"Wide-On" Of The Week: The French Quarter

Wide-On noun. A slang term referring to a uniquely feminine reaction to desirable stimuli.
Ex: "Eating and shopping in New Orleans is so much fun that I walked around all afternoon with an enormous wide-on, especially when I found Saks Fifth Avenue."

Despite the torrential rain of this afternoon, we are having a great time anyway. No one comes to New Orleans and expects good hair. We did have to stop and get umbrellas as we left ours in the car at the hotel. In true Brower family vacation drama, my husband's exploded into a mess of springs and blew away in the gale force winds that assailed us as I marched us through the drenching rain toward the Aquarium of the Americas to go to an IMAX film about hurricanes. My husband refers to these little walking tours that I take him on as being much like the Bataan Death March and likes to tunelessly hum the theme music from "Bridge Over The River Quai" while he stoically tries to keep up with me. He claims today that the wake coming from my flip flops was almost as bad as the trucks that sprayed water all over us if we strayed too close to the street. Ha ha, every one is a fucking comedian at our house. Yes I recognized the irony of the rain lashing at us and soaking our clothes on the way to the theater, but it made watching an IMAX about a hurricane so much more realistic as we sat there in our freezing cold and dripping wet clothes.

No one appreciates the effort I put into our vacation experience.

Anyway we shopped our way back to the Quarter afterward and had more coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde.

A word about lunch at Muriels. Exquisite. We started with an appetizer of shrimp and goat cheese crepes, followed by two house salads with the house dressing, a pomegranate vinaigrette. Chuck had the wood grilled pork chop and I had the peppers stuffed with andouille sausage and shrimp. Muriels is housed in a large old home at the corner of Chartres and St. Ann and is reputed to be haunted by several ghosts. They set a table every day for the house ghost, and have two fabulous "seance" lounges upstairs that more closely resemble something one might find in a Storyville bordello-an upscale one anyway.


Hate to run now, but my husband just reminded me of the time. We have reservations for Antoines at 8:30 and then are off to Preservation Hall afterward.

Good night from New Orleans! Have a wonderful Friday!