Wild Bill's Wedding...weekend in New Orleans

My wife and I headed to new Orleans last weekend for the wedding of Wild Bill. We got to spend the entire weekend in New Orleans as we got in Friday night and planned on staying until Sunday. We had a great time, and Bill's wedding was a blast. Obviously, there was some poker that was played also, but I wanted to highlight the weekend as it has been awhile since Julie and I got to un-plug.

Friday night: I left the office about 5pm and headed downtown. We booked our rooms at a Hotel where we had one of our "Dead Money" final tables...The Queen and Crescent. I have stayed there before, and I would give it a B- overall. We got 2 nights for $150.00 which is not bad even though we got hit for a parking ticket for $20.00. I was texting TK to grab a beer with him and Mike until Julie was able to get in New Orleans to come meet me. Julie gets into town and we head to Harrah's and hit Masquerades for a couple of drinks. We ate at Bambo in Harrah's and it was excellent. I got the Won Ton soup and Julie got the Shrimp with Honey and Wasabi...excellent. After we ate I went tot the tables and Julie hit the slots and it went like this...First hour...Gene wins $80.00...Julie dumps $80.00. Second hour..."wash ...rinse...repeat".

I figured we were not going to be able to get anything going so we pulled out. Texted Bill and they were at Pat O's. Julie and I head there and joined the party...We had a great time. I got to meet Shoats who blogs on the site...Got to hang with Austin Martin and Mayor Ed ... drank some hurricanes...NH...GG.

The wife and I wake up Saturday, and head into the quarter. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Cool breeze and hovering around 65-70 degrees. Those of you who know how brutal the weather can be in New Orleans...know just how great that weather is. We wander around the quarter and eat at the LA Pizza Kitchen with Bloody Mary's. While wandering around, Julie and I talk about how cool the quarter is and act like tourist even though we live only 45 minutes away. There is just something about the culture of the French Quarter that is New Orleans. There nothing else like it. Here are a couple of cool MPEGs for those of you that love New Orleans. You may have to click on it...let it play....then click it again to see it in realtime

The first one is of some swing dancers in the Quarter and the 2nd one is of a Jazz band. I pan out to catch my wife sitting on the steps

We go back to the hotel to relax and catch a nap and head to the wedding. We had a blast!!! Hooked up with whole crowd as well as shared a table with the Tiltin Texan and Stacey. We also got to hang out with Silky Joe and his wife...great people. We had a blast. The food was great. Sunday was spent relaxing and eating lunch at Gordon Beirch and watching the Saints game on the patio before heading home.

I was able to grind out 3 separate sessions during the weekend including Monday Night Football where you get free squares on a football pool. Joe B and I crossbooked our numbers for the pool, and I get 0-7...we just missed hitting on halftime and 3rd quarter. Oh well. Booked a small winner every session, but not enough to talk about.

"Bridge, ya know, I mean, what I always thought was that there was this one, one perfect person for everybody in the world, you know, and when you found that person, uh, the rest of the world just kinda magically faded away and... and you know, the two of you would just be inside this kind of protective bubble. But there is no bubble, or if there is, we have to make it. I just think life is more than a series of moments, you know, it's... it's... we can make choices and we can choose to protect the people we love and that's what makes us who we are, and those are the real miracles! Stop me when it becomes glaringly obvious that I have no idea what I am talking about..." Ben Affleck as Ben Holmes in "Forces of Nature"