Because John and I were together for almost a decade before we got married, we still celebrate our dating anniversary each year and, this year, it fell during our time in New Orleans. We made reservations at Landry’s – a restaurant built right on the water on Lake Pontchartrain – and got ready for a “date night”. Dinner was okay but not as good as I had hoped although eating lakeside did offer some pretty views. We had the New Orleans Crawfish Bread, Mixed Grill (lobster tail, filet, bacon wrapped shrimp enbrochette, and asparagus) and the Prime Ribeye with Shrimp and Crab Scampi. Because we weren’t super impressed with the food, we decided to pick up dessert elsewhere and take it home.
We ended up stopping at Angelo Brocato and picked up a Mezza Crema and a cannoli for our desserts. They were amazing!
The next day I realized that I had left my sweater at Landry’s and when I called they said that they were holding on to it for me. We headed over to get it after John got off work and also used the opportunity to take our new e-bikes out for a spin along the waterfront.
When we left Ohio, I had taken my bicycle (which was gifted to me by a friend) but John had sold his bike. While my bike was perfectly acceptable for leisurely rides, John’s was a high-end street bike which he used to ride in the Pelotonia fundraiser in Columbus each year for the past few years. My bike was no match for his. When it was time to buy a new set of wheels for John, we actually decided that we would both just get e-bikes. These bikes are made for riding on pavement, gravel, dirt-whatever. They have pedal assist capabilities to help when riding up steep inclines (or for when you just get really tired) and the battery life is about 60 miles. They are heavy as hell (about 70lbs each) but they fold up easily for convenient storage and transportation and would put us on equal ground. It was an expensive investment (about $2500 for both bikes and accessory packs) but it was worth it! We took advantage of a great sale at the end of the year and ordered our bikes while we were still in Hattiesburg. We had them delivered to the park in New Orleans and they arrived just a few days after we did. After much research (internet research on ratings and reviews, watching several YouTube videos, and talking with other e-bike owners we met on our travels) we had gone with the Lectric eBike XP 3.0 – one in black for John and one in white for me (which I promptly began covering in stickers).
I would like to mention here that we LOVE our bikes. We did have one issue with my bike when it arrived – my display screen was cracked when it came out of the packaging. We contacted the company and they sent us a replacement with absolutely no issues at all. John was able to switch them out and now everything is as good as new.
We had had the bikes for a week or two and had tested them out around the campground but since the park was small and the neighborhood was bad, we hadn’t had a lot of experience on them. Coming down to Lake Pontchartrain was the perfect time to really see what they could do. The lakeshore on the southside near our current home was all paved and had stairs leading down to the water and a large section for walking or biking at the top of the bank. We rode a few miles down the shore and back, then took a longer ride through a neighborhood and around the docks out to a small peninsula to really enjoy the views. All told, we road about 7 miles and were able to get our bikes up to around 20 mph when using it in “full throttle” mode. I could tell that we were going to love these bikes!
While we had a blast on the bikes, we realized we had a big problem the next day. John has had issues with his Achilles tendon in the past that had caused him to be out of commission and in a boot for almost two months back in 2021. Apparently, riding bikes without stretching was enough to trigger the injury again and he woke up unable to walk the next morning. Thankfully, this injury wouldn’t take as long to heal as it had the last time this happened. Unfortunately, it meant that we wouldn’t be doing much walking for the next few weeks and would miss a few of the early Mardi Gras parades but we still made the best of things.
We did make it to Metairie for some shopping (I shopped while John sat on a bench) and saw some really cool costumes on display in the mall there.
We also went out for lunch at a restaurant called Deanie’s (partly because we heard it was good and partly because that is the nickname we use for our cat Heraldine). We had our first experience with charbroiled oysters and ate a ton of fried seafood. It was also at this restaurant that we experienced something new and unexpected – instead of a basket of bread served with the meal you are given a basket of cooked potatoes. We were a little confused at first but we figured “when in Rome, right?”. They were delicious and we quickly ate the entire basket.
It was now three weeks into our time in “The Big Easy” and we still had so much to do. We hoped John’s foot would heal quickly. Little did we know that this was just the first of our New Orleans injuries and that we would spend the rest of our stay trading off issues between the two of us.
Our fourth week started out with some nasty storms blowing through. We had some high winds and heavy rain but thankfully all the severe weather and tornadoes missed us. Because we were up all night, though, ready to grab the cats and run for shelter at a moment’s notice, we didn’t get any sleep. We spent the first few days of the week exhausted with me sick and John still injured. We decided to take things pretty easy this week.
While we took this opportunity to stay close to home, we did get to try out a restaurant that was just a few doors down from the gate to our park. Natal’s didn’t look like much from the outside but the food was amazing! We had fried shrimp with corn and mashed potatoes that were just so good and comforting and a really delicious Po’ Boy Sandwich. In addition to the restaurant portion, there was also a section that had a few snack items and beverages so we also got to try some local chips and sodas. We would definitely be eating here a few more times before leaving town.
Since John didn’t feel like getting out and doing much, we used our evenings to book campgrounds for our return trip from New Orleans to Ohio. Due to healthcare needs, vet appointments, and just being homesick we decided to swing back through our hometown in May. We didn’t want to head north too quickly – we had learned during the unseasonable cold spell in Jackson that we didn’t want to deal with freezing pipes- but we figured mid-May would be safe. We also don’t like to drive too much at a time so we ended up planning our route and booking stops in Mobile and Auburn in Alabama, Macon and Atlanta in Georgia, Rocky Top in Tennessee, and Falmouth in Kentucky before returning to Delaware, OH on May 7th. I started planning activities for these stops and John took care of all of the campsite reservations.
We did venture out on the weekend for a mini adventure. We had lunch at Willie Mae’s – Fried Chicken and a Chicken Sandwich on Saturday followed by a slow day at home.
On Sunday, we went out for a drive around town – this time crossing the Mississippi and heading west through New Orleans. We drove over some really cool bridges and found a few cute parks. We also passed Destrehan Plantation and decided we wanted to visit. While John was starting to feel better, we didn’t want to rush things we so planned a visit for a later date, grabbed lunch at Camellia Grill (I had the potato omelette and John had a burger) and spent the rest of the day at home hoping that by next weekend we would be able to get back to normal.
