2 Days in the Big Easy (Belated post) - Day 905 (Yr 3, Day 172)

New Orleans, LA

I'm not sure where to start with this post, so please bear with me.  Warning - will be very long.

FIRST DAY - FRENCH QUARTER

The decision was to take the free shuttle offered by the campground to the French Quarter, and either return by shuttle (4:00 or 8:00) or take a taxi or Uber back at a different time.  No driving; good decision.  We also discovered that as bad as we thought the roads were near the campground, they are much worse all over the place!  Our driver told us about how desperate the situation is, especially after Katrina, and how there are just not enough funds for infrastructure and road repairs.  Between the severe poverty, thousands of abandoned properties and the water and road conditions, New Orleans needs a lot of help!

As for today, I am exhausted!!!  So much walking, which for most folks is no big deal, but remember my arthritis.....  We knew in advance that the city would not be friendly enough for our urb-es (cobblestone and uneven streets).  I can't even begin to imagine what this place must be like during Mardi Gras - beyond a zoo!!!  For us, it was extremely quiet with not much going on, although we're told it does liven up at night.  Although it was a total PIBE day, we thought we'd stay there late, but that wasn't meant to be.  I should also mention that the weather was miserable - cold and drizzly.  We wore our raincoats over our coats.

If I had to rate this on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is "what a waste of time" and 5 is "so glad we got to do this," I'd give it a 3 (Mitch has a different opinion and I think he's going to write a separate post).  On the plus side, just like some of my other favorite places (St. Augustine, Savannah, Charleston), it is highly unique; it has it's own cultural flavor and doesn't look like "anywhere USA."  It's a very, very old place (many buildings built in the late 1700s).  I loved standing in several locations and trying to picture myself back in time at those spots.  On the other hand, it's also a very touristy area with not much to do besides visit shops or restaurant/bars.  Speaking of drinking - NOLA is like Las Vegas in that open drinking is allowed, as long as it's in a cup, not a bottle or can.

There are several different areas as there were in Asheville (artists co-op, riverfront, French Market, Bourbon Street) which each had their own distinct attributes, but still - nothing but eating, drinking or shopping.  What I found most disappointing was that I enjoy historical sites, and although there were plenty there, none were open to the public for touring - basically you can just see the outside of the buildings, many which were enclosed by gates.  There are a few more modern places, such as the insectarium where there's an Asian garden containing more than 1000 butterflies and an aquarium, which we didn't have a chance to visit today.  There are also areas outside of the French Quarter, such as the Garden and Business districts (where the Superdome is), but we didn't get to visit there either.

We did pass the Superdome from the highway:



Also, a picture of the NOLA skyline:



When we got off the shuttle, we were on Toulouse Street near Decatur street, which is the main avenue. I love the way many of the street signs are embedded in tile on the ground:



Just up the block was the Mississippi River.  The Jackson Brewery took up most of the space, which housed the brewery museum and a lot of shops and a food court, as well as an entire floor devoted to private parties.  A riverboat cruise tour also left from there and there were numerous other tour kiosks in that area.  There's also a streetcar that runs up and down Decatur.  When you first arrive at the dock area, you're greeted by a huge restaurant - the Gumbo Pot.  Mitch offered to take a photo of a family in front of it, and in return they took our picture.



It was hard to decide what direction to go in, since (for an odd change, I didn't put together a step by step plan!  Is my OCD improving?!!!)  A good friend of mine (as well as a few others) insisted we must visit Cafe Du Monde.  At that point, we felt the best next step would be to find a place to sit over a cup of coffee or something and figure it out.  That seemed like a good destination, and since it was only about 1/4 mile walk, that's where we headed.

Cafe Du Monde is allegedly a tradition for those visiting the French Quarters.  They only offer coffee, hot chocolate, and the absolute best beignets (hot French, powder-sugar coated donuts).  I've never had one before and it was AWESOME!!!!  Sorry, Linda -- the experience you once gave me of having a hot-off-the-press Krispy Kreme doesn't even come close! (and now I understand why almost every store in the area sells box mixes of Cafe Du Monde Beignet mix).  Another observation -- this area has a lot of pigeons.

  
 


The cafe itself has room for hundreds of patrons, but it has waiter service.  I was really amazed that within 5 minutes of finding a place to sit, a server came by to take our order.  Considering the number of people there, that really was incredible service.

While enjoying my hot chocolate (and Mitch, cafe au lait) and beignets, we looked at the map and decided to visit a few historical sites that were within walking distance, while working our way towards the (in)famous Bourbon Street by lunch time.

I never did catch what these beautiful buildings across the street from the Cafe were (but I'm hopeful one of my readers may know):

  

Some photos taken from the narrow side streets:

   

Interesting sculptures in the artist region:

 

Mitch posing with Jaques the Butcher (ironic)

  

There was also a section called the French Market, where for the most part, it was a Farmer's Market and Flea Market combined.  There weren't any vegetable stands; mostly it was crafts or food.  We walked up and down it and then needed to sit and rest for a little bit (Mitch bought a hot cider & rum drink).

