery, with a jazz trio, and some good wine, and fellowship. We moved to Virus and X-Man's room for more festivities after we ran out of finger foods and wine. It was lots of fun to relax and enjoy each other over Po-Boy sandwiches we had delivered to the room. Lucy and Luise arrived around 10:30 after a long flight via Chicago, and we all settled in to sleep it off!!

Lucy and Luise at the "House of Friendship".

Wednesday was the closing day of the convention. We took the girls to the House of Friendship and browsed all the exhibits. We were standing there when Lucy detected a "German" accent. She surreptitiously checked out the name tags, and saw that the person was from Austria! Luise was pleased to meet the man and his wife. It turned out that he was a DGN like me! We exchanged cards, discussed a possible group study exchange, and seeing each other again in San Diego at the International Assembly. We all went to the closing plenary session. Probably the least exciting of the bunch, but the girls enjoyed the music. We returned to the motel, and had ribs and beans before turning in for the night.

On the ferry out of Cameron

On Thursday we took off for Houston via Cameron. Cameron is in southwest Louisianna, and was devastated by hurricane Rita in 2005. I was there for three weeks in November (had Thanksgiving there) helping the Parish (County) develop a demolition and debris removal plan. It was great to see that the place had been cleaned up, with lots of new construction (high school and hospital). However, lots of empty lots where folks just never came back. We had a burger in a little restaurant that was semi portable right on the beach. Good food!

Bros on the boat!

After a very long day of driving we finally made it to brother Mike's place in Houston (League City) Texas. It was very good to see Mike and Teri again in their "native habitat"! We took a boat ride, and hung out together, and just had a great time together. The girls got a good start on their summer tan as well.

Tomorrow we head back home. Looking forward to reacquainting with our animals, and catching up on our lives in the Sierra Valley. Lucy graduates in a couple of weeks, and we are all very, very excited!!


That's All!!

Long Day, But Fun!

The Chef

Ok, our first full day here in the Crescent City (named for the crescent shaped curve in the Mississippi River here) has come to a close. A long day it was. Kim started the day with a couple of friends at the Cooking School of New Orleans! They watched as the chef made several dishes, and explained the cultural origin/significance of each. At the end, they got to eat it! Me and the guys were sitting at the Cafe Dumonde sipping cafe au lait and munching beignets (sort of a sugar donut without the hole) in the French Quarter.

My tent was here in September of 2005. The river is
less than 200 feet off my right shoulder. 

Walking to the French Quarter, I pointed out the place I camped, and where we set up our base camp, during the Hurricane Katrina response. It was pretty cool to see all the tourists enjoying themselves. This area was not affected by the flooding at all. However, there was no power or any city services for several weeks, and all the restaurants lost all their food to spoilage. At one point, when the mayor lifted the evacuation temporarily, the owners of local businesses and restaurants came back and cleaned out their refrigerators and freezers, and placed the putrifying contents out on the sidewalks in 90 degree weather. Since there was no trash pickup, there they stayed for nearly a week until arrangements could be made to get them hauled off! Needless to say, it was a pretty stinky place!!

Beautiful old house!

After the cooking class and coffee, we got on board a bus for a guided tour of the city. It was an air conditioned bus, which was good, and we spent a couple of hours ogling the beautiful neighborhoods of New Orleans. The driver talked non-stop cramming the trip with tons of information. I thought it was great, although I did fade out a few times. He had lots of interesting little nuggets. How about this one: where does the term Dixie come from? Well it turns out that one popular theory is that some banks in Louisiana printed 10 dollar notes and included the French word dix (pronounced "deese") for ten on the back side. English speakers in the majority called the bills "dixies". Thus the land of dixie. Well, who knows what the truth is, but it's a pretty cool story. At our one stop we visited a traditional cemetery. All above ground crypts! What is pretty cool is that as family members pass away, you open up the crypt, take out the old coffin on the top shelf. Put the remains of the previously passed family member in a bag, and stow it on the bottom shelf, then in comes the newest tenant in the new coffin. Saves space, and besides, if you dig a hole around here it fills with water pretty quickly!

Family crypts.

