Happy Mardi Gras AND Year of the Fire Horse!

 

Today I worked from home, and just after Travalon walked out the door to go to work, he came back in with his new conductor bear.

His name is Lionel, like the trains. 

Tonight we wanted to go out for Mardi Gras/Lunar New Year, but the New Orleans jazz show at the North Street Cabaret was sold out, and the birthday party for the local fiddler was starting so early that we figured it would be over by the time we got there (since I had adoration and Travalon works late), and we forgot about the big Mardi Gras party they always have at the Essen Haus. We often go out for Chinese on Lunar New Year, but sorry, Mardi Gras overshadows Lunar New Year for me. We ended up going to the New Orleans style restaurant that used to be called Liliana's for a romantic dinner for two in mood lighting, with jazz playing in the background. I wore a bunch of beads and found even more beads there. Travalon had blackened catfish, but I got the four-course dinner and gave him one of my two oysters Rockefeller. Those are so good! He had never had them before, and I've only had them on the East Coast, never around here. My second course was gumbo, with okra in it, of course. Travalon had no interest in that. My third course was blackened chicken on a bed of cheddar grits, and I could only eat half of it, so I have lunch for Thursday since tomorrow is a fast day with no meat allowed. My final course was a praline cheesecake, but Travalon also ordered beignets, so we picked at the cheesecake and brought most of it home, and I did succumb to a beignet and thus got powdered sugar all over myself. Everything was so delicious! Oh, and I also had a lavender Moscow mule mocktail, so I had enough sugar to carry me through at least half of Lent. Tomorrow we fast!

Famous Hat

Viking Ships with Hands

 

Today I worked on campus, and Hardingfele and I walked in Allen Centennial Gardens during our lunch break. We thought it was funny that everything in the garden has long explanations except the most mysterious things: these two Viking ships with hands in them. 

Hardingfele thought the hands were configured in sign language, but neither of us knows sign language, so they just looked like weird contortions to us. I said it seemed like a real "if you know, you know" situation, becuase if they're going to explain rain gardens and cranberry bogs, why wouldn't they also explain what the hands are doing?

In the evening I went to the Moldy Jam jam, and this time I was sitting by another fiddler who is apparently a bit of a beginner, so she had an iPad with the music on it. I have to admit that I cheated and looked at the music for all the tunes I didn't know (or didn't know well), and it was kind of fun to sightread them. Might as well keep that muscle as strong as the one for learning by ear. I wore Mardi Gras beads, and the co-owner of the music club asked if it was Mardi Gras. When I said no, it's Mardi Gras Eve, he said, "It's New Year's Eve too," and he's right - it's Lunar New Year's Eve. Can you believe they fall on the same day this year? It's also the birthday of a local Irish fiddler tomorrow, and he noted the coincidence, and also that he will be 63 when he was born in '63. An auspicious birthday indeed!

Famous Hat

Road Trip North 2025-26, Day 6: Flora-Bama, Haunted Highway, and Old Meridian

 

Last night we slept really well, and this morning we woke up to see how beautiful the view of Navarre Beach was in daylight.

At breakfast (leftovers for both of us) we saw the hotel had a Mardi Gras Christmas tree.

Also, Jaws 2 was apparently filmed there. (I have only seen the original movie.)

We drove across the bridge you see in some of those photos to Santa Rosa Island, where the first thing we encountered was a long fishing pier. It costs $1 per person to walk on it, so we did. I even bought a T-shirt.

These are brown pelicans.

Just beyond that we passed a caboose serving coffee.

Better yet, the barista was a Premier League fan. (He likes Tottenham.) His father is a Wolves fan.

As we drove along Santa Rosa Island, and the landscape changed from beachside condos to wild sand dunes, I was in a very happy head space. Half-formed memories of being in the sun kept coming back to me. (Despite my Celtic skin that hates the sun, the rest of me loves it.) As if I weren't happy and nostalgic enough, we had to stop at a gas station so I could powder my nose, and I found they had infused drinks. I knew they were legal in Florida, since I'd had one on the way south, and who knows about the other states we are now passing through? I got a lime one, and then I was really in a state of bliss. I just loved this funky pedestrian overpass.

We drove to Perdido Key, where Travalon wanted to have lunch at Flora-Bama, a bar that is partly in each state. We ate on their balcony overlooking the water.

After lunch we hit the road and drove to Mobile, Alabama, where we checked out their beautiful cathedral. There was a small tour group going through, so we tagged along with them. There was also adoration going on, which made me happy because I've missed two weeks of adoration now.

This was a secret little chapel beneath the main sanctuary.

Here are some photos of the streets of Mobile. As you can see, they have art like Black Cat Alley in Milwaukee, and they are prepping for Mardi Gras even though Christmas isn't really over yet. They also have a lot of balconies like the buildings in New Orleans.

We even passed the exact spot where we watched the Mardi Gras parade a few years ago. Mobile feels like a different world than the rest of Alabama, especially the eerie ride on Highway 45 to Meridian. We took it in the dark a few years back, but it's just as eerie on an overcast day, especially if you're a bit stoned. I felt an ancient, evil presence there, like something the Anglo-Saxons wrote epics about. (I was having a lot of Deep Thoughts today.) I prayed a rosary as we drove along, and I honestly felt like something wanted me to stop. Once I finished, we listened to old Delta blues singers from the 20's and 30's, which just added to the eeriness. I always feel like the ghosts of lynched people are watching us on that highway. 

In Meridian, Mississippi we are staying at the Three Foot Hotel, which is very old and beautiful. Check out the elevators.

We went up to the rooftop bar, so we got to go to one, since we never saw the one in Tallahassee. Look what was left over from the New Year's Eve festivities - a disco ball balloon!

The rooftop bar had fire pits and great views.

However, it was too windy out there so we sat inside. Eventually we got it together to go to Weidmann's, the oldest restaurant in Mississippi, dating from 1870. (The hotel dates from 1929.) 

It was like a Southern supper club, with a basket of crackers on the table. I got the catfish with two sides, dirty rice and fried green tomatoes, and Travalon got collard greens with his ribeye steak that he gave to me, so I ate half of everything and then took the other half back to the fridge in our hotel room. (Bad news - no microwave in the room, so I have no idea how I'll heat it up.) I had to save room to split a piece of their "world famous" black bottom pie with Travalon. It was so charming being in these old places. It makes a person think of what life was like before social media, or even cars in the case of the restaurant. It's fun to imagine people arriving in their horse-drawn carriages to have some catfish, fried green tomatoes, and black bottom pie.

Famous Hat