We head home today but our flight scheduled for 6:40 pm has been delayed twice (current departure time is 8:53 pm) so we have time to do some more sightseeing. Last night we had an incredible dinner at the Pelican Club (312 Exchange Pl, New Orleans, LA 70130). It was recommended by her friend, Ellen. Patrice had the Cioppino and I had the Red Fish. This trip I learned that I love Red Fish (aka Drum).
This morning we trekked to the French Quarter to have Beignets and Cafe Au Lait at Cafe Du Monde, a New Orleans tradition. We could have gone to their satelite outlet at a nearby mall but that would not have been the same.
How can you go to a recent add-on when there is so much tradition with this place.
After that we walked back to the hotel during a light mist of rain. Before I forget here are some travel tips for NOLA that might help you in other areas.
As previously stated don’t trust the taxi drivers in NOLA except for trips to and from the airport. Walking is a great option but bring an umbrella and jacket no matter how warm it is. It can get very cold very quick here. Next is a great tip from my son, David. Pack this incredible backpack. It has tons of pockets for all sorts of goodies (I used it in the conference to bring my laptop, phone charger, ear phones, glasses, etc.) Also as you can see it folds up to a very. tiny size that is very easy to stuff in your luggage.
Backpack ready to be filled. This is what it looked like when I slipped it into my luggage.
Also, don’t look like a tourist. See below.
What? Does wearing a hat that says Portofino, holding a city map, and a cup from Cafe Du Monde look suspicious?
Now for some photos that I found interesting. Some need no explanation, some need a few words, and some are beyond my comprehension.
Southwest now has these huge overhead compartments which are very convenient for storage but very hard on the head. I banged mine getting into my seat and on my way out. Hopefully I will remember and not do it on the return flight.I saw this sign upon arriving in New Orleans. I had to investigate the Pet Relief area.I found this room, equipped with fire hydrant. It also had a sink in case your pet wanted to wash its hands. I mean paws.This speaks for itself.Love this slide of a doctor counseling a patient about colon cancer screening. Check out the doctor’s left hand.Patrice and me posing at the ACP sign. For those of you who didn’t believe my story of the song “Father and Daughter” here is a list of the final songs slated to be played. By the way, I am not crying now. [Patrice here: Yes he is.]Even the police sell souvenirs.Of course I had to buy Patrice something as a souvenir of the trip.
But she opted for this instead.
And finally in honor of Eric.
Carrot Sticky Toffee Cake with Cream Cheese Ice Cream from Peche (where we had lunch today).
That’s all for this trip. Speak to you in May when we go to ………………
Last night was very special. We took an Uber to the Saenger Theater. By the way don’t take a cab here unless it’s from the airport where the fee to and from the city is a fixed rate. We’ve taken 3 cab rides here and not one taxi had a meter. It’s as if they make up the charge on arrival (With the exception of the airport rides). For instance last night we took an Uber to the theater and paid $10. Yesterday we took a cab to the same place to buy the tickets and the charge was $20.
Oh well, let’s concentrate on the happy thoughts. The show was at the Saenger theatre which was built in 1927. It has housed performances by Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Seinfeld and many others. Broadway shows have also been featured including Chicago, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and next week Hamilton. The theater is gorgeous. Before the show we had a chance to tour around this beautiful theater. We met an usher who had been on the job for only 2 days but was born and raised in New Orleans and it was obvious that the theater had been a big part of his life. He filled us in on the history of the theatre and gave us a list of the songs and the order in which they were going to be played.
Look like we are having fun?A variety of statues adorn the walls. There is a night sky decoration on the ceiling.
