Other than the Asian man lugging behind him an impervious purple polka dotted suitcase and a pink back-pack, our time at Logan was uneventful. I regretted turning off my camera phone, however, when I walked into the Admiral Club restroom and saw how luxurious the accommodations were. The hand soap at each sink was a large bottle of Orange Blossom, the mouthwash rinse with tiny cups, and even a mesh box holding feminine hygiene products were all out in the open: free to members.
Once on board and settled in, Lou immediately began to doze off. Sleep comes so easy for him on an airplane. Not me. I’m too excited and nervous to sleep, so I read, watch TV, and peruse the SkyMall Magazine. It features some of the most interesting and bizarre products, such as Orbit Wheels, Video Pen, a device that claims to age wine in 10 seconds, a toilet seat that automatically raises and lowers itself, a cup holder for your suitcase, golf ball locating glasses, and my personal favorite: the magic wand remote control device, said to change channels, control volume, and manage other electronic devices “with a flick of the wrist.” The Video Screen Microscope caught my attention as well, but not because I found it intriguing. Sure its got a nice little LED screen which displays images of the object under inspection, but it takes away from the fun and anticipation of putting your face up to the eyepiece and peering at the mystery of what’s on the sample slide. Plus, it consumes energy because it plugs into AC. The most tempting product was a peephole camera, which allows you to see in a video screen who’s at your door and takes a picture of them. It can also be set to motion detection and automatically take a picture of everyone who approaches your door. I was thinking about getting one for each of the girls. The dorkiest product was the StreetStrider, which as an elliptical machine on wheels. It claims to be fun for the whol family. If seen on one of these complete with bicycle helmet, the only fun your kids are going to have is with you, because no one else will want to be seen with them.
As soon as we arrived, we grabbed our bags and sought out the driver Lou hired to take us to our hotel. He turned out to be a die hard, true blue New Orleans’ resident who wants badly to relocate to San Diego: no humidity. On the way to our hotel he jokingly let it drop that he could only get one more felony, or else he’d lose his driving privileges. We arrived a little too early to check in, so had a couple of drinks at the affiliated bar, MiLa (short for Mississippi and Louisiana and from where the married co-chefs hail). On the menu was biscuit over deer sausage and fried rabbit. We decided to wait a little on eating until after checking in. Waiting paid off. We found our dietary reward at the Funky Pirate. We ate a dozen oysters on the half shell and half dozen char-grilled oysters. It was the first time we had tried the char-grilled. We were amazing. We had them almost every day on our trip. After dinner we wandered around listening to live music and made an early night of it, but only after stopping in to see Chris McMillan, the famous mixoligist at the Renaissance. He filmed a whole series of “New Orleans’ best cocktails” and can tell you anything you’ve ever wanted to know about cocktails, New Orleans, Louisiana, and pretty much any else that comes up in conversation, including physics.