New Orleans 2001 Day 4: Zoo-quarium-boat and Getting Low On Funds
9/27/1

I woke up several times before we were supposed to wake up. We set the alarm last night and when it went off at 7:50, I still remembered my dream. I turned to Aisai and said, "I never went to chef school but I'm head chef at Emeril Lagassi's in New Orleans...and it sucks." We were opening boil in the bag stuff and cans. Oh, it was pathetic.

Aisai also had a dream. She dreamed that she was in a zoo. It was a nightmare, really. She was being stalked by alligators and she could climb to try to get away but the alligators could also climb. She mentioned gorillas also. I suppose I could ask her about it, but, eh...

She had woken up after that nightmare and tried to get her mind off it by thinking about something else. She focused on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, Angel. And sure enough, she ended up being a villain on the show in her dream. But it wasn't a show, of course, it was real.

I took some pictures outside when the water outside was really still and mirror like and ate some Poptarts. Or, my notes indicate that I ate Poptarts. I don't remember eating any Poptarts.

Ah, and the barking outside reminds me that I forgot to tell you about the stray dog. Last night after we had gotten back from Copeland's, we saw this nice dog. Actually we had seen him before, and we could tell he was stray, because he wanted nothing to do with us and was too smart about it.

When we had gotten back from Copeland's, Aisai said for us to put out one of her leftover chicken breasts so and that she bet the dog would eat it before morning. She put one out and then came back in. Later, when I wanted my CDs out of the car, or a flashlight, I forget, I went outside and the dog was slowly walking up to the chicken breast. However, once I saw him, I was already to the car and halfway back. I didn't really see him, I heard him whimpering. Though, as a stray, he didn't like people, he felt that he could communicate with me enough to let me know that he really wanted that food. And I was between him and it, and he was afraid of me. I went in. The chicken was gone this morning.

Another thing I didn't mention was the rabbits and squirrels. We don't have them near our cabin since we're on the other side of the levee and nothing really wants to come around here but dragonflies and fish and alligators, but I'm getting ahead of myself, but there is an alligator later today. Ooh, he was so cool.

But about those rabbits. On the way out of the park, we count the rabbits and the last two times we've counted nine fat fat rabbits munching on grass on the way out. There are also these squirrels who hang out near the ranger station and I have them run out in front of the car every time I go by. I have had to come to a complete stop several times. They are young, teenager squirrels and probably know better.

We went to McDonald's for those breakfast burritos that I wanted the other day and the McD's near us was all screwed up. There were about 10 to 12 people who had ordered and were waiting for their food and there was a line of around six of us to place our order. I don't know how many orders that was, if there were multiple people per order like Aisai and I were, but hey, I'm outta there. We drove a mile and got to the other McDonald's where our cashier was very mannish. I really couldn't tell if it was a guy or gal, but Aisai says it was definitely a gal. Very manninsh, I say. Quite, quite mannish. I didn't order coffee since she had kind of hassled the old dude who ordered some before me. Who cares if the guy wants three sugars? Sometimes I drink mine with four. Dessert coffee, I call it.

The drive to the zoo was fairly uneventful. The car did try to overheat when we were in stop and go traffic on the Huey P. Long bridge, but it was so cold out that I didn't want the AC on anyway but 20% of the time, so we had it on 0% instead and rolled the windows down a little. Finding the zoo was easy, and it was a beautiful day today.

We bought our Zoo-Quarium-Boat tickets which allowed us to get in the zoo and have a round trip ride on the John James Audubon boat to the aquarium, which we'd have tickets also to.

I just asked Aisai how to spell Audubon and she said, "A U T O B A H N." Thanks alot. We had to look at the bag we got when we bought souvenirs.

The boat was leaving at 11 and it was 10:24 when we got in the zoo. The last boat back to the zoo would be 2:00, so we had to do the aquarium first. We looked at some Australian stuff before we left though. At that time, in the zoo and on the boat there were only two kinds of people: Old and with-kids-who-were-brats.

I was really amazed at the range of likeability there was in kids. Some of them were the most beautiful and polite kids. Oh, they were wonderful. They'd make anyone want to have kids. And then there were the clear kids who acted like their middle name was Ass.

Clear kids? Yes, they were blonde, or the older one, maybe four, was a slight redhead. They were so pale you could see through them and I'm sure their blood was a light, clear pink. On Halloween, they could just swallow a light stick and go around shirtless and be one of those aliens from Close Encounters. Perhaps I've gone a bit too far on this clear thing.

Did I mention they were horrid? There were also some really cute little girls that were around in the afternoon when we got back to the zoo who were griping about everything. Oh, yeah, how horrible, the white alligator that's nine feet long isn't moving around for you. In your little perfect world, I suppose he'd dance and write poetry about how you are the center of the universe. These snotty gals did have good fashion sense however.

So, we're on the boat still, with the clear devils, and my Tamagotchi, the one which had some sort of system failure and rebooted the thing yesterday after I raised my little man [who had legs, mind you] since Friday night, reset again. Oh, I was disappointed. And I was knowing my little blob man would probably get legs or lips [Actually, never lips, I'm too good a tamaparent] in the next few days. Oh, I was tamabrokenhearted. I didn't set the time so it could hatch. Aisai put it in her purse.

We looked at all the normal exhibits in the aquarium and ate at the Burger King in the aquarium. They put mayo on my BK Broiler, which is now a fused meat product rather than an actual chicken breast. How irritating.

