New Orleans, LA
June 4, 2012
It was Monday morning, and rather than miserably
pushing myself out of bed to go to work like I usually do, I was going to go
visit my besties, Jean and Panya, at the
Audubon Zoo. Who are Jean and Panya,
you ask? Why, they are the resident elephants of New Orleans. And how are they
my besties? Well, hold on to your britches; we’ll get to that in due time.
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| A swan and a duck with her babies |
Even though we had a relatively late night out on
Frenchmen, we still managed to get up at a decent hour for a good morning
workout in Audubon Park. This time I planned on doing more of an actual workout
than I did the day before. I still carried my camera with me, but the plan was
to walk/run with Miriam the whole route around the park. Having company would
keep me in check, even though it slowed Miriam down a bit.
I
walked and ran alongside her, sometimes running on ahead to try out some new
photography techniques of her jogging. And every once in a while she was forced
to run in circles while I stopped to photograph beautiful swans or amazing
scenery. It was a lovely trek around the park, and I was glad to finally see
the whole park instead of the first half-mile.
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| Miriam running over the bridge. |
After getting showered and ready for the day, we
headed over to one of Miriam’s favorite coffee places,
PJ’s Coffee, for some
iced coffee. Right down the street was
Maple Street Book Shop, a local bookstore
that we just happened to have a Groupon to, so we ventured in to pick up some
books. Maple Street Book Shop has two stores side by side. One store is a regular bookstore
while the other is their used bookstore. We took a look around the regular
store but didn’t see much we wanted, so we decided to try the used store. We
had a little better luck here, but still the pickings were slim.
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| Maple Street porch |
We had just recently seen the amazing play
Peter
and the Starcatcher on Broadway and had fallen in love with it, so we were
excited to see the book the play was based on in the children’s used books
section. We snatched that one up right away. We ended up finding a coffee table
book of the inside of the fancy homes around New Orleans and grabbed that for
Miriam’s mom. The rest of our purchases were of magnets and postcards.
It was at this point that I realized I had been
subconsciously scratching my bare ankles and legs with increasing intensity. I
looked down at my legs and notice all sorts of little red dots around my
ankles. Miriam realized she had been doing the same thing and that she, too,
was covered in red dots. The store had fleas in the carpet and they were eating
us alive! I immediately left the store and sat on the front porch while Miriam
made her purchases, trying not to give in to the itch all over my legs.
We then headed over to Miriam’s brother’s third and
newest pizza place,
Pizzicare (pronounced peet-see-car-ay), a by-the-slice or
by-the-pie joint. We each grabbed a slice (one regular cheese slice and one
Margherita slice) and also ordered garlic knots and the pepperoni sticks. There
was no way we could eat all of that, but we had heard so much about the garlic
knots and pepperoni sticks that we at least needed to try them. Everything was
so delicious! Once we ate our fill we boxed up our leftovers and hit the road.
It was zoo time!
Now, here’s a little back-story about the elephants
and me. When Miriam and I first met, she asked what my biggest dream was
(besides the obvious “I want to be a performer” answer). My automatic response
was always: I want to meet an elephant.
Unbeknownst to me, Miriam made it her personal
mission to make that dream come true. She contacted every zoo, circus, and
elephant habitat she could find in the United States, getting the same answer
every time: Sorry, no.
Then in 2007 her networking paid off, and she was
told that the zoo in her own hometown might be able to help. We were in the
process of planning a trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama—just a few hours away from
New Orleans—to vacation with some of my family members, and we were having a
hard time finding reasonably priced airfare. So Miriam slyly suggested we fly
roundtrip to New Orleans—which was a lot cheaper to fly to—and drive to Gulf
Shores in one of her parents’ cars. That way, she said, we could spend some
extra time in New Orleans at the end of the trip. I bought it, hook, line, and
sinker.
Miriam had filled my family in on what she had
planned—a visit to the zoo at the end of our trip—and everyone kept it very
secret. They did get a hoot out of my response when we were talking our biggest
dreams, and I said it would be the greatest thing in the world to meet an
elephant and went on to explain just how much I would love it.
Cut to the end of our trip, we’re driving around New
Orleans, and Miriam says we are meeting someone around lunchtime. My mind
automatically thought: we are meeting the elephants at the Audubon Zoo. I have
no idea why my mind went there, but as we drove towards Audubon Park, my
insides started going crazy. When we pulled into the zoo parking lot, I was
shaking and holding back the tears. And when we finally met the zoo curator and
he asked if I was ready to meet the elephants, I started crying (at which point
Miriam had to tell him that this was a surprise and the tears were ones of
joy).
