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Jul252009
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Shirts and Snug |
Earlier this week I heard from Bianca who said she was going to be in town today to catch a plane tomorrow morning. She needed a place to stay and I was able to oblige. I took care of some chores before she showed up at one this afternoon. Not long after she arrived and got settled, we went out to Metairie to do some shopping. There aren’t any malls where she lives and she expressed a desire to look for clothes and shoes.Our first stop was Clearview Mall. I think we only went there because she thought there was an Old Navy store there. There isn’t one and we weren’t there long but we did stop in several stores first. After walking through Clearview we drove down Veterans to Lakeside Mall.We were at Lakeside for a few hours and stopped in several stores. Our first stop was Express. Bianca bought a few items and I got a purple collared shirt. We then went to the food court to satisfy Bianca’s craving for cookies. Later we went through good number of stores including several that cater only to females. Before we left the mall we stopped at Eddie Bauer where Bianca helped me pick out a short-sleeved collared shirt and an undershirt. I wasn’t really happy with what I was wearing and wanted something else to wear for dinner.We left the mall at about 4:30. As there was no longer an Old Navy in Lakeside either and Bianca still wanted to go, we drove out to the nearest location in Elmwood. Bianca seemed disappointed in what they had to offer but she did get a couple of shirts. I got some undershirts myself. Before we headed to dinner we also stopped at two other stores nearby, K-Mart and Rue 21.We took Earhart Blvd. back to the city. We had a 6:30 reservation for dinner at Snug Harbor. As we were driving across the Quarter on Decatur Street we both saw Ray Nagin at a crosswalk and waved at him. He waved and smiled back which was pretty cool.There was a healthy crowd in the restaurant when we arrived. I ordered the blackened fish and Bianca ordered a hamburger. During dinner we got to talking to a couple semi-regular visitors from Florida. After dinner we took our seats for the first set of the evening with Astral Project.I’ve seen Astral Project several times here but this was one of the best sets in memory. All four members were in attendance and the music was great. They played several songs from their latest CD and some new compositions including what was billed at the “premiere performance” of McCoy by Steve Masakowski. They also played Sophisticated Lady featuring a solo by Tony Dagradi on his newly-purchased baritone saxophone.After the set, Bianca and I walked to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. Neither of us had been there in quite a while so it seemed an obligatory stop. It was quite crowded even though it was about 10 PM but we were able to find a table without any trouble. I decided to try the Cafe au Lait even though I don’t like coffee. I was reminded why. The beignets were excellent as always, though. Having had our fill, we walked back to the car and home for the evening.