Last Wednesday

Shots for breakfast : wheatgrass

 

Lazy, sunny park

This is why we got out of bed: to lie down again

Cacophonous ducks at Audubon Park

Dinner at The Court of the Two Sisters with Papa Capell

The "Court" at night

My first Bananas Foster experience - a` flambe!

Obviously, a thoroughly successful day off.   :)

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Wednesdays.

On our Wednesdays, Adam and I make free to indulge our every whims. We eat out for every meal. We sleep in as late as our growling tummies will allow. We don't do anything we don't feel like doing. We stay as far away from the hostel as possible. We explore New Orleans. We spend hours at coffee shops and bookstores just browsing books or the web or writing or reading. We ride our scooter all around town, looking as cool as can be. We go to museums or events or famous spots in the city. We get beignets from Cafe du Monde. We go to movies. We go shopping.
We relax.

We recently watched a gorgeous movie called "The Rabbit Hole" at an even more gorgeous theatre. In the middle of downtown New Orleans, on Canal street, there is a super fancy and expensive shopping mall. There is a movie theater in this mall that wins the award for swankiest movie theater. Not only are the seats enormous and cushy and adjustable, but the theater is 18+ because if has in-seat dining and alcohol and meals can be served at any point during your cinematic experience. And this ain't popcorn and sodas (though, they have that too) - we're talking gourmet cheese plates, and handcrafted, fresh pizzas, and caviar pie and all kinds of other delicacies.

We sank back into the high-backed leather seats, kicked off our shoes and ordered whatever we liked by pressing the call buttons on our seats' armrests (which also had extend-able table surfaces). The pre-movie show wasn't garish commercials or loud advertisements: they played yoga-studio trickling music while streaming peaceful and beautiful footage of nature.

 I feel like these people taught Adam and I some lessons in the art of indulgence and relaxation.

Nice, no?

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Lazy Dayz off

The Daily Schedule:

07:00 - Anna wakes up, cleans kitchen, tidies common areas, makes coffee + pancakes

08:00-15:00 - Anna runs around, answers phone calls, does laundry, makes reservations, checks people out, checks people in, drives shuttles, puts sheets on beds, cleans up, and occasionally writes blog posts :)  Adam, meanwhile, works out, exercises, and writes, writes, writes.

15:00 - Adam and Anna pass the baton and switch shifts

15:00-24:00 - Adam runs around, answers phone calls, does laundry, makes reservations, checks people in, drives shuttles, puts sheets on beds, cleans up, and occasionally watches movies with Anna. Anna, meanwhile, goes for a run, practices riding JEM, and does her best to ignore the hostel's siren call and stay away from it all afternoon/evening. Sometimes I'm successful. :D  I read a lot of books and diligently procrastinate on keeping in touch with  the people I love (what is wrong with me??).

This comfortable and busy routine is broken once a week: Wednesdays are our days off, and we RELISH them.

Sometimes we do really exciting & fun things like : go on free tours of the swamps/plantations/city, visit Audubon zoo, borrow our boss's car (he's awesome) and go to the movies, have a night on the town with dancing/jazz music in the French quarter, etc.

Sometimes we don't do much of anything. :)  And yesterday was one of those days.

We slept in late. (glory!)

We ate at IHOP. (A change from the usual: Surrey's Cafe & Juice Bar)

We took the trolley to City Park and strolled through the sculpture garden.

I wanted him to go all the way, but he pointed out that there were children around

Gorgeous, metal horse sculpture by Deborah Butterfield - she has an even prettier one in Chattanooga that looks so much like driftwood, it's mind-BLOWING

Creepy, glorious spider

So crazy - the human arms looked INCREDIBLY  real up-close

Appropriate for NOLA, as there are Mardi Gras beads hanging from every tree branch on the parade route streets :)

This safety pin doesn't inspire confidence as to its security...

We laid down on benches and didn't move much.

(Adam's not unhappy, that's his thinking face  -- I'm in a state of bliss because he's playing with my hair while thinking)

We tried on wigs at the costume shop.

One of the Beatles

We ate Indian food for dinner.

We watched the 1st half of "Jean de Florette" and fell asleep again around 10pm.

Happy, happy, lazy day. :)



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