After the tour we headed to the convention center to register. That was a bad move on my part. I thought we would be able to get it over with quickly. Well, an hour an a half later we finally got it done. What an ordeal! From there, with no time to go back to our room and freshen up, we headed straight to a reception for Rotary officers (current, incoming, and past). A glass of wine, and good conversation turned our long frustrating wait around. We linked up with four other Rotary friends and headed to dinner.

We went to a place called "Ruth's Chris Steakhouse". It is a very successful chain that originated here in New Orleans. Wow, it was the best steak dinner I have ever had in my life! I won't go into a long description, but it was truly amazing!

We finally made it back to our room and collapsed into bed at 11:00. What a day! Tonight, Kim has reserved a dinner cruise on a stern wheeler river boat. Should be fun. If Kim will provide a few pictures, I will include them in tomorrow's ramblings!




That's All!

Made it to the Big Easy!

At our hotel, waiting for the Cab!

Well here I sit in my motel room just a few blocks away from the NO Convention Center. Getting ready for the International Convention of Rotary International. Kim and I got here yesterday via Southwest Air from Reno. It was an uneventful trip except for the fact that Kim left the boarding passes for our connecting flight out of Phoenix somewhere in the Reno airport between the check in desk and security! It was not really a problem, as it was a simple matter to get new ones issued there at the gate in Phoenix.

We took a cab to the hotel we are staying at. Kim had a great suggestion and we offered to share a cab with a couple of other folks who were staying close by. Saved about 30 bucks!! The Residence Marriott is wonderful, we shared a suite last night with four fellow Rotarians from home. We slept on the hide-away, but check into our own room with another couple this afternoon.

Ben and Angela, our friends made the reservations for us!

Kicking off our 2011 Rotary International Convention.

Last night we all went to dinner at a cool little place called the "Upperline Cafe". Some Rotarian Friends from the Carson/Minden area made reservations, and so we had a table of eight. Wow what a meal!! I had a 3 course "Taste of New Orleans" dinner. Turtle soup, andouille gumbo, duck ettoufee, fried green tomatoes, Cane river shrimp on corn bread with jalapeño jelly, pecan pie, or Thomas Jefferson Creme Brulette! Oh, and a little claret to wash it down with! It was incredible, along with our tour guide cabbie "Burney" who was a real prince. Born and raised here. All we had to do was ax him any question we wanted about the local lore and he had the answer!

Kim has our camera (imagine that!), so I will have to add pictures to my next post. She is at a "cooking class" in the French Quarter. Gets to watch someone else cook then have a taste. She just texted that she was having a blast and that it looked good!

That's All!

Spring Fever!

OK, I am feeling pretty guilty for not posting very frequently. I am always ragging on my European kids to post, and I am flaking big time! Spring is such a busy time!! It used to be that I was driving home from work to the softball field to coach my girls. I would leave work at 4:30 and be at practice by 5:00. After a couple of hours we would  wrap it up and head home to homework and dinner, then thankfully....bed! I just remember running on empty!

Well, I retired from work, and all my girls are done with softball, so I should be kickin' it and relaxing, right? Doesn't seem to work that way. Now my full time job is Rotary. Spring time is hugely busy with our club fundraiser, instructing at assembly, preparing for conference, and also attending the International Convention (in New Orleans this year). Oh! I forgot to mention RYLA camp. This year, the conference and RYLA actually overlap by one day!

So, I have been busy collecting info from all of our 54 clubs for the remembrance ceremony on Sunday of the conference (same day RYLA starts), while ordering supplies, and working on all the tasks necessary to pull off another successful Camp RYLA. Of course the weekly club newsletter still has to be out by Wednesday of each week.

Oh yeah, I mentioned it is spring! Time to get the lawn rehabilitated, de-thatched, fertilized, edged and mowed. Get the sprinklers turned back on and scheduled, clean out the flowerbeds, and prepare them for our annual planting of panzies, petunias, etc. Of course I had to fit all this in between trips to Shell Beach, Las Vegas, and New Orleans (next week).

So, things are looking nice around here, and I am on top of the Rotary stuff. However, I am looking forward to mid June when I will be done with my spring duties, and perhaps can devote a little more time to fence repair, barn and house painting, Oh yeah, I guess I am also looking forward to the return of Margeaux from Belgique! July 3rd is coming fast!! Of course, by that time it will be fire season and I will probably be off somewhere, sleeping on the ground and working 16 hours a day. Actually, that would be good to re-charge the bank account!

That's All!