Extended Racing Weekend: January 12 - 15
Video Highlights
It was a little over a year ago that my good buddy Jim Anderson and I met out at Gulfstream for yet another day at the races when he broke the news to me that he was moving to Minnesota. We promised each other that we would continue our racing adventures together, and we kept that promise when I flew to Minnesota for a racing weekend at Canterbury last August. But today was the first time we were both on the road as we met in New Orleans on Friday January 12. The plan was to fly in on Friday evening and check into a nice bed and breakfast or hotel; spend all day Saturday at the races at the Fair Grounds; then spend all day Sunday on tours of New Orleans and the surrounding area before flying back to our respective houses on Monday, Martin Luther King Day. We began planning this last spring and finalized flights and reservations right after Thanksgiving. Because I was going to be gone for the extended weekend, Kim decided it would be a perfect opportunity to visit the grandsons (and their parents!) in Kansas, so she left on Thursday afternoon and returned on Tuesday around noon. Here are the highlights of our weekend......
Friday January 12
We arrived on Friday and took an Uber from the airport to the Marriott Residence Inn in Metaire. I had an idea of what our "room" would be like, but still to see it in person was remarkable. We'd decided when making our accommodation arrangements if we couldn't find a Bed & Breakfast with two beds and/or two rooms we would look for something else. And we found this.....
And as you can see, it was every bit as big as advertised. It was so nice to have big, separate bedrooms with separate full baths. Just very convenient.
We asked at the front desk for a good restaurant nearby - especially since the temperatures were in the thirties! They recommended an Italian place right around the corner. It looked like a "local color" place for sure when we got there (less than 3 min walk) but it was an excellent meal, and we split a bottle of wine over our veal parmigiana. But the news that excited us most was that we'd played a few races at Gulfstream online before we left our respective airports and I'd picked four winners, including a $15.20 winner so I made a profit for the day of nearly $100! WHOOO HOOOO, what a way to start our racing weekend adventure!
Saturday January 13
We enjoyed a full, complimentary breakfast at the Marriott and were at the Fair Grounds by 11 am. You can read all the details of our big day, but the highlights were.....I won 40% of my picks, Jim hit 50% of his WIN-Place-Show investments. He cleared over $20 in profits and I made well over $100!
Road to the Derby Kickoff Saturday Highlights
The Fair Grounds - January 13
Click HERE to go to the racing journal for today.
When we returned from the races via Uber - so much nicer than having a rental and doing the driving ourselves! We again asked for a recommendation. They told us a great true New Orleans style restaurant was less than five minutes away called Chef Ron's Gumbo Shop. Talk about a dive from the outside, we at first couldn't find it, and when we walked in there were five tables, that's it. So we sat at the bar. But the food - OH MY, it was delicious and exactly what we'd been looking for!
Sunday January 14
Today we'd planned to make it a "See New Orleans" Day. This marks my fifth visit to New Orleans and my fourth time to take tours of the area. I've found that Gray Line Tours offer great value and super service not only here in the Crescent City, but all over the country so we'd picked two that looked good to us - a city tour and a plantation tour. It looked to be a FULL day, especially if we started our day off as planned. Well, where else would you go than to Cafe du Monde for French Market coffee and beignets than here? Duh. In order to make our 9 am departure for the first tour we were at the cafe a little before 8 am. And it was a good thing we were - check out the photos....
We had about a half an hour to look around the Jackson Square vicinity and walk the riverfront so I had Jim snap this shot of me with the iconic background.....
We boarded our bus at 8:45 and to our surprise the 46-passenger bus had only six guests INCLUDING ourselves for our "Super City Tour." We drove all over the city through the various neighborhoods and through the famous Bourbon Street/French Quarter. We saw the mansions of the Garden District; stopped at an above-ground cemetery; walked around the beautiful City Park; saw several street cars; and then we passed one very interesting restaurant I'd never seen before......
That was the Eiffel Restaurant - see above. The story we were told was that this was the original restaurant that was IN the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But the authorities felt that recently it was causing the supports to "sink" and "weaken" so it was going to be removed and destroyed. But then the current owners purchased it, had it disassembled and brought here to New Orleans where it was put back together and opened recently! WOW. We returned to the main station a block from Jackson Square about 11:15 am and we were scheduled to board our next, five-hour plantation tour at 11:45. We had talked about our food plan and I'd asked when we picked up our tickets about the plantation. In my research I'd seen a video that showed they had a restaurant and cafe there so I asked if there was time for that on the tour. When told we'd at least have time to grab something at the cafe that became our plan. So in between tours we walked over to Jackson Square and shot the highlight video for the trip itself.
