Saturday Night

Whew!

We're here, and I, for one, am tired. I'm sitting in the house on Jeanette Street listening to some jazz on the stereo. The group is in the French Quarter taking in some of the sites and the music. I stayed back just because of the tiredness factor and also because I wanted to calmy get organized. My memories of previous trips largely involve the feeling of "go, go, go." I thought I might take this lone opportunity of the trip to "relax, relax, relax."

Last night was a fun one. Sam and Rose, after a few detours, made it to the house around 6:00. We were happy to see them.

A lot of organizing, decompressing and shower-taking were in order last night. I would like to say that I took a shower but mine ended up a bath as I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn the shower on. I later discovered that I wasn't alone in not figuring out the complexities of the shower, it was just that I was the only one who was too stubborn to ask for help.

The house is good. It's a double shotgun house. It used to be a duplex but they bought both sides and turned it into a single dwelling. We will not have trouble locating one another in the house. We are very packed in, two or three to a room. We'll definitely learn much, whether we like it or not, about each other.

We've met the neighbors, Evelyn, Andy, and son Luca. They are very nice. They are from Switzerland. Andy helped recommend a breakfast place to us this morning. Very good!

So, after the necessary work of last night, we went downtown and took in Mulate's. It's a cajun dancehall/restaraunt. It was a fun way to celebrate our first evening in the city, listening to a band and eating the local fare. None, however, walked a way too impressed with the place. Let's just say we won't be rushing to get back. Sam is our resident music expert and he wasn't particularly taken by "waltz-like" cajun tunes. Kim was reminded of a dancehall her grandparents used to take her too. First night in New Orleans - fun but we set the bar low. Things will surely only get better from here.