The shark feeding at one was really good. The fellow who narrated during it told all kinds of neat behind the scene things. The most interesting thing, besides all their sharks are terribly fat compared to sharks in the wild and that one of the turtles has been in captivity for 60 years, was that the redfish with more than two dots in the tank were from an LSU genetics experiment where they tried to get more spots. Since these mutant fish can't be released into the wild, they stay there. And changing them so they had extra spots also made them very aggressive. They are more aggressive than the sharks. We saw this first hand. Of course, these were just sand sharks, which are pretty docile. Oh, and there were nurse sharks too.

I got to pet some baby nurse sharks too. I could tell they loved me. But I couldn't take them with me, you know, gills and all.

The otter feeding wasn't quite as interesting, but we did find out that the male otter will turn on you and can go at you like he was a German Shepherd, or so said the lame narrator. Oh, he'd be fine if we hadn't had such a great narrator for the shark feeding.

We saw the white gator at the aquarium that they make such a big deal about. Oddly, later we saw two at the zoo, which doesn't make such a big deal about it.

Oh, and man my feet hurt. I was wearing my Buck Rodger's Bowling Shoes and I had taken the special insert that I had bought for my Asics out of the BRBS and put them back into my Asics since those were the shoes I wore to the walk around the French [Suck] Quarter. Well, my dogs were barkin'.

The boat back was more enjoyable than the boat there since the pilot talked more about things we were seeing and also my Tamagotchi didn't reset. Or, heck, it may have since I never set the thing and it was in Aisai's purse.

We were just in time for the Alligator feeding, which was quite impressive. However, did I mention my feet hurt? They did. Badly. Oh, they still hurt and it's nearly nine at night now. [Alot of Alliteration from Aspiring Authors] So, I'm wearing my lame old Asics or my cool suede hiker track shoes for the rest of the vacation.

We saw the elephants and petting zoo on our way out. Aisai is so funny around the dumb old goats and sheep. She really needs some livestock to take care of.

We got home, to the cabin, and ate our leftover Copeland's after I explained again to Aisai that we didn't have much money. We have two more days of vacationing and eating and only 80 dollars. So no swamp tours and we didn't get to go to the New Orleans Food & Spirits place. The spirits is a negative draw for me anyway. But since they close at 8 p.m. it can't be some boozer bar.

We went to the Piggly Wiggly and got some stuff for breakfast and I also got the green bagged eXtreme Doritos, which are ok. The best Doritos are the 3D Jalape�o Cheddar Doritos, which have been discontinued.

Oh, and speaking of stuff we can't get, dumb old Louisiana doesn't have Pepsi Twist either. Grrr. I'll never get to try that. I wish they'd bring back Josta, or better yet, release Diet Josta.

We got home and I wandered out onto our deck and was munching Doritos as Aisai was doing something inside. I said, "Aisai, come here, come here." And she said, "Hold on, I'm in the middle of blah blah blah." About ten seconds later, I had said ALLIGATOR for the fifth time and she showed up.

Oh, he was a handsome little man. I threw Doritos at him and he swam over to us and tried one. He didn't like them. Aisai threw some potato chips out and he didn't reject those as quickly. He hung out with us for a good hour or so. I put on some soothing music when it looked like he'd take off and he stayed around some more. He was maybe four or five feet long, but he was tiny, he wasn't but a teen or twentysomething equivalent. A boat finally scared him away, but first he would submerge if we tried to see him from the lawn rather than the deck.

His leaving and the sudden arrival of mosquitoes made us retreat to the inside of our cabin.

Today, when Aisai was showering and I was sitting around, I listened to Beck - Midnight Vultures. We listened to Supreme Beings Of Leisure in the car on the way to the zoo and my Pre-New Orleans Mix on the way back. Beck Midnight Vultures was the music for the trip to and from the Pig. And the soothing music for the Alligator was Home For the Holidays soundtrack beginning with track 6, Birth Of The Cool Whip. Then we heard Everything But The Girl's album Amplified Heart, the Blade Runner soundtrack, and now, as I write, we're listening to 10,000 Maniacs, the album after Natalie Merchant left.

Both Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs are weaker for splitting, but we've got some new, good music.

Souvenirs for the day include a deck of mini playing card, a refrigerator magnet, a fish shaped carabineer, and a patch from the aquarium and a magnet and a cheap zebra mask from the zoo.

Oh, and when I bought the zoo-quarium-boat tickets this morning, I actually said to the gal, "Two zoo-quarium-boat tickets." And she accepted that if it was the most normal thing to say in the world.

I also wore all black today. Well, my black jeans have really greyed out.

Tomorrow, we plan to eat cinnamon orange rolls here, pack up and check out, drive to a wildlife refuge that's north of where Carol and Brad live, and then get to our new place to stay at the plantation in time to look around some and eat at the restaurant called The Cabin next door. Oh, and lunch, I guess that might be some lame fast food again. This vacation has had entirely too much fast food.

I also reactivated my Tamagotchi. I think that it's the reset button that is malfunctioning. Nothing else could make it reset like that. The little guy finally got out of his "black dot" baby phase about 40 minutes ago and the fat blob fell sleep. Let's see how this one goes. Aisai has said that I can get another one off Ebay if I want. This vacation was supposed to be the big Tamagotchi time for me. I'm not sure how great an idea it is to keep a Tamagotchi when I have work. I could pause it the whole time I'm away at work, from 6:20 am to 3:40 when I get home. But, that's only allowing the tam four hours of life per day. Hmm.