Simon came onstage at 8:15 for a show that was scheduled to start at 8. I was disappointed looking at the song list because “Father and Daughter” was not included. Although not his most famous song it has been special to me since I made two music videos using the song. Each honored one of my daughters Lindsay and Erica (I also made one for David using “Let’s Hear It For the Boy”. A better choice for obvious reasons). Simon finished the show and then came back for his encore with the songs listed as “The Boxer” and “The Sounds of Silence”. He started to talk about his daughter Lulu and then much to my surprise he started playing “Father and Daughter”. By the time he got to the last line (“There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you”) I was in tears. [Patrice here: The big baby was in tears just writing this sentence.]
It was a special night but the 83 year old soon to be 84 didn’t quite sound the same as years ago.
This morning I started off thinking it was time to hit the gym and get on the treadmill. I kept procrastinating until Patrice woke up and said “Let’s go to breakfast”. We took an Uber to Who Dat Coffee Cafe (2401 Burgundy St, New Orleans, LA 70117) which was recommended by our friends Alan and Becky. We shared the special of the day Oysters Benedict. I said to the server that it sounded very healthy to which he replied “They don’t call us the heart attack capital of the world for nothing.”
Oysters Benedict with Grits instead of fruit (Why try to be healthy?).Your happy travelers in front of Who Dat Coffee Cafe.
After breakfast we took a short walk to the nearby Jamnola museum. Jamnola stands for Joy Art Music New Orleans Louisiana. It was a small but fun museum with lots of creative exhibits.
I thought we were in an M.C.Escher painting. We offered an alligator some tasty Californians.
We thought we would then cruise the neighborhood but heavy rain with thunder and lightning convinced us to just chill in the museum a little longer.
Crawfish (also spelled Crayfish) making Robert EtouffeeHe changed his mind and we played a duet instead.Patrice showing off her muscles.
They had a number of costumes and accessories that people have worn at Mardi Gras celebrations including the outfit below.
A guide was asked if it weighed about 100 lbs to which she say, “No, somewhere between 95 and 105”.
Then it was off to lunch. It was still raining quite hard so a walk to burn off some calories was not going to work so another Uber ride was upon us. We decided to return to Muriel’s for another amazing meal.
Crawfish and goat cheese crepes.Blackened Redfish with some broccolini (added to make you think you are eating healthy).
I think Muriel’s might be our NOLA favorite.
Sorry, I need to stop for now. My book group meeting is about to start. Dinner will be late so I will leave you until tomorrow.
This morning I planned on attending a 7 AM lecture for the 3rd day in a row. I awoke at about 4 AM and decided rather than playing Duolingo, Wordle, and checking emails I would close my eyes for one more second. When I next opened them it was 6:58 AM. At that point it was unlikely that I would make it to the 7:00 AM lecture so I just closed my eyes again and smiled. What a wonderful feeling it is to get a good night’s sleep. I finally got my act together and made it to the 8:00 AM lecture and those that followed. Today was a good day in which I learned all sorts of great tips that will help my patients and me.
Mid day we met for a quick lunch at the nearby Mulate’s (201 Julia St, New Orleans, LA 70130) so I could get back to the conference. The main courses were okay but the highlight was the dessert. So here at the request of Eric is a photo of a dessert: beignets filled with Nutella.
Worth every calorie.
The highlight of the meeting occurred today when Patrice and I saw a UCLA Health VIP. Yes, Janet, one of the high level doctors at UCLA Health was at the conference. We chatted briefly then Janet told Patrice that I was a UCLA superstar. How could I not love that?
That’s all good news but I’m sure you are asking “What is the great news?” Turns out that one of my sister’s high school classmates is in town and we will be seeing him tonight. Many years ago I recall looking through my sister’s high school annual. I was curious to see what she looked like when she was 18. I wondered if she looked anything like what I remembered. After finding her I looked at the other students. Suddenly I stopped and yelled out, “ANNETTE, YOU WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH SIMON AND GARFUNKEL?”. As I recall she said, “Who?”. So tonight we will be seeing Paul Simon perform. Much to my amazement we could buy excellent seats at a very affordable price. We looked online and saw that balcony seats for his performance in Los Angeles cost far more than we paid for seats in the orchestra section for tonight’s performance.
