Heading back home to N’awlins

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Technically, I’m from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but I tell people I’m from New Orleans. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is radically different than the rest of Mississippi. It’s the New Orleans spillover and arguably the retirement community for the city. It is just easier for me to say I’m from New Orleans, rather than having to explain where my accent comes from.

This will be the first time I’ve been home since I joined Microsoft. We’re having a family reunion in the French Quarter at Tujagues (pronounced “to-jacks”). My grandmother on my mom’s side had 12 kids, and the youngest is turning 50 this year. I have 55 first-cousins, so our family get-togethers are never small.

I’m going to spend a week down there in New Orleans and in Bay St. Louis and spend TurkeyDay with my family. I’m really looking forward to some vacation time in the warm sunlight (unlike the current Seattle weather right now).

Here is a list of foods I can’t wait to eat again:

  • Red Beans and Rice
  • Beignets and real coffee at Café Du Monde
  • Crawfish Etoufee
  • Peel the tail and suck the head on some crawfish – if any are still around
  • Eating boiled crabs the way they were meant to be eaten
  • Oyster po-boys – I’ve already broken 3 fillings from biting down on pearls
  • Shrimp po-boys
  • Any homemade cooking offered to me
  • Sweet Tea!

I plan to do a lot of running along the beach and going back to my hometown’s gym to burn off some of these calories. <grins>