The end of the road

I wish this blog had a happy ending.  It doesn't. 

Lilly hasn't eaten in a week and today she is to be euthanized.  She is the love of my life. 

I just wish the tears would stop.

From the first day in 2001 when we rescued Lilly from an overcrowded foster home in Bremerton to today, Lilly was an amazing girl!  a beautiful mutt  -jack and Corgy we think.
From Salt Spring Island to Key Largo, from Magnolia, Vashon and Methow Valley, not only did she bring immeasurable love to Mark and me, but to all who met her.
Her favorite thing in the world (besides treats) was to be on my lap, drivers side of course, head out the window- especially with the top down in her Saab. She loved chasing squirrels and birds and in Florida her obsession was lizards!
Her greetings, her love, her extreme joy of life will be missed.

We did 5 cross country trips together, along with her also rescued sister Daisy.
I'll miss her kisses, excitement, morning snuggles and the incredible sense that the world is right.
The cycle of life with dogs is just too short, but the love is so intense and honest! I will always love you Lilly!  Cheers to a life well lived. You'll be missed beyond your wildest dreams

                                   John Spear

Mad dash

We found our new home in Pensacola.

We continued on along the Florida panhandle thru small towns like Panacea and Port St. Joe. This is a beautiful unspoiled part of Florida with pine forests and gorgeous white sand beaches.

At Saint George we knew we had to get Lilly to a vet. We had tried everything to get her to eat, and nothing worked.

Our only stop was for lunch at a roadside joint where the shrimp and oysters were caught behind the restaurant by the owners of the place.  Fantastic.

Florida is a big state, so we had to drive 17 hours to get to Lauderdale.  We arrived at 12:30 in the morning. Our beautiful dog Lilly has an appointment with the vet at 10:30 tomorrow. We would have driven all night to get her there on time.

Four states

We headed east out of New Orleans and, as luck would have it, through the lower ninth ward.  Devastation was still apparent there, eight years after Katrina; lots of ruined homes and overgrown empty lots.  But there seemed to be resilience too as evidenced by the banners on street poles and new construction.

This is the levee at the Industrial canal that was massively breached during Katrina

We hit the Mississippi state line

and drove along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Pass Christian to Pascagoula. The beaches are beautiful soft white sand on one side of the road and large homes on the other.

The disappointment was Biloxi; their beach is crowded with ugly high rise casinos, rebuilt from the shore after hurricane destruction.  Las Vegas sur la mer.

We reached Alabama and drove south along Mobile Bay so we could take the small ferry across the mouth of mobile bay.  When we got there, we found out the ferry was closed due to high winds.  We had passed 3 or 4 signs on our hour long drive to the ferry and not one had warned us the ferry was closed.  We had to backtrack north around the Bay through Mobile.

We searched for a local joint for lunch.  We saw plenty of fast food options, but local cafés were all closed since it was Sunday (buckle of the Bible Belt here).  We finally found a roadside barbecue joint and ordered pulled pork sandwiches and lemonade. I now know why proper dentition seems to be lacking in this part of the world. Two of my teeth about fell out after the first bite of the sandwich; it was all brown sugar and molasses sweet.  I've never tasted anything so sweet; I couldn't tell that there was pork in the sandwich except by looking at it. The lemonade was even sweeter.  I think I now have diabetes.  We couldn't eat or drink either sandwich or lemonade, and I love junk food too.

We crossed into Pensacola and headed out to the beach for the night.  John has spent hours trying to get Lilly to eat with no success.  She even refused the sugar tonight.  Maybe she has seen some of the locals and is afraid for her teeth.

If she doesn't eat today we will abandon the back roads and head to home and good veterinary care in Fort Lauderdale asap.

NOLA

We woke up this morning to dogs that reeked of cigarette smoke (they can smoke in bars here, people, not the dogs). But none of us cared.  All four of us had a great time last night.

New Orleans is truly a magical city.  Great food, great booze, great architecture, great music.  Who could not love this place? Certainly no one reading this blog.  Did I mention great booze?

John took an early morning hot tub at the hotel, 

followed by a morning walk to a nearby city park on Camp Street with the girls where we met other friendly dog owners.

Then John headed off for blunch with friend Mckenzie and a personal tour of her adopted city and beautiful French Quarter home.  I got stuck baby sitting the dogs because Daisy was a terrible hotel guest and wouldn't stop barking at the owner's German Shepherd, a very sweet dog.  Dang Daisy.

A mix-your-own Bloody Mary bar at the restaurant Mckenzie chose for blunch has spoiled John for life. No more salad bars for him.  Fantastic food, live jazz, and self serve Bloody Mary's- I don't think I'll be able to get John to leave New Orleans.

