This was the easy driving day, barely half hour to get to my aunt’s house. The two places my high school friend intended for us to have lunch weren’t open on Sunday so after a little trial and error we went to TJohnny’s, a spot on Cane River. I did get my crawfish. Sis had shrimp again and my friends both had catfish. Yes, the primary cooking method was to fry. Anyway, we had a good time catching up and they plan a trip to the Keys next year. Friend’s husband is big time into fishing and wants to do the back country.

I won’t get into the details, but my aunt’s house is in disarray. It’s about 100 years old and was my grandparents. An accident with the floor occurred and as is always the case, that revealed many problems that should have been dealt with long ago. Anyway, repairs are on-going, but at least she is back in the house. All the kids who live in the area have been working incredibly hard as so much had to be packed up and moved into a PODS, then repairs managed, stuff getting moved back in as can, and so forth. We’re staying at one of the cousin’s house who had to be gone this weekend. When we arrived yesterday, the cousin who is my age, his wife and the cousin a couple of years younger were at my aunt’s. We spent about four hours visiting and will go back this morning for another hour or so. Then it’s up to Minden to the cemetery to check on the grave marker and say Happy Birthday to Daddy. Sis thought about getting wreath for his grave, but that didn’t turn out to be practical.

Speaking of not practical, neither did my idea of taking my aunt out for dinner last night. Sis and I ran by the cousin’s house as I wanted to arrive before dark. I’ve only been here like once and even though it was close by, it’s in a neighborhood I’m not familiar with. We dropped stuff off and went out. Many is a very small town and being Sunday, I was expecting only the few fast-food places to be open. There was, however, one of the regional family Mexican restaurants open. Sis had never been to one of these and the ambience is charming. Great homemade chips and salsa. I had a chicken dish and she had a mixed plate. Other than not enough seasoning for her, she enjoyed it.

The trip back up from Mandeville went well; a little more time on the Interstate as not all sections were doing construction on a Saturday. Now, there is an iconic – well, from a regional perspective – place called Lea’s which is on one of the state roads. Back before the interstate was built, our maternal grandfather would always stop for lunch there when going back and forth to Baton Rouge. Sis made a comment about it and when I told her it was still open, that was the obvious place for lunch. It’s iconic for two reasons. First, they have a very limited menu. Baked ham is the specialty with little else and homemade pies. Second, the owner Lea – long gone and I don’t know if family still runs it – was quite the character. He was straightforward – if you wanted something else on the menu, there were other places you could go to. Anyway, Sis did have a ham sandwich and they did have two other items on the menu, so I had old-fashioned cube steak with gravy. I passed on the offer of a biscuit as we were going to split a piece of pie. Cherry was Sis’s choice.

Anyway, the only downside to the day was my high school friend we were to have dinner with is not feeling well and we had to pass. I took Sis to Mariners on the lake – the exact opposite of somewhere like Lea’s. I called for reservations and explained it was to be her first time there and they did give us a table with a view of the lake in a spot where we could watch the sun set. We both had shrimp dishes. Considering lunch, she went with the mandarin orange salad adding grilled shrimp. I had a slight variation of Shrimp Oscar; grilled shrimp with lump crab meat, Bernaise sauce, and a couple of asparagus spears. We didn’t do dessert.

Lunch with other high school friend is still on for today and then we drive the short distance to see the branch of family in Many.

I stand corrected. Although the trip is 90% interstate, there is significant construction so the “lady” who does navigation sent me mostly on state roads. I don’t mind as driving slower is okay. That would make Hubby slightly crazy except he does know the “lady” selects the fastest route so he might agree had he been with me. Anyway, the only traffic was understandably in the Baton Rouge area. We’ll see what’s recommended in the morning.

My sister did get in with no problem and this was the first time all three of we siblings have been together for a while. Brother wasn’t able to be at Daddy’s funeral because of respiratory problems. Not COVID, but infectious nonetheless. We went to Vera’s, a local seafood place and yes, I had catfish and shrimp. Crawfish will come later. Sis had shrimp, brother had blackened shrimp tacos and sister-in-law fried oysters and catfish. The day’s bread pudding was caramel apple.

I had forgotten as cute as Marvilla Guest House is in Mandeville, they don’t have an elevator and parking is across the street. Well, I needed a bit of a workout anyway. We walked down in search of cold beverages as they don’t really have those either and the cafe next door is just breakfast and lunch. Will hit it in the morning. Found Tandem, lovely little coffee and cocktail place. (We are close to New Orleans after all.) Lucious looking pastries I did resist considering lunch. Tonight is the lovely Nuvolari Italian restaurant. This is all in the historic Mandeville section. It’s a mix of old houses, old houses converted into businesses (mostly boutique type) and some new places done in the older style. Sis has not been here before and if she hadn’t had to walk so much earlier today, she would go up to Lake Ponchatrain. Depending on what time we’re up tomorrow, I might drive her the short distance. None of the houses are on the lake itself as there is the road in between. They do all have a clear view of the massive lake.

Well, the day did have some glitches. They aren’t that important except for the fact I didn’t have the chance to actually eat a meal until dinnertime. There were enough delays so all I could do was grab snacks and still get to the flight on time. I thought that might happen and I was a little careful with what I selected. Anyway, weather was good and when I finally picked up the rental car – a Malibu this time – and got on the road, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to go beyond Natchitoches. If all had been well, I was going to try to make it to Alexandria, the next major town on I-49. It was a little after 6:30 though and the sun was ready to set and I decided not to push it.

This is the weekend of the Classic Car Show and I wasn’t sure if a motel room would be available. There are multiple motels at the I-49 exit and one of my preferred ones did have a room. The IHOP is next door and while that’s hardly the type of place I ordinarily pick for dinner, it was the most practical. Basic Salisbury steak with salad and broccoli to help off-set my less than nutritional fare of the day. It was interesting though to see several people had breakfast foods for their dinners. That’s never been a “thing” for me, but if I had been craving pancakes it would make sense.

Okay, if I can get on to sleep – which is happening in about twenty minutes – I’ll start early tomorrow for the longer drive south to Mandeville. It’s not quite 300 miles and is interstate 90% of the trip.

Other than when we need fast food we prioritize dining at family-owned restaurant, but do have some franchises we frequent at times. I posted last year about how all of a sudden we were seeing the trend of crab places. We went from none to three in a couple of years. The first one is still good (Krab Kingz) and we use them for carryout. They aren’t exactly a sit-down place though and they don’t have wine or coffee. Then a Crafty Crab in Homestead and a Red Crab in Florida City both opened within months of each other. Red Crab is a little closer to us and we tried it first. It was okay, but they didn’t serve coffee so my friend and I tried Crafty next. The menus were almost identical, the ambience was better even though they didn’t serve coffee either. We tried Red Crab a couple more times, then decided not to bother with it again.

Maybe four months or so ago, I saw it was closed and wasn’t surprised. Then about six weeks ago, it looked as if they were open again. I didn’t think anything about it because there might just have been a building issue they needed to take care of. An individual contacted me recently and said friends of theirs owned Red Crab and could I maybe get them some publicity. I cautiously sent a text asking if they were new owners. That was a “yes”, so Hubby and I went for dinner. The ambience was like night and day. They also had an expanded menu and indeed have coffee as regular, espresso, or cappuccino. Service was fine and prices were essentially the same. It was a pleasant surprise and later this summer, I’ll do an interview for a  write-up for the paper. I have another one to do before them.