Getting Out There

June is Pride month and there are plenty of “Coming Out” stories being told (including my own), but this IONL blog is going to be about getting back out there, a different way of coming out, I guess.

With the world being shut down for so long, people are so ready to get back out there and live their lives. Recently, the CDC sent out a new recommendation, saying that vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks. I am personally very relieved to see this and finally be able to smile in public again.

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of travel for me and Tess and we couldn’t be happier. Here’s a short overview of our “getting out there” month of travel:

Las Vegas:

We started our journey by flying to Vegas for a friend of our’s (Sante & Vera from Menage Life and Sin City) wedding celebration—they got married earlier this year over a Zoom call that we along with many of their friends and family, attended. This was the first time that they were able to get out and celebrate with friends and we were thrilled to join them—and so many awesome people, in Las Vegas—over Memorial Day weekend.

It also coincided with a PurrfectLV Vegas Heat party, so we stayed at the Alexis Park so we could hang out with Sante & Vera and go to a couple of the PurrfectLV parties too. We hit a few pool parties, ate all you could eat sushi, hung out at the bar at Alexis Park Resort, and saw many friends we haven’t seen in well over a year, but the highlight of the weekend was a trip to Area 15, for their Neon Party, which allowed us to go into several of their exhibits that left us amazed and inspired to add new things to our upcoming Neon Night at Naughty N’awlins.

All in all, it was a great weekend with old friends in Las Vegas and it was great to be back out and about again.

New Orleans:

After Vegas, we flew home to New Orleans to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary and Tess’ birthday with friends. When we landed in New Orleans, we had a car take us to one of our favorite local bars (the Upper Quarter Bar) so we could hang out with our friends, who were out celebrating another friend’s birthday. We had to store our luggage right inside the bar because we didn’t even take the time to go home before joining our friends.

We had two incredible meals (one at N7, for Tess’ birthday, and we celebrated our Anniversary at Stanley. It was a short (4 night) trip to NOLA, but we crammed in a lot of fun times, reminiscing back to the “good old days” before this “thing” happened sometime last Spring.

Houston:

Then we were off to Houston for 4 nights to attend the CouplesXcape Party that our friends put on. This was, by far, the biggest event we had attended since Covid started and it was a complete hotel takeover and it sold out. It was amazing being at a BIG event for a chance, and we saw so many old friends, family and many of our Naughty Team attended too. We went to several seminars including two by John & Jackie from Colette clubs and OpenLove101.com. We learned some new things and had a great lunch with them afterward.

The highlight of the event was a performance by, none other than, Grammy-nominated singer Tone Loc. His hit songs “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina” were two of my favorite songs growing up in the ’80s. He did not disappoint and even sung an awesome version of Rapper’s Delight to a packed house. We danced all night long and we felt it the next morning. We haven’t danced like that in ages.

Mexico:

After the CouplesXcape Party was over, we headed south… to Mexico. Many know that we have been spending a lot of time down in Mexico lately, but this was the perfect time to explore beyond our beloved Zipolite, and see Puebla, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca City and the beautiful mountains that separate the Oaxacan Coast from the rest of Mexico.

While in Puebla, Tess & I went to our first “Swing Club” in over a year. It was their grand re-opening and they had a nice crowd of very attractive couples from southern Mexico. It was a unique experience, because of the language barrier, but we look forward to going back and exploring more lifestyle clubs throughout Mexico.

We are now home in Zipolite, Mexico, working remotely and enjoying the views.

Naughty N’awlins is shaping up to be an amazing event, a triumphant comeback, but the real success story is that we have come so far and have finally turned the corner and we can start getting back out there now. It looks like we will have about 1,600 people and the main hotel should be sold out very soon. If you want to come see New Orleans, old and new friends, then book your trip to NOLA now and come hang out with us in our favorite city. We can’t wait to see you back out there again too…