Month: April 2018

No we didn’t see Simon and Garfunkel last night, but we did see our friends Angie and Don.  We were first introduced to these lovely people on a trip to the Crescent City in 2014.  At that time we just stopped by “for drinks” but instead Angie served us an incredible meal which included my favorite (and the real reason I am willing to put up with the humidity in the South) shrimp and grits.  If you’ve never tried them I recommend you don’t.  They are very unhealthy but totally irresistible.

Angie and Don agreed to have dinner at 9:00 PM to accommodate our still being on west coast time (I told you they are lovely people) and they picked us up at our hotel.  We had asked to go to some place only known to locals so they drove us to Bacchanal (600 Poland Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117).  When we arrived we saw a line out the door.  I asked, “Don’t you have reservations?”  To which Angie replied, “They don’t take reservations”.   This actually turned out just fine.  The line went quickly because many of the people just wanted to get drinks.  The food was good and served Tapas style.  It was nice getting together with friends our last night in town.

I think we are leaving town just in time.  It is starting to get very humid here and I don’t do well with humidity.  It is time to leave New Orleans and time to start planning our next trip.  In May we will have what has become our annual Baseball and BBQ road trip.  Thank you so much to Patrice for allowing me to continue to pursue my hopes to visit every MLB ballpark.  We have visited 14 and have 16 more to go.  In exchange I continue to agree when she wants to order bread pudding for dessert.

I enjoy posting about our trips and LOVE your comments.  I spoke to someone about making money from a blog and they said you need at least 100,000 followers to make any money.  I told him I had 200 to which he replied “You should be able to make some real coinage with 200,000 followers.”  Then I told him, “No, I have 200, not 200,000.”

Goodbye until May.  It’s good to be home.

I mentioned yesterday about getting together with the other members from the ACP California region.  There we compared notes about our activities.  Two of the people we spoke to said they arrived a day early.  One told us about the swamp tour she took, the other raved about his visit to the World War II museum.  I said that we came a day early too.  They asked, “What did you do?”.  I thought for a minute and looked at Patrice and said, “What did we do?”.  She quickly replied we went to Elizabeth’s for breakfast, Loretta’s for lunch and Commander’s Palace for dinner.”

Today was the last day of the conference and I am exhausted.  I don’t think I can move a muscle.  Wait, Patrice is calling me, I’ll be right back to tell more if I can get muster the energy after I see what she wants.

Got to go, time for dinner.

As I mentioned yesterday we had a very nice dinner at Katie’s, a place recommended by locals.  This restaurant was featured on the show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” one of our daughter, Lindsay’s, favorites.   On the episode they featured the Crawfish Beignet so of course we had to try it.  For a main course Patrice ordered the Boudreaux Pizza and I had the Classic Lasagna (since when is classic lasagna made with pork?).   They offered bread pudding for dessert but if you look at the our meals you will understand why we didn’t even consider ordering it.

This morning started with a little marijuana.  Yes the 7:00 AM lecture was about marijuana usage in medicine.  It was not a great lecture but the rest of the day was spectacular.  I learned a bunch of helpful pearls to bring back to my practice.  There was one session featuring 6 speakers.  Each speaker was given the limitation of 20 slides for 20 seconds each.  It forced them to prepare very focused lectures.  Each talk was informative and entertaining.   One of the doctors spoke about medical education in a talk entitled “Creativity Through Leonardo”.  He had some very humorous and thought provoking quotes.  For example:  Woody Allen: “I took a speed reading course and then read War and Peace in 10 minutes.  It’s about Russia”.  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”.  Leonardo da Vinci: “Imagination is more important that knowledge” and “Invention arises directly from idleness.”  The quotes were just a small part of this 6 minute 40 second presentation which earned him a standing ovation.

Tonight we attended the California Chapter Reception.  In the past we have found these sessions to be a series of interesting chit chats sandwiched (sorry for the pun) around some very good (and free) food.  Tonight was a bit different.  The food was great but the chit chat was a bit salty.  We spoke to one doctor from San Diego who told us about his horrible mother-in-law and how she had ice water coming from her veins.  This was in response to “We are from Los Angeles”.   Another doctor from San Diego, after learning that Patrice is a psychologist, grilled her for information about sociopaths.   She is in the process of getting a divorce from a sociopath (the doctor not Patrice).

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference so I need to rest up.  7:00 AM seems to arrive earlier here than it does in LA.

Today was the first official day of the conference.  I had to struggle to get out of bed since last night we had a late meal at one of our favorites, Irene’s.  Patrice had the fish, I had the duck and when the waiter started to list the desserts I stopped listening after he said bread pudding.  I know my wife.  Dinner was great but Masa still reigns as the bread pudding king.