Back on board a new bus and unlike the first one this one was filled to capacity with 46 tourists anxious to visit the historic, landmark plantation site....."Oak Alley." The drive out was about an hour and fifteen minutes but our bus driver, Gerald was excellent. He told stories about the area and trivia about New Orleans nearly the entire way, keeping us engaged and entertained. We arrived at about 1:15 pm and he went to get our tour tickets and find out what time our tour was. When he returned he let us know that he had "good news." First, despite what it sounded like, he assured us the fact that our tour was not until 2:40 pm was great timing. This would allow us to explore the grounds on our own; get the iconic photo op in the actual "Oak Alley;" and if we wanted, to spend time in the gift shop and/or the restaurant. Well, this worked great for Jim and I. We had a delicious lunch of Po Boy sandwiches and then walked around the mansion to take THE picture....
I know you can see what it looks like, but the picture truly does not do it justice. It was such a sunny day, that on the long bus ride out we forgot that during the initial tour the temperature had been a very brisk 31 degrees (with a "feels like" temperature of 29!), but walking around - especially with the breeze in the shade, let me tell you it was chilly! I wasn't complaining though, I wanted an "escape" from the Florida heat (and I got it, and then some!). Soon after we walked the length of this entry way we met our group at the back door and began our 45 minute tour. It was very interesting, and what was especially interesting was that the mansion had been closed over the last week because they had been updating their tour and some of the rooms. Today was just the second day of the new tour which featured a lot of new information that had been gathered over archaeological research over the last five plus years. We walked around the bottom floor including the parlor and the dining room; then upstairs to the master bedroom and the children's bedrooms. Then we were taken onto the balcony for the dramatic view down the "Oak Alley."
WOW, again, the picture HARDLY does it justice. Shortly after the tour ended we returned to the bus and were entertained by more stories from Gerald. He offered to drop anyone that was so inclined off in front of Harrah's Casino which was close to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, or you could remain on board to return farther in town to the bus depot. Jim and I had only made sketchy dinner plans to "eat somewhere nice" in the French Quarter. But right before the driver dropped us off he told everyone that we "deserved" to have a meal at one of their fine "name" restaurants and he named several of them. One he listed was Ruth Cris which was right in the Harrah Hotel adjacent to the casino. Despite being a national "chain" it was originally opened HERE in New Orleans when "Ruth" wanted to open a steak house and found that the at-the-time very popular Cris Steak House was being sold offered to "buy the name." She turned that one New Orleans restaurant into a national brand of over 85 locations. I asked if Jim would be interested in this. For me it would be great - we'd already walked well over four miles and with the lunch we'd had, a small steak sounded ideal to me. Lo and behold one of his favorite restaurants IS Ruth Cris. So off the bus and into the restaurant! We actually had to walk the length of the casino, take an escalator below ground level, back up to the hotel and then to the restaurant. But it was an excellent meal.
Many patrons were gathered around the various TV sets in the bar area because the home-town New Orleans Saints were playing to advance to the NFC championship game next week. As we were finishing our dinner the Saints rallied to close the gap to 17-14 to who you ask.....Jim's Minnesota Vikings! Our Uber ride picked us up and when we arrived at our room the score was 20-14, Minnesota with about four minutes to go. The Saints blocked a punt and converted into what appeared to be a game-winning touchdown: 21-20. But the Vikings used their hurry-up offense and kicked a field goal with about a minute to go to take the 23-21 lead. The Saints drove down in the final minute and kicked a field goal with 25 seconds to go to apparently seal it for good, 24-23. Minnesota had one last shot. With ten seconds to go the QB heaved the ball down field. Not only did the receiver catch it, but as the clock ticked to 0:00 the defensive back for New Orleans just completely missed tackling the guy - I mean dove right past him without even grazing him. The Viking receiver gleefully pranced 61 yards for one of the most unbelievable comebacks in NFL history. We both remarked we were NOT at the bar and/or on Bourbon Street!
Monday January 15
We were up a little before 5 am and headed to the airport. It was PACKED. But we both had only carry-on luggage and the "TSA Approved" program allowed us to waltz through security in minutes. Jim took off at 6:30 am and I was in the air around 8 am. As we flew out of town I got this great aerial shot - you can see the French Quarter area along the Mississippi River to the left, then just a little inland the Super Bowl, and towards the bottom, The Fair Grounds Race Track!
It was a great weekend with a great friend. And, before we parted ways we began talking about next great racing adventure - maybe sometime late this upcoming summer!
Kim's Weekend In Kansas
Everyone knows that I'm the photographer and "family historian" but here are some shots Kim got (or Antoinette took) of her time in Kansas. It's hard to tell from the photos just who is having the MOST fun.....the grandchildren or Grandma!
We boarded our bus at 8:45 and to our surprise the 46-passenger bus had only six guests INCLUDING ourselves for our "Super City Tour." We drove all over the city through the various neighborhoods and through the famous Bourbon Street/French Quarter. We saw the mansions of the Garden District; stopped at an above-ground cemetery; walked around the beautiful City Park; saw several street cars; and then we passed one very interesting restaurant I'd never seen before......