Yes, Paul Simon in New Orleans.
Home now. Too tired to write more. I’ll tell you all about the concert tomorrow.
This morning I headed out to the ACP meeting trying to get to a 7:00 AM talk. Yes, 7:00 AM! Don’t these people realize that some attendees are coming from California? I did my best not to disturb Patrice while leaving at that absurd time of the morning. After a quick breakfast I made it to the meeting where the speaker was discussing wound healing. I had no idea the extent of the pictures that were to follow. After seeing some tasty bed sores and limbs that looked like they were destined to be amputated, my breakfast started to revisit me. Luckily it stayed where I had placed it rather than returning to my mouth.
The morning went well, as did the afternoon. While I was trying to get smart, Patrice was again exploring the city. She went to the Audubon Aquarium (I thought Audubon was into birds?) which is not too far from the hotel and said she was thinking of me. Then she sent me this picture (see below)
Thinking of me? What is she trying to tell me?
One of my concerns for this vacation was that I would not get any time to exercise. We are staying at a hotel that is across the street from the convention center and with so many interesting talks how would I get any time to work out? It turns out that the New Orleans convention center might be one of the longest ones in the world (1 kilometer according to Wikipedia). Even though we are across the street, the meetings are at the opposite end. On Wednesday my pedometer read 14,243 steps. Today it was at 6,477 by noon. The set up here is kind of crazy. It is not unsual to have about 500+ steps between lectures. And when you get disoriented about the lecture room location (which is easy to do) you can add on another 500 steps.
After the conference we decided to head out for dinner. First I thought I would see how the outside world was doing and I found this. See below.
Hmmm, this blog is suppose to be fun and games.
After seeing that my appetite became curbed a bit. I thought for a moment and I asked myself, do you think Patrice would accept McDonalds instead of another fancy NOLA restaurant? That would be a NO!
Dinner was at an Italian restaurant named Domenica (123 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70112). It is located inside the Roosevelt Hotel and was recommended by a friend of Patrice. The food and service were superb. See below.
Patrice had the fish of the day, Red Snapper.I had the crawfish pizza. It was excellent but Patrice’s fish was much better. We shared the Brussels Sprouts.
As I said the restaurant is located in the Roosevelt Hotel. The hotel looked very elegant. It opened in 1893 when it was called The Grunewald Hotel”. In 1923 it was renamed in honor of former President Teddy Roosevelt. I was told that Huey Long often frequented the place. We checked out the lobby and saw this painting. See below.
Patrice said it reminded her of us. I didn’t understand then I looked a little closer.Now I understand.
I have to get some work done now because before you know it, I will need to hustle down the street to the conference.
Today I started the ACP conference and Patrice toured the city. She definitely got the best of the deal. For example I started my day with a talk about pains in the butt. That was my highlight. In all sincerity the talk was very informative and gave me some tips that will help me assist my patients. I hesitated writing that knowing that someone will make some butt jokes at my expense. Go ahead I can take it. The rest of the talks were just okay. Patrice on the other hand took a city tour. Here is the one picture she sent me.
Caesar’s Palace Casino? Do I need to keep a closer eye on this woman?
The afternoon lectures were okay but none were as good as the 7:00 AM Butt lecture. In addition to going to the didactic sessions we have time to go to the the exhibit hall where all sorts of companies are looking to sell their products to doctors. There are electronic medical records companies, drug companies, and a variety of companies looking to hire doctors. I stopped at one of the booths to talk to a recruiter. I cut to the chase, “Would you consider hiring a doctor of my age?” The rep enthusiatically said, “Yes, yes!”. So we had a conversation and I think we might have a deal. I really liked the look of their booth. What do you think?
I later asked if they knew who their oldest primary care physician was at UCLA. They did not, so I told him it was me.
In addition to looking for a job I was availed some health food in the Exhibit Hall. After all this is the meeting for the nation’s elite internal medicine specialists, of course we eat healthy.
