Three days in New Orleans and three standouts: Day 1 was the city tour, Day 2 the WWII Museum, Preservation Hall and the French Quarter (OK, that’s three highlights, but work with me) and today, Day 3, the highlight was visiting with Jacki Hemman at Tulane University.

Judy and I have now seen three Onawa kids at school in the past few weeks: Alex Kennedy at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH; Brenna Kennedy Fairfield University in Connecticut; and now Jacki at Tulane. We’re planning on a trip to see our Reagan in San Diego next January. It’s really a blast to see these kids we’ve known since they were born now transformed into bright, energetic and motivated college students. And seeing them in their university environments unleashes memories of those days so long ago when I was living through my first semester away from home at Lehigh University. I’m pretty sure I don’t have today what it takes to do what they’re doing. I must have done so because that person 51 years ago named Jon Rick somehow graduated, but that’s not today’s Jon Rick.

Dave and Rolande are indeed here and joined us for breakfast down the street at the Streetcar, another greasy spoon with good New Orleans food. They are off on a bus tour of the city like the one we did. We all agreed that the tour would be the best way to get a feel for NOLA in the time available to them.

Tulane is perhaps a 30-minute car ride, but we don’t have a car. Rather than falling back on Uber we stepped across the street and hopped on the St. Charles Street trolly that took us to Tulane. Actually, we hopped on a bus which, due to reconstruction of the trolly line, took us the first few stops. We then transferred to a real trolly and rode on it the rest of the way. It costs $1.25 every time you board a trolly ($3.00 gets you a 24-hour pass). For seniors like most of us (Sharon is still a kid under 65) it’s $0.40 or $0.90 for the pass.

The trolly took us through the Garden District so we got to see the grand old houses we saw the other day on the bus.

Grandpa Steve called Jacki and she met us with her roommate Kate. They gave us the campus tour, ending at their dormitory. It’s a beautiful campus with moss-adorned live oak trees. The buildings are a mixture of old traditional brick buildings and modern steel and glass structures. The business building is a prime example of the new style. It’s shaped as an ocean wave with undulating curves and dark glass and steel. No doubt which department has the most money at Tulane.

Jacki is majoring in environmental sciences but expressed interest in architecture. “I want a major that will allow me to help make the world a better place,” she said. It’s great for her to have an objective that drives her career choice. Other college kids choose majors based on a personal passion or a major that has the biggest financial payback. I think Jacki is on the right path.

I really envy Kate, too. She’s majoring in international business and will spend her junior year abroad in a Spanish speaking country, probably Spain and somewhere in South America. I envy her the chance to become immersed in other cultures, to say nothing of becoming fluent in Spanish. The engineering thing worked out OK for me, I guess, but still . . .

If I had a nickel for every google search we did looking for the perfect restaurant for luncheon with Jacki we could ride the trolly for a month. Carolyn and Steve of course wanted to treat their granddaughter to something special, not too fancy but something out of Jacki’s ordinary routine. The closest we came was a take-out crepe joint. Noon came and we hadn’t found anything we liked.

But we were looking at it the wrong way. The goal was not to feed Jacki but to see Jacki’s world from her vantage point. When Jacki said, “The crepe place? It’s right next door to the hottest club at Tulane, the Boot Bar and Grill,” the die was cast. The crepes were great and Steve and I even got a glass of Huge Ass Blue Moon ale. We sat outside (it’s in the upper 60s here) and had a great time. Jackie and Kate loved the crepes. Best of all, it was only a seven-minute walk to the trolly.

The trolly ride home was crowded – standing room only. Everyone was masked, but still . . .

We met in our room for wine at 5, all but Rolande and Dave, who’s city tour ran long. They also got left off at the wrong spot and had to take a cab to the hotel. They opted out of dinner so the rest of us set off for a restaurant I had googled rather than going to the $50-a-steak joint across the street.

We ended up at the restaurant next door to the google choice called Daisy Duke’s. The owner was greeting people at the front door and I asked her which was better, her restaurant or the place next door. She said, “Ann is a good friend of mine and her place has oysters but otherwise it’s about the same.” A guy came out at that moment and said, “that burger was a lot bigger than I expected.” That sealed the deal.

Alex was our waiter – a really fun guy who took great care of us. The gumbo was a tad spicey for some (I loved it – full of sausage and shrimp) but everything else was fine and the price was right. The only downfall was chocolate mousse cake and bourbon bread pudding. But hey, we’re on vacation, as we keep saying.

Tomorrow we board our ship, the Jazz, and sail for the distant port of Baton Rouge (it’s 1:15 by car).