New Orleans part 1

So, from the freezing temperatures of New York to the humid heat of New Orleans…

I arrived yesterday after two flights that lasted five hours in total. They both past by relatively quickly, the first one because they showed the movie Dream Girls, and the second because I was chatting to the woman next to me for the entire flight. Towards the end however I found myself drifting off and not concentrating on what she was saying, thinking instead about meeting Kerry at the airport and how nervous I was. As one of the cabin crew took me off the plane and in to the airport terminal I was surprised to find Kerry right there waiting, she’d managed to wangle her way through security in order to meet me right at the gate. Not expecting to see her I was a little taken a back and just kind of stood there while she hugged me taking it all in and then felt slightly bad for my delayed reaction. We then headed to baggage reclaim and for a while we both thought my suitcase hadn’t made it on to the connecting flight from Dallas, but thankfully we recovered it at the last minute. We drove straight to the hotel which is beautiful, we have a studio apartment with kitchenette and a large bed and air conditioning thank heavens. We checked in and explored the room and after a while went to a lovely restaurant to eat BBQ food for dinner. I was exhausted from the flying and so we headed straight back to the hotel and to bed. My body clock is still screwed and I ended up being wide awake at four in the morning, but we found a way to pass the time until I could sleep again, which I’ll leave to the imagination.

Today we woke fairly late and Kerry went out to get Beignet’s for breakfast while I dozed in bed. After we ate we dressed and headed down to the French Quarter and spent the rest of the morning wondering around. So far I’ve bought some Tobasco sauce, shrimp Creole mix and Jambalaya mix to take back home to the UK, and a history book on the city of New Orleans along with a jazz cd, and Kerry bought me a Café du Monde mug. This afternoon I met two of Kerry’s friends at their workplace and then we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours… after which we headed out to meet the Café Q group which is a gay group Kerry is organising. The plan was to go to a jazz club tonight to watch a show and eat dinner, but we ran out of time before the show started and so went there for dinner and plan to go back on Sunday night. I had fried shrimp with rice and broccoli which was delicious, and I’m hoping that I don’t end up with an upset stomach because the last couple of times I’ve eaten seafood I’ve ended up with one. So we returned to the hotel fairly early and got lost in each other for a couple of hours, and now I’m writing this while she’s surfing the net before we go to sleep. I’m so pleased I can get wireless in the hotel because it means I can blog in more detail and not have to try and remember everything I’ve done. I’m having a great time so far, the weather is glorious being in the late 70’s today and I’m enjoying Kerry’s company very much.

Tomorrow we are going to the mall in the morning, back to the French Quarter in the afternoon and then on a dinner cruise in the evening. Sunday we’re heading to the beach at Mississippi and I’m meeting Kerry’s family before heading back to the Jazz club. Ok, I don’t want to be tied up on the net for too long, but I’ll post again soon. And in response to Kristcgs comment about coming to the south west, feel free to invite me and I’ll see what I can do haha, I’ve certainly been bitten by the travel bug and I’m liking the US.