Delicious brownines. Not up to Patrice’s quality. But how would I know, did I eat one? No, I ate two.Hmmm, maybe this is why I’m so thirsty.
That’s enough about food. Well maybe not.
Tonight’s dinner was at GW Fins (808 Bienville St, New Orleans, LA 70112). It was recommended by my friend Andy, who said he had the best meal of his life there. Andy is from Fresno. Should I have been worried?
The restaurant is in the French Quarter and they had a modest dress code (men required to wear collared shirts). They started us off with biscuits. They looked very plan but beleive me they were anything but.
Very tasty biscuits.
Patrice and I both ordered the Scalibut. Seems like this day started with a lecture about butts and ended with us eating two. The Scalibut dish was Shrimp, scallops, halibut, and risotto. Also with a few peas to fool you into to thinking you’re eating healthy.
This was amazing and gone in a flash.
I don’t know about you “butt” I’m exhausted. Talk to you tomorrow.
We are off. After a relatively long hiatus we are traveling again. I must admit it has been quite gratifying to hear from numerous people “When will you be traveling? I miss your blog.” Well that day has come. At my previous job, I was only working 1 day per week and had 8 weeks of vacation. My current job with UCLA is a bit more restrictive so other than a couple of weekend trips to visit the grandsons we have stayed at home a fair amount of the time. I recently found out that I’m allotted educational leave that doesn’t count against vacation. When I realized that the American College of Physicians meeting was in New Orleans this year I had to go. Patrice agreed without hesitation since some of our best meals on trips have been in NOLA. Some of our friends heard about our plans and said they look forward to hearing about the trip when we get back. I told them, I’d send them an email everyday instead. Just check out REISSTRAVELBLOG.COM
As usual the trip to the airport was a breeze. We use the Ride Yellow app for trips to LAX. The Yellow cab drivers almost always arrive early (as opposed to Uber drivers who seem to have trouble finding our house). They don’t charge you extra for reserving the taxi in advance. They also know how to get to the airport. The charge is quite reasonable so I suggest you use them.
The flight to NOLA was uneventful except for some occasional mild turbulence. I have to admit I was a little unnerved when I saw this.
737 MAX? Yikes!!!
In spite of being on one of the most dangerous planes in the sky at least we weren’t going to one of the most dangerous airports. That being Reagan in DC. And I am not talking about the air traffic issues in DC. Oh well, we landed safely in NOLA, got our bags and headed to the hotel.
People have expressed concern about my blogging. “Aren’t you worried that someone will rob your house knowing that you are out of town?” Not at all, I tell them. The reason is that we have Bruce and his pet dog, “Daisy”, house sitting for us.
Here is a picture of Bruce.
And here is a picture of his sweet dog, Daisy.
Isn’t Daisy a dear?
Tonight’s dinner was at Muriel’s (801 Chartres St, New Orleans, LA 70116). We’ve eaten there twice before and tonight was just as wonderful as we remembered. They had a wonderful offer that we took advantage of. You could choose an appetizer, main course and dessert for $55. The meal was amazing. I don’t think we could recreate the food we had for twice that cost in Los Angeles. Just take a look at our choices.
My appetizer was the wedge salad. It was perfect. Patrice had the Tasso Carbonara. She thought it was great. My main course was Shrimp and Grits.
I have a rule never have Shrimp and Grits north of the Mason Dixon line. Well we are south right now, and this meal did not disappoint me. The only thing I thought was odd was that there were only 5 shrimp. Don’t they usually serve 6 shrimp with an entree?
[Patrice here. Don’t say anything but as you can see in the picture there were 6 shrimp. Someone grabbed one when Robert was busy using his phone. Serves him right.]
Patrice’s entree was the Pecan Crusted Drum.
I never had heard of a fish called a Drum. I Googled it and found out that Drum are members of the Sciaenidae family. Sorry but that did not help me at all.
