Takin' it easy to the Big Easy

Mom always said, "good intentions pave the road to H-e-l-l. Hope she was wrong. Once again, we intended to get an early start. I don't know what happens but we never seem to do that. We got up early enough but then....who knows!! Alex called and said they were headed to the airport to meet us in New Orleans. We had just gotten our breakfast in Natchez when I got a text saying they had landed in New Orleans. We haven't even gone 10 blocks in the city and they've gone from Memphis to New Orleans. We asked the nice lady at the bakery/coffee place what we should see in Natchez and she said we should go the the Basilica and Longwood. So, we did. There was some kind of service going on at the church so we weren't there long then we went on to Longwood. It is the largest octagonal house in the country. It was started before the Civil War (or, the War of Northern Aggression--nothing "civil" about it!). The war started before it was finished, the builders-the Nutt family, lost everything in the war and the house was never completed. It stayed in the family for generations and now belongs to a garden club in Natchez. It can never be completed. The only part that is finished besides the outside is the basement which is 10,000 sq feet. The whole house is 30,000 sq ft. It's pretty amazing. The workers made all the bricks on site--all 750,000 of them! Our guide was very knowledgeable and told some funny stories. I would recommend this tour if you are ever in the Natchez area. We walked around the grounds a bit and then headed for Mammy's Cupboard--a politically incorrect establishment with some awesome sandwiches and desserts. We had lunch about 2 hours after breakfast but we just couldn't pass this one up! After we ate, we finally headed for New Orleans--about 2:30.

We arrived in New Orleans right at rush hour---lovely! It wasn't too bad, thankfully. Rex got here about 10 minutes after we did. We checked into the hotel and met Jim and Alex at a bar down the street. From there we went to St. Joe's bar and then to Clancy's (Uptown) for dinner. Dinner was good, but long and loud. The kitchen was quite slow but everything was tasty and we were in good company so it was fine. We got a cab back to the Quarter and walked around a bit and ended up at Pat O's before calling it a night.