The New Orleans Adventure

Well, you are all aware by now that Sally and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary about a week and a half ago, and that we were in New Orleans last week. These two events actually do coincide, as
1) we had already decided to take a “longer than a weekend” trip on or near our 10th, and
2) since we couldn’t take it starting on the actual anniversary due to Yom Kippur being that night and the next day, we had already decided that we’d do it the week after.
Then in March along came the date-setting for the Masonic Society’s semi-annual conference. Which, as secretary-treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors, I had to attend. We had always intended to go to New Orleans, but the original date set was in October. That fell through, and when it did, the majority of the Board were able to attend during the weekend of September 24-25.
Sally having never been to the Big Easy, and I having only been once (and that 21 years ago), we decided to plan our anniversary trip around the TMS conference. At that time the TMS conference was only planned to be one day. It later became a day and a half. Anyway. In looking for airline reservations, it became clear that there were no direct flights to MSY. Sally doesn’t mind changing planes, but I do, and on top of that I had bad memories of having to run through the concourse in Houston back in ’89 to make it to my connecting flight just as they were closing the door. (I weighed considerably less in those days and was in a lot better shape.)
So then I thought about taking the train. And it turned out that we could take the City of New Orleans from Chicago and back for less than two round-trip airfares, a private bedroom and all meals included. Even the prospect of the three-hour drive to Chicago and back to catch the train didn’t faze me; I asked Sally, “What about taking the train?” and she said, “Well, that would be an adventure!”
So we made reservations to take the train. Which turned out to be quite a lot of fun. I will probably write about that later (and may have pictures if I can get Sally’s camera away from her long enough).
We pulled into New Orleans Union Station right on time (3:32PM) on Thursday and grabbed a cab to our hotel about a mile away. This is the hotel — The Royal Sonesta New Orleans.

It took about an hour to get into our room because, as in all hotels, Housekeeping is the tail that wags the dog, and the place had been full up the night before. Making it worse was the fact that the LSU-WVU football game was coming up Friday night and the Saints-Falcons game started at noon on Sunday. So the hotel was full of football fans.
The night we arrived, after walking a few blocks around in the Quarter, we had dinner at a place called Remoulade across the street from the hotel, next door to Arnaud’s. It is actually part of Arnaud’s but we were not aware of that at the time.
Sally had the shrimp po-boy and I had a bacon and cheese hot dog. (What? I’m not into seafood. And I like bacon, cheese, and hot dogs. To their credit, it was served on a French bread bun.)
The next morning (Friday), we got up early and walked over to Decatur Street and had breakfast at Café du Monde (as previously noted). The beignets and coffee are to die for. In fact, if I ate them on a daily basis, I probably would die.
Then I had to go back to the hotel and prepare for the conference. Sally decided to go to the pool and read her assignment for her graduate school class. We ended up taking food out from the Desire Oyster Bar which is in the corner of the hotel right at Bourbon and Bienville Streets (see first picture, above). More than an oyster bar, apparently they have regular bar food as well; I had their bacon cheeseburger, which was as big as my head and absolutely luscious even after sitting in the styrofoam to-go container for half an hour before I could get to it.
Friday night was the Board of Directors meeting and dinner. We had dinner (at my urging) at Broussard’s, which is half a block down Conti Street from the hotel. The reason I urged was that I ate at Broussard’s 21 years ago, and I cannot remember ever having had a better meal. (Well, I can remember having one just as good…this one.) Sally and I both had the Filet of Beef Brandon and a side of roasted potatoes. To be honest, I was tucking into that and have no idea what others were having (except that the brother to my left did have the New Orleans Bouillabaisse and pronounced it quite tasty).
Cocktails were also excellent. Many at the table had a Sazerac cocktail, whereas I decided to play it safe and had Maker’s Mark, neat. (We were only half a block from Bourbon Street, after all. And yes, I am aware that we are not talking about the same Bourbon.) Sally had the house mojito and fell in love.
For dessert Sally and I had ice cream because they were out of the Profiteroles au Chocolate Marion. Damn it. (I almost had Bananas Foster but I am not that huge of a banana fan, so ice cream it was.) I also had coffee, which Sally doesn’t drink.
Nine of us actually got out of there for just over $700. I felt like that was a hell of a deal for everything we got.
