Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Vacation day 2 of 11. Woke at Palihouse West Hollywood. Breakfast with Patrick at Lobby Lounge Café and Bar: we each had oatmeal with sliced banana and cinnamon. Patrick drank coffee; I drank decaf. We also shared a croissant with Nutella and raspberry jam. The oatmeal was lukewarm and runny, but we did not complain because we didn't want to wait. Checked out. Rode Lyft to LAX. Along the way we encountered heavy traffic which worsened in the last mile to the airport and during which several emergency vehicles forced their way through including one which was labeled BOMB SQUAD, which I thought was ominous. After many minutes of sitting in standstill traffic we agreed with our driver that the best thing for us to do was to walk the remaining distance. He drove us as close as he could then dropped us off. As we walked toward the terminal, we passed a group of emergency response people and vehicles in the LAXit area, then later we encountered closed sections of parts of Terminal 1 or 2 guarded by police. We finally arrived at Terminal 3 and passed through the security checkpoint arriving at our gate 25 minutes before boarding. Delta flight from LAX to MSY (New Orleans) was uneventful. For lunch we enjoyed pasta fagiole (Patrick) and veggie lasagne (Frank), each with side salad and packaged double chocolate chip cookie (but I saved my cookie for later). We were also served beverages and various snacks before and after lunch. Patrick was particularly happy to be in New Orleans again after our last trip in 2018. We rode Lyft to Uptown, arriving at an Airbnb to which Andy T, arrived from Boston, had already checked us in. We saw many Halloween decorations along the way. Patrick and I settled and unpacked. Chris G arrived from San Francisco about an hour after us. Soon we walked along Magazine Street hunting for food with no reservations. We dined at Shaya and had a great time: Road to Kfar (5), Rhubarbie Dreamhouse, Maker's Mark, Old Fashioned, sparkling water (2), mushroom hummus, crispy halloumi, fattoush salad, lamb kofte kebab, chicken, pear a porter. Neil H at the bar was our terrific server. We returned to the Airbnb and slept soon after.