Back on board a new bus and unlike the first one this one was filled to capacity with 46 tourists anxious to visit the historic, landmark plantation site....."Oak Alley." The drive out was about an hour and fifteen minutes but our bus driver, Gerald was excellent. He told stories about the area and trivia about New Orleans nearly the entire way, keeping us engaged and entertained. We arrived at about 1:15 pm and he went to get our tour tickets and find out what time our tour was. When he returned he let us know that he had "good news." First, despite what it sounded like, he assured us the fact that our tour was not until 2:40 pm was great timing. This would allow us to explore the grounds on our own; get the iconic photo op in the actual "Oak Alley;" and if we wanted, to spend time in the gift shop and/or the restaurant. Well, this worked great for Jim and I. We had a delicious lunch of Po Boy sandwiches and then walked around the mansion to take THE picture....
I know you can see what it looks like, but the picture truly does not do it justice. It was such a sunny day, that on the long bus ride out we forgot that during the initial tour the temperature had been a very brisk 31 degrees (with a "feels like" temperature of 29!), but walking around - especially with the breeze in the shade, let me tell you it was chilly! I wasn't complaining though, I wanted an "escape" from the Florida heat (and I got it, and then some!). Soon after we walked the length of this entry way we met our group at the back door and began our 45 minute tour. It was very interesting, and what was especially interesting was that the mansion had been closed over the last week because they had been updating their tour and some of the rooms. Today was just the second day of the new tour which featured a lot of new information that had been gathered over archaeological research over the last five plus years. We walked around the bottom floor including the parlor and the dining room; then upstairs to the master bedroom and the children's bedrooms. Then we were taken onto the balcony for the dramatic view down the "Oak Alley."
WOW, again, the picture HARDLY does it justice. Shortly after the tour ended we returned to the bus and were entertained by more stories from Gerald. He offered to drop anyone that was so inclined off in front of Harrah's Casino which was close to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, or you could remain on board to return farther in town to the bus depot. Jim and I had only made sketchy dinner plans to "eat somewhere nice" in the French Quarter. But right before the driver dropped us off he told everyone that we "deserved" to have a meal at one of their fine "name" restaurants and he named several of them. One he listed was Ruth Cris which was right in the Harrah Hotel adjacent to the casino. Despite being a national "chain" it was originally opened HERE in New Orleans when "Ruth" wanted to open a steak house and found that the at-the-time very popular Cris Steak House was being sold offered to "buy the name." She turned that one New Orleans restaurant into a national brand of over 85 locations. I asked if Jim would be interested in this. For me it would be great - we'd already walked well over four miles and with the lunch we'd had, a small steak sounded ideal to me. Lo and behold one of his favorite restaurants IS Ruth Cris. So off the bus and into the restaurant! We actually had to walk the length of the casino, take an escalator below ground level, back up to the hotel and then to the restaurant. But it was an excellent meal.
Many patrons were gathered around the various TV sets in the bar area because the home-town New Orleans Saints were playing to advance to the NFC championship game next week. As we were finishing our dinner the Saints rallied to close the gap to 17-14 to who you ask.....Jim's Minnesota Vikings! Our Uber ride picked us up and when we arrived at our room the score was 20-14, Minnesota with about four minutes to go. The Saints blocked a punt and converted into what appeared to be a game-winning touchdown: 21-20. But the Vikings used their hurry-up offense and kicked a field goal with about a minute to go to take the 23-21 lead. The Saints drove down in the final minute and kicked a field goal with 25 seconds to go to apparently seal it for good, 24-23. Minnesota had one last shot. With ten seconds to go the QB heaved the ball down field. Not only did the receiver catch it, but as the clock ticked to 0:00 the defensive back for New Orleans just completely missed tackling the guy - I mean dove right past him without even grazing him. The Viking receiver gleefully pranced 61 yards for one of the most unbelievable comebacks in NFL history. We both remarked we were NOT at the bar and/or on Bourbon Street!
Monday January 15
We were up a little before 5 am and headed to the airport. It was PACKED. But we both had only carry-on luggage and the "TSA Approved" program allowed us to waltz through security in minutes. Jim took off at 6:30 am and I was in the air around 8 am. As we flew out of town I got this great aerial shot - you can see the French Quarter area along the Mississippi River to the left, then just a little inland the Super Bowl, and towards the bottom, The Fair Grounds Race Track!
It was a great weekend with a great friend. And, before we parted ways we began talking about next great racing adventure - maybe sometime late this upcoming summer!
Kim's Weekend In Kansas
Everyone knows that I'm the photographer and "family historian" but here are some shots Kim got (or Antoinette took) of her time in Kansas. It's hard to tell from the photos just who is having the MOST fun.....the grandchildren or Grandma!
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