The next morning (Saturday) we had breakfast at Begue (the hotel’s restaurant). The food was excellent. They bring the toast out in a basket, as it should be. Sally had their french toast and I had bacon and eggs…nothing fancy. But who needs fancy for breakfast?
After breakfast, Sally went back to the room to read some more before she left on her tour. We had been advised by the concierge not to take the Gray Line tour. He had what he considered a better tour (doesn’t the concierge always have something better?) and that’s what Sally and our friend Alice eventually took. In the meantime I went to my meetings.
The one absolutely cool part of our convention was the trip over to Etoile Polaire Lodge #1 to observe an Entered Apprentice degree* and to hear a paper in the Louisiana Lodge of Research, which was opened as well. We also had lunch (gumbo) and it was fantastic (although, since I can’t eat much rice, I wasn’t able to eat much gumbo — but I picked out the shrimp and filled up on really good French bread). I can’t talk too much about the degree we saw other than to say that Etoile Polaire Lodge is an old, originally French-speaking Masonic lodge that dates back to the 1700’s and is one of ten lodges in Louisiana that works a ritual that is very definitely not the same as the ritual worked in most American lodges. I’ve read their ritual before (it is a Scottish Rite “red” ritual with Albert Pike’s inky fingerprints all over it) but reading it and actually experiencing it are two extremely different things. On top of that, the Lodge has certain customary ceremonies that do not appear in Pike’s rituals of the three degrees, one of which is guaranteed to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Again, I can’t really discuss that in writing, or unless you are a brother Mason. But you get the idea that it was something very different and very interesting if you are into that kind of thing.
We then returned to the hotel and finished up the conference part of the gathering, then went back to our rooms and got ready for dinner. Dinner was in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom. Le menu:
Soup
Chicken & Andouille Gumbo
Salad
Romaine Lettuce with Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese, Garlic Croutons & Creamy Caesar Dressing
Entrée – Your choice of either
• Garlic Citrus Chicken – Chicken Breast Dressed in Garlic Cream & Citrus Salsa Fresca with Grilled Asparagus & Almond Rice Pilaf
• Seared Pork Tenderloin – Served with Gratin Potatoes, Vegetable Ratatouille & Caraway Sauce
Dessert
Royal Sonesta Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce or White Chocolate
Now, I was prepared for this to be “hotel food”…but it most definitely was NOT. It was seriously GOOD food, served at proper temperature by waiters in tuxedo. This is what they mean by a five-star hotel.
After dinner we went back to the room and pretty much fell asleep. It had been a long day for both of us. (I will get the information on the tour Sally took and post that later.)
Sunday morning we went back down to the restaurant for breakfast, but we walked in between breakfast and brunch service. Apparently they don’t have the concept of “stop serving breakfast, start serving brunch” and have some down time in between. So we asked the doorman, Melvin, where a good place to eat breakfast was. He directed us around the corner on Conti Street to a place called Oceana.
He did not steer us wrong. I had the Country Breakfast (yes, I am a f**king Hoosier farm boy, sue me) and Sally had (with great trepidation and on the recommendation of the waitress) Maw Maw’s Cajun Breakfast — learning in the process that “cajun” does not mean “hot and spicy”. (That would be “blackened”.) As the menu says, Maw Maw’s Cajun Breakfast is “bits of bacon, ham and shrimp scrambled with eggs, rice”. And it is huge. Sally does not exactly have the appetite of a bird, yet she could not finish even half of it, even though she loved it. She even gave me her biscuit because she preferred to try to eat more of the main dish rather than fill up on bread.
As I look at their menu now I’m sorry I did not see Paw Paw’s Cajun Breakfast. I probably would have tried it.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel, finished packing, called the bell desk to take our luggage down, and caught a hack back to the train station…just as the Saints/Falcons game was getting underway. Which made it difficult for us to grab Subway to eat on the train, as the cashier kept running out into the waiting area to see what was happening on the TV. But we did finally get our food and got on the train…and as promised, I will write about our train experience separately.
We do plan to go back to New Orleans. It is even entirely possible that we will stay at the Royal Sonesta again, even though we will not get the room break we got for this trip. It’s a great hotel and the staff are the best.
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* The young man who took his degrees that day was a young military officer bound for Afghanistan within the week. May God protect him and bring him home safely.