Wow! I can’t believe my blog has been out here for over five years now!!! AND, I can’t believe I haven’t blogged anything in at least a year. It’s been, well, quite the plandemic! I know my family has been through the grinder (no, not that kind!) isolating ourselves and suffering losses like so many others. But we are ready to move forward! So, 2023 will be a year that we are reborn! Out into the world again!

New year’s always brings out the “what’s your new year’s resolution” or “what’s your word for the year” and I am not immune. Although this year I can’t even remember what my word or resolution was last year, probably “survival.” So after Covid, and family tragedies, and health issues, I think this year’s word should be, Reemergence – like the cicadas, but now and not every seven or thirteen years!

Like a new annual holiday tradition, my daughter and I fought some mysterious flu-like virus (negative for Covid) over Christmas and binged Netflix. Emily In Paris was our un petit plaisir – du jour. While binging and reminiscing a past New Year’s in Paris, my daughter came up with the brilliant idea to reemerge into the world by traveling to a new destination once a month.

Obviously, Paris is a bit far for a weekend jaunt. Therefore, we made a list of locations close enough to merit a long weekend trip from our locale in Florida. We completed or TSA Precheck and logged into Expedia and Hotels.com to plan our journeys. First stop, New Orleans, staying in the heart of the French Quarter.

New Orlean’s French flair was topical as this destination came through our enjoyment of Emily in Paris. Also, with the current revamping (pun intended) of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, it is trendy! Of course I have been to Mardi Gras in the past, but we wanted to enjoy the Big Easy without the carnival crowds and without the heat and humidity!

So we booked our flights, reserved our rooms, and bought a new copy of Interview with the Vampire. We will be off to the bayou to see Louis and Lestat’s home in the French Quarter, tour Anne Rice’s street in the Garden District, hunt ghosts in the famous above ground cemeteries, swing to Jazz along the clubs on Frenchmen Street, and eat Cafe de Monde’s beignets, those irresistible fried squares of pastry with powdered sugar toppings originally brought to Louisiana by the French Acadians. I’m sure a hurricane, artillery or daiquiri at Pat O’Briens may happen too! I last stepped foot in Pat O’Briens in 1984 during Mardi Gras. Too long, eh?

Laissez les bon temps roule! Where would you like to visit?

Any comments you would care to share?

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Namaste,

Lesley

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