Willie’s 50th!
I woke up at 7am and got ready for the gym. A was up working on her laptop. Z was looking at his phone. Will was doing a zombie walk around the hotel room. I went to scope out the breakfast offerings because I wanted to make a plate to bring back upstairs.
The breakfast station closes at 9 on weekdays and 9:30 on the weekends, so you have to get down there early. I didn’t want anything down there, cuz it looked like struggle food. Not one thing appealed to me. Since I was dressed in my workout attire, I went straight to the gym. It was right around the corner. There was no one in there, so I had my choice of the 2 treadmills. As I’m about halfway through my run, a parental unit or (p.u.) walked in with 2 girls. The p.u. sat, yes sat in the gym while the two girls flipped and tumbled on the mat. No problem, that’s what the mats are for. Plus extra points to the p.u. for tricking them into burning all of that extra energy. Smart. As my luck would have it, the youngest girl child thought that it would be wonderful to run on the treadmill next to me barefoot. The p.u. suggested that this was not what the girl wanted, but alas the little girl paid no attention to the halfhearted attempts of the p.u. to keep her alive. She was around 9-10 so of course I’m giving her the side eye while running and minding my own business. Right around the time that I started thinking this wouldn’t end well for the little girl, she bumped the auto stop clip and the treadmill stopped but she kept going. So……..gravity turned against her and she spilled. She didn’t fall hard, just enough to learn to listen to her p.u. when she “suggests” not running barefoot on a freaking treadmill. Smh
Done with my run, I went back to the room to get ready to make moves. The fam was group texting letting everyone know when they would arrive. This meant that my job was to keep Will out of the hotel and occupied until dinner. Most of us stayed at the same hotel. We made plans to do the brewery tour at Abita Springs then eat and chill until dinner. I was hungry because I didn’t eat a full breakfast so I decided to order Panera and Starbucks because they are right across the street and right next to each other. I open my Panera app and I don’t see the quiche listed as an option. I do more digging and I realize it’s only offered at breakfast. Seriously? This is the one thing that I wanted. A started laughing at me because I immediately started talking to my phone like it was a Panera rep, asking it why it had forsaken me?? What did I ever do to you Panera? I thought we were more than just friends! After about 15-20 minutes of shock and bewilderment I decided on a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks. I drove across the street and picked everything up. I ate my dismal disappointing breakfast, then it was time to go to the brewery. It was in Covington so we gave ourselves an hour to pickup my cuz and drive over.
The tour was cool as always. We got free beer tokens, took pictures, and printed some out for later. So far so good. During the tour the fam arrived and checked into the hotel so the party was coming together. I was tired of keeping the secret so we decided to meet after our tour at my bil’s condo. He sent sent us a link with the address which was in Slidell, so it was on the way. Except it wasn’t.
Someone in the group sent a text asking for clarity on the address because the one he sent us was to a school. He solidly stated the address was correct and called us slow. Twice. Now I’m not directionally inclined, so I wouldn’t argue if it was just me, but there were 8 other adults involved. We can’t all be slow can we?? After everyone fussed some at him he remembered to tell us to select Nola instead of Slidell. Hmmmm maybe sending the address of the school was no coincidence, but a sign that he needed to go back for some additional education.
Now that we knew he was in Nola, The game changed because there was no way that we could make it all the way to the city and back before dinner. We would have to keep it together a few more hours. Darn!
You shouldn’t come this close to Nola and not have beignets, so since Café Du Monde was on our way back, we hit it up for the freshest hottest beignets that I’ve ever had. Powdered Sugar was everywhere! No matter how hard we tried to stay clean, it just wasn’t happening!
Next stop was to drop my cousin back at her house so she and her husband could get ready for the party. Will was hungry because it was daytime, so we took A and Z to a gas station for Po-Boys. Before you judge us, hit up the Time Saver gas station on Gause Blvd in Slidell for a Po-Boy. It is an exceptional experience. The only problem is that it’s not a Time Saver. The Po-Boys are made fresh but not fast. I don’t think they even catch the seafood until you place your order. Since we now only had around 2 hours before dinner, they ate half of their food, and saved the rest for later. A and I prettied up, while the men did the best they could with what they had.
I asked the fam to let me know when they were all at the restaurant, and that’s what they did. We were the last ones to come in, and the look on Will’s face was priceless. He had no idea this was happening!
We ate, laughed, talked, drank and enjoyed the party! It was wonderful to have everyone celebrating Willie’s 50th!
After the party, we all went back to the hotel to change and regroup. We also took time to take better pictures outside of the hotel to commemorate the occasion. The lighting there was better than the restaurant. The men did the math on how many vehicles to take and shortly we were on the road and on our way to the condo in the Garden District of Nola.
The condo was simply marvelous! My bil scored it for a steal thru a friend of a friend. I must meet and acquire these friends!! The location was perfect for everything downtown. We hung out for awhile enjoying each others company, took more pictures, and finally decided to try the trolley. We waited an eternity for a trolley. During which time we took more pictures and my niece decided that she would pass the time by knocking old Mardi Gras beads out of the trees. Yuck! Since the younguns are not big on patience, they grew weary of waiting, and ordered an Uber. The Uber showed up at the exact time as the trolley. I think they were working together in cohoots. Half of us got in the Uber, the other half got on the trolley. Now we were split up. Our group went to Willie’s Chicken Shack (they had great wings and drinks) so they could easily find us. Everyone else got dropped on Bourbon Street. Will is now our navigator, so he rounded everyone up.
Once the fam was reassembled, we walked down the crowded, torn up Bourbon Street until we found a cool bar. We stayed there for maybe an hour. The old people were olding, so they went back to the hotel. The rest of us threw caution to the wind and walked a few more blocks to a better bar. This bar was relatively empty and the best part was the pool table and balcony upstairs. Will got a full bottle of free champagne because it was his birthday. Now it was really a party! We balled out until around 3am. Yes 3am! (I may have been slightly too old for this too)
To get back to the condo, we took the long walk back to the trolley stop. During the ride back on the trolley the best thing happened. A started singing Bohemian Rhapsody and everyone in the trolley joined in. It was the coolest part of the whole night! Even the driver and oncoming passengers were singing. Nobody got off until the song was complete. Perfect. By a miracle we made it back to the hotel at around 5 am and to sleep at 6.
Before I fell asleep, I thanked God that Will’s surprise party was a success and that I didn’t kill him before we got there! #GraceandFavor
Soul on the Seas! 