The Great American Road Trip: Days 111 and 112

When my family comes to New Orleans, we always stay with my Aunt Cate, Uncle Joe, and their three kids, my cousins Conner, Brett, and Sarah in their lovely house in Kenner. It was nice to wake up in a familiar place and see my parents when I came down to breakfast! It was a low key morning, mostly involving shopping for wrapping paper and then wrapping gifts, everyone coming and going and doing their own thing. Ma and Aunt Jan (who I visited in Marysville, KS) also came over and went around with us - there was seemingly a steady rotation of cars in the driveway and in front of the house.

The Saints were playing in North Carolina on Sunday, so Emily got off of work early from her weekend job at Satsuma Cafe and I headed over to hang out before she left for vacation the next day. We drove around the neighborhood for a bit, going by one of the houses where Emily works for the St. Bernard Project with Americorps, learning how to be a site manager for groups of workers and volunteers who help people rebuild and get their houses up to code post-Katrina. I remember coming here 6 months after and the city just felt so scoured, nearly empty with just little pockets of people who had come back, restaurants that had reopened. Now, even 9 years later, there are still neighborhoods where houses that have been raised and re-done sit next to houses that have sat untouched, boarded up and covered in ivy. Emily was explaining that there was a lot of fraudulent contractors offering services as people came back who did terrible work or just ran off with the money, hence the need for the St. Bernard Project and similar rebuilding organizations, even now. She seemed really happy with the work she's doing, which was wonderful to see and to learn more about.

We decided to stop at The Country Club, in Bywater, for dinner. It's not a country club at all, rather a restaurant and lounge in a converted old house, complete with a saltwater pool in the back! Emily heard about it from the cook at Satsuma, he used to work here and created their famous "smokey mac and cheese" that was just as good as Emily had made it sound describing it on our drive over. I had a crispy sweet potato and spinach salad with pickled onions and goat cheese, Emily had a burger that was equally tasty, and the croissant bread pudding for dessert was both massive and addictive.

Emily and I were neighbors in Burkina, only about 30km away from each other but that translated into a 3 hour bike slog or a half day bike and transit adventure (so we didn't visit very often and met up in cities most of the time). We did take advantage of the 3 hour lunch repose to talk on the phone almost every day, comparing notes, scheming ways to get things done, celebrating small victories, and finally accepting (and reminding each other) that things happen when they happen - I can easily say that her voice on the end of the phone was one of my big supports during our time in-country. We actually hadn't caught up in almost a year besides sporadic texts, so it was fun to finally hear about her many adventures over the past year and to catch her up on all the crazy things I've been up to. After dinner we drove out to Metairie to hang with my family for a few hours, then it was time for her to go home and pack and for me to go home and sleep.

On Monday I woke up when Emily dropped off her key on the way to the airport to begin her all-day adventure flying to Anchorage, and then I spent the day blogging while everyone else in the house flowed in and out. I went over in the afternoon to Emily's house to feed and let Tenga outside, and then it was time to come home and take photos of Maggie. ;)