Today’s first lecture began at 7:00 AM (5:00 AM Los Angeles time) and I had trouble getting there.  The time was only part of the problem.  Our hotel is situated only a 5 minute walk from the convention center.  But after I arrived I had another 10 minute walk to get to the lecture hall.  The lecture room easily would have accommodated 300 people but there couldn’t have been more that 25 in attendance.  The masses knew something I didn’t; the lecture was awful.  I was in room 393-399 (4 rooms combined to make one massive venue) and my next lecture was in room 343.  It seemed as if all I needed to do was to walk down the hall a bit and I would arrive at my destination.  Not so simple.  I could not find the room.  Then I heard another couple of doctors say they were looking for room 343 so I decided to tag along with them.  They didn’t help much.  Then they recruited one of the convention center employees for assistance and when the employee couldn’t find the room I gave up and went to a different lecture.  I picked the closest one to where I was standing because I knew, if nothing else, at least I could find it. It turned out to be an excellent lecture so I left very pleased.

After that I met up with Patrice and we toured the exhibit hall.  Patrice is the queen of the exhibit halls.  She loves to visit the different booths and scoop up the various swag (see below).

As you can see Patrice got all sorts of goodies.  The combination pizza cutter bottle opener is my favorite.

We had lunch at the convention and then I returned for the afternoon sessions.  I told Patrice I needed to give plenty of time because I was certain that the center was designed by a guy on LSD and I was not sure I could find my lecture room.   This time I quickly found my location (Theater C) but leaving the hall wasn’t as easy.   To play things safe I decided to leave from the same place I thought I had entered.  This took me up a series of steps leading to an exit sign.  It was very dark and when I opened the door to leave I was struck by very bright light and found myself on a rooftop deck without an exit.  When I turned around the bright light had made it impossible for me to see on the already dark walkway.  I had to turn on my phone flashlight (I know this sounds fabricated but it is 100% true) so I could walk back down the stairs.  I stopped another attendee from making the same mistake I had and then found another exit and left Theater C only to turn around and see that it was labeled Theater B.  Like I said, the guy who designed this place must have been on LSD at the time.

At the conclusion of the days events, I set out for the hotel.  This was also an adventure.  We might be in LA (Louisiana) but this is not LA (Los Angeles) when it comes to traffic.  In Los Angeles the crosswalks are safe zones for pedestrians.  Here they are corral zones to be used as round up targets for drivers.  I did not see one driver slow down for any pedestrians.  One of the lecturers quoted a study that found an inverse relationship with walking speed and longevity.  I am convinced the study was done in this town.

Tonight we ate at Katies (3701 Iberville St, New Orleans, LA 70119) and had another excellent meal.  Apparently the restaurant was badly hit by Katrina in 2005 (See below).

That’s enough for tonight.  I need to get to sleep, 7 AM (or 5AM) is just around the corner.

This morning started on a very healthy note since I was feeling very guilty about the meal we had last night at Commander’s Palace.  We had been there in 1984 on our first trip to NOLA and decided to go back this time after recently seeing the documentary “Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table” (it is on Netflix and I recommend you watch it).   I had probably the best fish I have ever eaten (Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish).   For dessert we shared bread pudding which was good but we still think Masa in Los Angeles has the best we have tasted.  A meal like that had to be followed by an early morning work out.

This morning, after running 3.1 miles on the treadmill (5,000 meters for those of you reading in Europe) we started some touring of the city.  Of course we had to start the day with breakfast at Elizabeth’s (our favorite in this town).  We decided to Uber there and walk back.  We had a very pleasant driver and I noticed he had an LSU bandana in the car.  I innocently asked, “Did you go to LSU?”.  He nodded and replied “Yes, six years at LSU and I am an Uber driver.”   Giving him the benefit of the doubt I asked “Are you pursuing another career?”.  I was thinking possibly he wants to be an actor and needs flexibility to go for auditions or maybe he is at a start-up that requires lots of time at work but does not pay a lot of money.  He answered, “Nope, I am just a Uber driver”.  I stopped while I was behind and thanked him for the ride.

At Elizabeth’s I had my usual order of “Red Neck Eggs” (Eggs Benedict using Fried Green Tomatoes instead of Canadian bacon and grits on the side) and Praline Bacon (an excuse to eat candy at breakfast).  After breakfast we decided to walk back to the hotel.  On our way we stopped at Dr. Bob’s art shop.  We had seen some of his work at Elizabeth’s and his studio was on the way.  At the shop we were told that Bob was vacationing in Arkansas (Doesn’t the life of a successful artist make you so envious?).  After taking a quick look at Dr Bob’s work, Dr. Robert decided it was time to move on.

We continued our journey and stopped to visit the St. Augustine church which is the site of a memorial called “The Tomb of the Unknown Slave” (see below).  We also passed by the famous French Quarter and a small building that supposedly was the site where Fats Domino recorded what people in NOLA claim was the first Rock and Roll album.  Very interesting if you are a R&R fan but if you are a fan of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog the correct answer is “Who gives a S–T”.

For dinner we will be heading to Irene’s.  No not my mother’s house but another one of our NOLA favorites.  More about that tomorrow when the conference begins and I have to start thinking more about medicine and less about food.  I will leave the food thinking to Patrice.