John came back to the hotel and we finally got Daisy calmed down.  Charles, the Inn manager today, kindly agreed to keep an ear out for the dogs so John and I could tour the city, with a promise by us of a quick cab ride back to the hotel if the dogs misbehaved.  Dogs are as much work as two year old children but, unlike children, dogs never grow up; they just get old.

We took the St. Charles Avenue streetcar through the Garden District.  

We stopped in at a bakery on Magazine Street called "Sucre" and had the best almond caramel pastry and coffee.  So much better than Starbucks.

We hopped back on the streetcar to go to Canal Street and then walked the French Quarter.

We got back to our hotel via streetcar and spent two hours trying to get Lilly to eat;  she hadn't eaten in 48 hours.  Ironic that she chose to stop eating (again) in the gastronomic capital of America.  John, the good papa, did a web search and tried rubbing her gums with a little sugar as someone had written online that dogs lose their appetite when their blood sugar is too low.  It worked, thank god, and she wolfed down two cans of food.  

We are both greatly relieved and will celebrate by heading to the hot tub followed by dinner tonight at this restaurant:

Tomorrow we search for something called "green tripe" because John read that dogs will eat that when they will eat nothing else.  We figure if we can't find an unusual food like "green tripe" in New Orleans then it doesn't exist.

And by the way, the innkeeper accused us of bringing Seattle weather with us today.

Update

Three words to describe tonight's dinner at Emeril's Delmonico:  Fab U Lous!

(No flash, so pics not great)

Appetizers were:

Bacon crusted Louisiana oysters, watercress, fennel, rockefeller dressing

Creole mirliton pirogue, gulf shrimp, Louisiana crab, chieisi ham, roasted red bell pepper butter

Entrees:

Louisiana drum meunière, artichoke, fingerling potatoes, local blue crabmeat, arugula, grape tomatoes

And, (no pic) bourbon braised pork shank, red bean and rice congri, creole baked banana, vinegar peppers

Dessert:

Creole cream cheese stuffed beignets, preserved Alhambra peaches, fresh blackberries

Coconut cream pie, lime meringue, grilled pineapple, rum caramel, cashew crust.

And here is a surreptitiously taken pic inside the restaurant:

The service was flawless; John and I had 6 different staff members waiting on us. They didn't just refill our water glasses, they brought us new ones each time.

It was a very memorable meal and evening.

Little Miss(ing) Sunshine

We woke up this morning to a pouring rain in Natchez.  We had breakfast at a communal table with the other guests of the B and B, and we were again reminded that we are in the Bible Belt because breakfast started with a morning prayer by all.  John and I were politely silent.

We spent an hour driving through Natchez and photographing some of the plantations.  Here are some pics:

We made a purchase offer on this one:

And here is the view of the Mississippi River from Natchez.  

When we left the park where that picture was taken we started Vanna's engine and she pulled a Little Miss Sunshine on us and blared her horn.  Fortunately the horn stopped when we shut off and restarted the engine.  We think she heard that a Hollywood studio is filming a James Brown bio at the house next door to our B and B and she was auditioning by recreating a scene from one of her favorite movies.  (The innkeeper reported that Mick Jagger had been in town for filming the day before).

Natchez is beautiful but sleepy.  We read that Franklin Street in Natchez is Mississippi's equivalent to the Castro district in San Francisco but the only evidence we saw was a flower shop and a couple of antiques stores, but no hair salon. 

Here is the synagogue in Natchez and its history. The plaque sounds wonderful, but I'd be willing to bet years ago the guys dressed in white bed sheets came after those sporting yarmulkes too.  And I'm suspicious those same boys in sheets might have had something to do with the 1903 fire. 

We drove hwy 61 south, and parts of it were gorgeous.  I'm in love with live oaks draped in Spanish moss. Here are some of the plantations we saw along the way:

The Myrtles

Humas House

Oak Alley

A Mississippi River paddle boat was docked at the levee at Oak Alley.

We stopped at a roadside country store near St. Joseph's Plantation, and the store and the owner Melanie were both absolutely charming. Melanie told us the store was originally part of the Plantation and inside it looked like it hadn't changed in 100 years.  Here are Melanie, John, and the store.

We rolled into New Orleans this evening and will be spending two nights at The Green House Inn, a little slice of heaven in the Garden District. They even have a clothing optional pool;  I guess John can throw his suit away now.  

Tonight we enjoyed mojitos at the Bridge Lounge across the street from the Inn.  Dogs are allowed, even encouraged, in the bar.  We are loving New Orleans.

John and the mutts in the bar.