Best. Day. Ever.
The experience was amazing. I got to feed them and
pet them and talk to them, and then the elephant keeper even took Jean out of
her paddock and let me stand next to her. I could feel her eye watching me, and
her trunk kept swinging up to sniff at me. As soon as we left I ugly-cried like
I have never ugly-cried before (to put it into perspective what that day meant
to me, I’m crying right now, five years later, just retelling the tale). Miriam
ended up sending the zoo a picture of my ugly-cry, and it’s still up on their
office wall. I’m known as the Girl Who Cried.
So, back to 2012! Every time Miriam and I visit New
Orleans we always try to visit the zoo because 1. it’s a pretty zoo, and 2. I
get to see my friends. I’ve never gotten up close and personal with them again,
but I’m content standing back with the rest of the zoo crowd and looking
longingly at them. Have I mentioned that I love elephants?
Anyways, I’m excited because they are currently
building a whole new habitat for Jean and Panya, so they’ll have more room to
move around. That was always my one complaint. They do get daily walks around
the zoo before it’s open to the public, but elephants aren’t sedentary
creatures so I always wished they had more space to walk. Now, hopefully,
they’ll have lots of space! I look forward to visiting the zoo after the new
habitat has been unveiled.
We had an amusing, yet slightly freaky, moment at
the big cat area, when we realized that one of the female leopards was hungry
for a baby boy being held in his mama’s arms next to us. Mom and Dad were
pointing out some sleeping leopards to their son and commenting on how they
wished they all weren’t sleeping when I noticed another leopard slink out of
her den on the other side of the pen—all eyes on baby boy. It was crazy! She
totally stalked him, all crouched down and hiding behind things, until she got
to the barrier and she couldn’t go any farther. She then started pacing along
the barrier, never taking her eyes off the infant, and it was at that point
that I mentioned to the parents that kitty was hungry for baby. They were
fascinated! And very thankful for the barrier.
We wandered around the zoo for a few hours, taking
tons of pictures, and even running across a male peacock showing off his
plumage in a beautiful and up-close display. We made it through most of the zoo
before we decided to throw in the towel. We were exhausted!
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| My favorite of the ASPCA Mardi Gras bead statues. |
Miriam’s brother, Jeff, amazingly had a night off
from his various restaurants and asked if we wanted to go out for a family
dinner, so that evening we all met Jeff and his long-time friend Sadie, at
Mat and Naddie’s Restaurant in Uptown New Orleans. Mat and Naddie’s looks like it
would be just a house at the end of a quiet block, yet it’s a very popular
restaurant with delicious food. (Something I’ve noticed about New Orleans is
that some of the best places to eat don’t always look like restaurants from the
outside—I’ve been completely fooled on numerous occasions!) The menu was very
diverse, and we all had a hard time deciding an entrée. We ended up getting
multiple dishes to try and there wasn't a disappointed tummy in the house! Would anyone like to start off with a little artichoke, sun-dried tomato, and roasted garlic cheesecake? Yes, please!
We said goodnight to everyone and headed out for a
little business meeting over coffee. Miriam’s friend, Rightor, who is now
bicoastal in both LA and NYC, has a friend who is working heavily in the
film/TV industry currently booming in New Orleans, and he introduced us so that
we could get the lay of the land in case our plans to move to New Orleans ever
come to fruition.
Bryce works on the behind-the-scenes side of the
film industry—the kind of stuff I love to do when I’m not performing—so it was
fascinating hearing about her work. She didn’t have much information on the
acting side of things, but she did confirm that the film industry is steady in
New Orleans at the moment. It sounded reassuring, as long as we can get our
feet in the door.
We closed down the coffee shop, sitting outside at
their tables, sipping our coffee, and chatting away, until we noticed we were
the only customers left, and the employees were starting to put the chairs up
on the tables inside. That was our cue to go.
We said goodnight to Bryce and realized we were close
to Jeff’s apartment, so we decided to drop by unannounced—and managed to catch
him eating
Popeyes. He’s notorious for giving Miriam the “healthy eating”
speech, so catching him with Popeyes after our delicious dinner at Mat and
Naddie’s was incredibly hilarious.
It had been another long and eventful day in New
Orleans. Only one day left and a long list of things still planned. Oh, what is
a girl to do?
I'll leave you with the ugly-cry.
