Happy Birthday to Me!

It was an exciting weekend for us, as we celebrated my birthday Friday by vacating our N. Wintzell address for a trip to the Big Easy. Here are a few observations from our weekend:

1) Social networking has made wishing people a happy birthday easier than ever before. I counted 118 birthday greetings on my Facebook wall. I didn't even know that many people knew me, much less would take the time to wish me a happy birthday. Birthdays in the Facebook era make you feel like a rock star. Thanks to all of you for helping me enjoy the day.

2) I'm 29 now, so I guess I need to enjoy the last year of my 20's. The past 9 years have been pretty eventful. I've finished two degrees and started on a third. I met and married my wife. We've had two children and are expecting our third in December. I've gotten the opportunity to serve at four churches that have each taught me some important lessons about serving God and loving people. To borrow a phrase from one of my favorite authors, Garrison Keillor, "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger". Sorry, wrong quote. Let's try this again: "Thank you God, for this good life, and forgive us if we do not love it enough".

3) When you head south of New Orleans and cross the river towards Vacherie, home of Oak Alley Plantation you will encounter more sugar cane than you knew existed in the entire world. It never ceases to amaze me how a place can be so close geographically but feel so different when you get there.

4) Oak Alley was amazing. If you ever get the chance, definitely check it out.

5) New Orleans, LA is the hottest place on the entire planet. I can't imagine the surface of the sun being any hotter than New Orleans was this weekend. On Saturday, they put the mules up because it was too hot for them to pull their buggies. Did this heat prevent any of the tourists from swarming the Quarter or Aquarium? Of course not.

6) I don't get Cafe DuMonde. I know that a lot of you are going to consider this heresy, but I don't really care for beignets all that much. I especially don't care to stand in a line wrapping around the building in 98-degree heat for an hour to have beignets and cafe au lait. There are a number of places in the immediate vicinity with perfectly serviceable beignets and coffee with no wait at all. Even better, you could pick up a box of Krispy Kremes somewhere. This is the part where some of you start to moan about the experience.

You: Clint, you just don't understand. Going to Cafe Du Monde and eating beignets is an important part of the experience. You can't just eat any beignets, you need to go to Cafe Du Monde for the ambiance and atmosphere.
Me: Which part of the atmosphere, the smell or the sweltering heat? Or better yet, the part where you spend the rest of the day coated in powdered sugar from attempting to eat a "doughnut" which is no doughnut at all. Give me my Krispy Kremes!

(That having been said, I like my trip to Cafe Du Monde to come during the late night hours)

7) We avoided the Cafe and had one of the best breakfasts I've ever had in New Orleans. If you are in town and want to skip the beignets, I'd highly recommend the Cafe Fleur de Lis. I had the Cajun Country Omelette, and it came with the best hash browns I've ever eaten.

8) Friday night we hit up an old favorite, the Gumbo Shop. Seafood gumbo, jambalaya, and bread pudding all combined to leave me waddling back to the hotel.

9) After our hearty meal Friday night, we slept in and had the aforementioned breakfast. At this point, I was 12,000 calories in on the trip and starting to feel contemplative. Maybe this lifestyle is part of the reason that the Gulf Coast states consistently rate so highly on the lists of the most obese states in our nation. We can't be blamed for having superior cooks. Last October, Suzanne and I traveled to New England to view the leaves changing, and we really had a great trip. One night, we went out to eat in Burlington, Vermont. We had a blast, but I felt a bit awkward, as the city was full of a lot of active looking healthy people. On the night of October 7th, 2009 I was the fattest man in Burlington. I soon discovered why, as we sought a place to dine. We ended up at a highly recommended local cafe, and the food was pretty good. That was the case with almost all of the food we encountered on our trip. It was all pretty good. There was nothing we ate that was bad, but there was nothing that was life-changing either. Life changing? My friends, the bread pudding I ate Friday night was life-changing. I've longed for more bread pudding for the last three days. Must. Have. Bread. Pudding. So what if I'm fat? I blame it on the superior ability of my people to prepare and cook food.

10) The Quarter ain't the Quarter anymore. In the years following Katrina, I've been amazed by the lack of the Quarter's distinctive smell. We'll chalk that up as one minor positive that came out of an incredible tragedy. We did discover one source of the smell on this trip, as our mule took a potty break and deposited 9 1/2 gallons of it's fluid content onto St. Philip St.

11) What a great place. I love New Orleans and all of the unique experiences it brings with it. Living just down the road and having spent three years there in seminary, I feel like I know it pretty well. I can't imagine getting dropped off there with no warning from some other place in middle-America.


Goodbye, New Orleans. I'll be back before too long.

That's my view, anyway, from here on N. Wintzell.