Now that was a good (long) week-end.

Aaron from The Shekel came down Friday to catch the air show and hang out for a few days, and the G-rated version of this week-end's events can be seen on his page. But I just dropped his hungover self off at the airport and it looked like he at least made it inside so now the stories can begin.

Friday night I took him to work with me at a music venue where I labor part time. He put a couple pics up but I notice he omitted the best part of the entertainment. And of course there were adult beverages

Next day was airshow day, and it was good.

More on this later.

Then it was out for dinner and a second line parade--Aaron's first--and another show, this one where we were just spectators. But the adult beverages flowed free.


Sunday came and we went out to the swamp for a bit, and then came back and took kayaks out on Bayou St. John. We rewarded ourselves for that with another foray into the French Quarter and a few more adult beverages.

Yesterday we hit the Louisiana National Guard museum at Jackson Barracks.

It looks great now but it was completely destroyed during Hurricane Katrina and the pictures they have of the hundreds of historic guns ruined by submersion of the floodwaters is enough to make you cry. So we came back to my place and walked down to the Quarter to get some adult beverages to make us feel better.

I think we started out at R Bar (as seen on NCIS New Orleans) for a beer. Then I took Aaron to get some gifts for his kids and we had a few dozen oysters and some more beer Then it was into a bar where a lady friend of mine works, and she made us a couple of specialty cocktails that weren't exactly light on the rum, because she's a good friend. From there we went to Popeyes to grab some chicken on the way to the ferry dock and we went over to The Crown and Anchor, a nifty English Pub on the West Bank, to meet another lady friend of mine. We had a couple more beers, and a few whiskey shots, then caught the last ferry back in a downpour. And then because *someone* hasn't learned to use the bathroom before leaving a bar, we had to stop into another bar so he could go. And it's rude not to buy anything when using a bar's bathroom so we had a couple more tequila shots each and then I took him to a local pirate bar to get him his first Absinthe drink.

He seemed to like that 124-proof concoction, or at least that's what he told me a dozen times or so between there and the next bar, where we stopped in to see Janet the bar dog.

While we were there we ran into some Las Vegas cops here for a conference. We talked, they bought us a couple more beers, and then we invited them to join us for midnight burgers at Clover Grill, a Bourbon Street institution. Those guys were pretty hammered too, and wanted more drinks, so I steered them all to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop and got Aaron a Hurricane because he hadn't had one yet and it's his last night. There we met a few members of a bridal party from Toronto, Aaron's home town, and one of us tried (and failed) to pick up the bride-to-be. (OK, that was me. Aim high, right?) We finally walked back to my place again.

I thought that it was a pretty good night, but Aaron seemed to have picked up a case of the flu somewhere along the way as he was still quite green and slow-moving this morning.

Good times...good times.