Bread pudding for dessert. Patrice’s favorite. Almost as good as Massa in Los Angeles. I had the Crème brûlée
The crème brûlée was delicious. It was just as good as the crème brûlée that I make and a lot better than my friend, Gary’s. By the way, as a doctor I am a bit embarrassed to promote and make crème brûlée. After all it has to be one of the most unhealthy desserts ever made. It has sugar, heavy cream, vanilla (that’s not bad), and egg yolks. The healthiest part of the egg (the white, which has all the protein) is discarded. Very unhealthy but oooohhhhh soooo good.
After all that food, I am exhausted. Talk to you tomorrow.
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.
Patrice, Don, Angie and me.
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.”
You might recall that I was exhausted last night at the end of the conference. It was a bit intense. I attended over 21 hours of lectures in 3 days. Most of the talks were very rewarding. Some of the speakers were informative and entertaining. For example one was talking about the hippocampus (part of the brain) and showed us the picture below.
He told us: “This is not the hippocampus but rather hippos camping.
Another lecturer was stressing the importance of being observant. He suggested that Ann Coulter being tall, lean, and having long thin fingers might have Marfan’s syndrome (don’t bother looking it up, it isn’t important). I was curious to know if she really did have the disease. For those of you not in medicine this problem can sometimes result in sudden death at a young age. This is what I found on answers.yahoo.com:
“She’s “Marfanoid,” meaning tall, dorky, and somewhat ugly of face, like Abe Lincoln in drag. But don’t get your hopes up, she won’t die from it.”
In addition to the great lectures the convention had a huge amount of exhibitors. A variety of booths displayed the latest in medical technology and medical treatments. There were a number of physician recruiters (great time to be a young physician) and people trying to get out information about disease entities that might not be very well known. One of those was a group representing the Relapsing Polychondritis sufferers. We stopped by and chatted for a while and tried to help them get some physicians interested in discussing RP. It was nice speaking with the volunteers (we all have a mutual friend, Nancy, in Los Angeles) but most of all it was great eating their chocolate treats.
Hanging with our friends at the RP booth (from left to right Erin, Dale and Brandy)
With the annual meeting over I turned to Patrice to find us an activity for us to do and she did ………….. a Food Tour! We have had great times on food tours in Memphis, London, Nashville and Reykjavik. Today we added NOLA to our list. Unfortunately we were disappointed in today’s tour. We had tiny tastes of Gumbo and Jambalaya at our first stop.
Jambalaya and Gumbo
I thought the Jambalaya was good but the Gumbo lacked flavor. The next stop we went to the Pepper Palace which specializes in hot sauce. Free samples were available to the public (we paid for this?).
Showing you Pepper Palace hot stuff. And they had sauces too.
Next we had a Praline which was good followed by Red Beans and Rice (a dish that is one of my favorites but this was just okay). Our last stop was for a Brisket Po Boy. I have to say this tour ranks last in my mind among the food tours we have taken. Number one remains Lance Silke’s “Tastin Round Town” [https://www.tastinroundtown.com/] Memphis BBQ tour.
We are resting back at the hotel now because tonight we are going out with friends to……………………………. dinner!
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.”
Elizabeth’s for Breakfast
Elizabeth’s not a safe place for a pig.
Red Neck Eggs (Eggs Benedict with fried green tomatoes) and grits
Praline Bacon. As I said before an excuse to eat candy for breakfast.
Loretta’s for lunch. Penguins must be big problem in NOLA.
Commander’s Palace for dinner. Pecan Gulf Fish, sorry I couldn’t wait for Patrice to snap a photo.
Soup Sampler: Gumbo, Turtle and Soup de Jour (Chicken and Sweet Potato)
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.
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.
Crawfish Beignet as featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It tasted even better than it looks.
Classic Lasagna with pork
Boudreaux Pizza. No, we didn’t finish 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.
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 