ACP Meeting in NOLA Day #1 “On the Road Again”

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.