My new neighborhood. Generous pours. Wood fired Pizza.

Headed out Port Aransas at around 6 AM. Found Bob and Carolyn both awake. Bob didn't have the most restful of nights, though he had slept very well the first two nights after returning from the hospital. Nothing wrong, just didn't sleep well after taking his antibiotic at 1 AM.

Texas highways are all 75 miles an hour for the most part, regardless of whether they are Interstates or not and considering how big the state is it makes sense to allow people to drive that fast to get to their destinations quickly. It is a big honkin' state. Even at such speeds it's around a 9 hour trip from Corpus Christi to New Orleans.

Arrived in the Big Easy around 3PM today. Proceeded off of Carrollton Ave. to Napolean Ave. Napolean is a beautiful live oak lined boulevard which is undergoing major construction and is incredibly busy at rush hour.

2118 Napolean is a huge house. The upstairs is occupied by Kurt and Monica McKay-Connor, a very nice couple whose first question was "How's your friend doing?". Kurt actually had a cardiac event seven years ago caused by a virus that he caught, so he could relate to Bob's condition.

The "downstairs" is divided into two apartments, "A" which is occupied by two nursing students who attend Tulane and the "B" which is mine. Two spacious bedrooms with a smallish kitchen/laundry, a bathroom with tub/shower and a very nice "living room" with a 50 inch flat screen TV with cable. Pictures tomorrow when it's light.

I took a walk to check out the neighborhood and as Monica had promised, there are 30 restaurants and bars within 10 or so blocks. Everything from sandwiches to Pizza to Sushi to Vietnamese to Hamburgers and Hot Dogs. A small market, gym, several hair stylists and a hardware store are also very close to the apartment.

It's a mixed neighborhood of renovated houses, not so renovated house and ones that might not ever be renovated. Here's a house that I thought was worth taking a photo of. Love these colors. Can I do this in Silver Cliff?

I stopped at the Freret Street PubliQ House for a beer and to inquire about their live music. On Thursday thru Sunday nights they have a variety of bands in their small in-house venue. Probably 150 people. On Thursdays the Brass-A-Holics play at 9:30 (WAYYYYY after my bedtime). 28 beers on tap, mostly Louisiana in origin, but several New Belgium as well. I opted for a shot of Buffalo Trace whiskey (not a shot, but an incredibly generous double shot) and  a Abita Light. 9 dollars at happy hour.

After a long drive I opted to have the pizza at Amato. Wood fired so it only took a couple minutes to make. First though I had a wood fired cauliflower dish. Very simple and for a non cauliflower lover, it was excellent. Pretty simple as well. Cauliflower, bread crumbs, parsley and chili oil baked until tender.

Followed by a buffalo mozzarella, basil, cherry tomato pizza. Also yummy.

Ended up my evening talking with Bob and Carolyn. Bob finally got his device monitor to work. We tried on Sunday and of course it wouldn't work and there was no weekend support. What happens if he had had an event? Call back on Monday? Bizarre. We laughed about it and made lots of jokes about it.

74 tomorrow here and 80 on Wednesday before a cool down to 48 on Thursday. Looking forward to taking a walk around the neighborhood and then getting on the St.. Charles Trolley for seafood and jazz on Bourbon St. tomorrow night.

More then.

Ciao 4 now.

Best.

aj