It was now 11:30 and we decided to start walking towards Bourbon Street, visiting the various historical buildings along the way.  As mentioned before, all we could see were the outsides and read the plaques.  Here is one such building:

  


A little bit about Bourbon Street.  It's known for it's raunchiness, with nothing but strip clubs and bars.  We did find that to be the case, and there were quite a few homeless people hanging around.  It looked to be the most decrepit street in the area, and probably was the oldest. By the time we reached the Street, we were very hungry and it's a bit challenging finding places that meet our dietary requirements, especially in the South where BBQ is the most popular dish, and shellfish dishes (such as gumbo and jambayala) is high on the list in New Orleans.  I heard that Po-Boys are also very popular here.  I looked it up and the description was that it was a sandwich, usually with meat, made on French bread.  We actually found a place on Bourbon Street that was a Po-Boy shop and served a vegetarian version.  Yay!!!



Unfortunately, my expectations were way too high.  Being in a French area, when they said french bread, I was thinking something authentically French and a little exotic, not the french bread that you can get in any supermarket.  In effect, some other words for a Po-Boy might be a hoagie or a submarine sandwich.  You can probably even get this in a Subway if you ask for the french bread.  Oh well, such is life.  It was delicious anyway, even if it was just a grilled vegetable sandwich.   We felt like having a brewski to go with the sandwiches.  This place didn't sell alcohol, but they told us we could go across the street to the pub and bring it over.  That was great -- ordering 2 beers to go!

After lunch, there was a specific place on Bourbon Street I wanted to visit - Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop.  There is a lot of history to this place, particularly how it was used for smuggling in the 1700s and is the oldest building in NOLA.  I thought it would be a fun place to hang out and have a few drinks.

    

The inside appeared as if it hadn't been renovated or touched since it was built!  And the characters inside appeared quite seedy.  We took a quick look around (too scared to take photos)and left very quickly.

By now, we were getting very tired.  We must have walked at least 4-5 miles by then.  We headed back to Decatur and decided to take the streetcar 1 stop back to the docks (you can tell how tired I was because I didn't take any photos of the streetcar.  I wish I had).  I was also starting to feel a bit of pain and didn't think I could push myself to be there through the night.  It was now about 2:30, and the shuttle would be returning at 4:00.  We agreed that we would find a place to have a drink or 2 that was close enough to the meeting place (which was 2 blocks from the dock).

When we got to the dock, we went inside the Jackson Brewery building, hoping there would be a bar.  There was one but it was closed.  We sat for a few moments, then walked around a little to explore some of the stores (all touristy goods), then went back outside.  We found a nice little bistro and enjoyed a cocktail.  When we returned to the meeting place across the street, we met up with another couple who was also staying at the campground.  We returned, totally exhausted.  We still had leftover sandwiches from lunch, which we had for dinner.

SECOND DAY - MARDI GRAS WORLD

One new thing I learned is that Mardi Gras is not like the Macy's Thanksgiving parade; it is actually a 14 day event and there are about 50 different companies that sponsor their own parades,with anywhere from 14 to many floats.  A company, Blaine Kern, makes many of the floats and props that go on the floats (they also make a number of large sculptures that you see, such as the Tulane mascot, and the cows on the Chik Fil-A billboards, to name just 2.  Pretty much, anywhere you see a giant figurine, chances are good that Blaine Kern made it).  They have a 300,000 sq. foot warehouse that they open to the public for tours, which is where we went.  A bunch of photos of what we saw follow.  These were just in the entrance way and it's not even all of them:

                        

In the gift shop (yes, that 2nd one is us):
  

We watched a video about the company and about the history of Mardi Gras.  First we had a chance to put on costumes and pose with the props:

      

We have a ton more photos of props, but I think from these you get a pretty good idea.

All in all, a fun few hours spent.  Of course, the "excitement" didn't end there.....

This was Friday, and as you know, that's the day I need to prepare for Shabbat.  We made the dough for the challah in the morning before we left, so it would have plenty of time to rise.  I also had some work to do, so we couldn't leave until about 10:00.  The tour lasts an hour, and we figured if we pad time to get there and hang around a bit, as long as we were home by 2:00, I would have enough time to get everything done before candle lighting at 4:45.  We were ready to leave at about 1:00.  I had wanted to go out to a very nice kosher deli for lunch, which was about 1/2 hr away in the opposite direction.  We would have done that had we left earlier, but I felt that it wouldn't leave us enough time to have an enjoyable meal.  Mitch suggested we just go there and take something back with us, but I didn't want to waste the driving time.

So what happened next?  Did we go straight home?  Noooooooooooo.  We pulled out of the parking lot and Mitch accidentally scraped against a curb and we immediately heard a loud hissing sound from the tire.  Turns out the tire monitor extender broke off and the sound was air escaping from the valve.  By the time he was able to pull out the tools from the truck to put the valve back in the correct position, the tire was almost completely out of air.  We needed to wait for roadside assistance to come and fill us up with air (silver lining: we didn't need to replace the tire or get towed; we only needed air).  Black lining:  it took them 2 hours to arrive, so we didn't get back home until almost 4:00.  It was a mad rush to get all the cooking done.  I think it was ok that the challah was still baking, as long as it was put in the oven before sundown.  It was especially delicious hot out of the oven, though!

So that was New Orleans for us!