New Orleans - Days 14 & 15

Easily one of the best days of my life so far was exploring the city of New Orleans on day 15 of our trip.  The last time that I was in New Orleans was in 1999 as I was traveling across the country in my old 1994 Ford Ranger.  I stopped in Nola and spent a night in a hostel.  I remember eating a Po Boy, listening to great street musicians, and seeing a show at the House of Blues.  It was an exciting stop, but I didn't even scratch the surface!  This time around, we managed to take in so many sites and we STILL didn't scratch the surface of this incredibly vibrant, unique and always exciting city.  By the end of the day the kids and I had sensory overload!

 We arrived in the area after a long drive from one state park (Lake Bistinea) to another (St. Bernard State Park).  I could immediately sense a bit of racial tension just by simply waiting in line to be checked into the campground.  The ranger on duty (very nice woman) was giving recommendations on things to do and see in New Orleans to another traveler who happened to be white.  She mentioned that the Essence Festival was going to be in town so the crowds would be larger than normal and you may want to avoid downtown activities.  For those of you who don't know, Essence is a magazine primarily catered to black culture and fashion.  I don't know if the ranger was consciously doing it, but I thought it was peculiar that she felt it was necessary to point out that the festival and subsequent clientele would be mostly POC (people of color).  It was the first time I had heard white people talking to other whites about POC in the deep south and it wasn't the last time I would hear it that day.

The kids and I set out for the city with a VERY loose itinerary.   I had contacted an old coworker of mine from Starbucks (not that she's old!), Karen Johnston, to give me some ideas on what to eat, see, and do.  Thanks Karen!  After finding a very expensive parking lot just outside of the French Quarter, we walked to the famous Cafe Du Monde for beignets and chicory coffee.  The line was long at 9 in the morning, but it moved REALLY quickly for us to get a table.  As soon as you get called, they sit you down even before they've bussed the table from the previous patrons which means you're sitting in and around mounds of powdered sugar.  We sat in the tented section and listened to street performers and gawked at all of the other tourists around us.  The beignets were magical and heaped high with powdered sugar which we gobbled down.  I allowed the kids to get an iced coffee in order to give them an extra boost for the miles of walking I knew we were going to do.

After our sugar and caffeine-infused breakfast we started walking the streets of the French Quarter.  We made our way to a rock shop and learned a bit about their store and where they harvest their rocks.  Mostly from Arizona, but some from Brazil and other South American countries.  They apparently only replenish their supply 4 times a year by traveling to "rock conventions".  Mostly classic rock, I imagine.  All of their inventory is stored in the old slave's quarters which is located in the back of the store.  Drew picked out a rock necklace for his girlfriend which he apparently started dating the day school ended.  Way to keep your options open, Drew!

From the rock shop we started walking down Decatur Street and found a tourist shop where Olivia picked up a couple of post cards and a Mardi Gras mask which she was able to talk negotiate a better deal with the sales clerk!

The New Orleans Jazz Museum was the next stop that we stumbled upon.  I think it was mostly due to the kids wanting air conditioning that we went inside.  Apparently the building the museum is housed in was the only location in the United States that minted both Union and Confederate currency (though not at the same time).  There was a pretty cool exhibit which had a bunch of the machinery they used to press coins along with some of the original foundation.  The upstairs had some cool exhibits of famous jazz musicians including the Grammy Award to Louis Prima who was the voice of King Louis in the original Jungle Book animated movie!

We decided to travel to an outdoor market which mainly sold touristy items, but it was fun to walk through.  This is where I was given my first real insight into the human impact of Hurricane Katrina.  An older gentleman who primarily sold alligator heads give us a tutorial on the best way to shoot an alligator.  The conversation turned to his business and he lost almost everything when Katrina blew through and tore half of his roof off.  He was in Virginia at the time and was initially told by a neighbor that the house was fine.  Unfortunately, his neighbor only had a view of half his house and he was soon contacted by FEMA with the news that his house was half destroyed!  Labor and materials were in such high demand that large number of Central Americans came up to rebuild houses.  This guy actually hired 5 or 6 Hondurans which he paid $10/hour to rebuild his roof.  He said that it was a fair wage at the time considering some people were only paying $5-6/hour!  This shop keeper ended up losing most of his inventory since it was kept in freezers.  It's the main reason why he's still working right now as he would have been able to retire years ago.

Another shop keeper who sold stained glass was a bit more lucky during Hurricane Katrina.  His house was higher that most of the houses in his area and only had minimal damage.  He joked about a guy who used to rag on his house and had just built a nice 3/4 million dollar house a few years earlier which was subsequently submerged during the flooding following the hurricane.  This guy was complaining about the Essence Festival going on because in his words, "This clientele doesn't typically buy higher-end items like his stain glass art.  I had no judgement, but I found what he said interesting.  The kids were getting restless and tired of me chatting with shop keepers so we made our way to the original French Market restaurant.

Drew ended up ordering a pound of steamed crayfish while Olivia and I ordered Po Boys (catfish and alligator sausage respectively).  Drew was having trouble figuring out how to eat crayfish so I sent him to the guy cooking the seafood who then sent him to a couple of servers who happily obliged in showing him.  We enjoyed our meal while a table of women next to us started giggling.  One of them got up the nerve to ask how the crayfish were so I brought one over to them.  The lucky recipient then asked, "How do you eat this?"  I told her to ask the server.  😈 They were apparently in town for the Essence Festival and were visiting from NYC. 

Once the kids had food in their stomach we stopped in a shop that was selling hot sauce almost exclusively.  I asked the proprietor what her favorite hot sauce was and she said, "Baaaaaaaaby - it's ALLLL good shit!"  I couldn't disagree with her as she recommended sampling pretty much half the selection of hot sauces.  They give you tortilla chips to dip in each hot sauce.  As soon as I tried one, she told me to try the next because, "This one is good shit!"  We ended up purchasing a bottle, but not before I became seriously worried about my time on the toilet later that night might be.  I was pretty impressed that the kids pretty much matched me sample to sample. 

Olivia spotted a small dress shop along Royal Street owned by an nice Indian woman who offered to tailor a dress and shirt that Olivia was interested.  She said come back in an hour and half and she would have everything altered for her.  I was pretty impressed that a dress shop in the middle of a touristy area would offer to tailor a dress and have it ready so quickly!  The kids and I decided to keep walking on Royal Street and ended up in a gallery of a guy named Craig Tracy who does fine art body painting.  Apparently Craig is a judge on a television show called Skin Wars on the Gameshow Network.  I had never heard of it, but Olivia had seen a few episodes.  Craig was in the gallery so I was able to chat with him about his medium and the process for making his paintings.  The kids were impressed that they got to meet a minor celebrity! 

We left the Gallery and made our way on to Bourbon Street just to have the kids see the chaos and listen to all of the musicians that were playing inside the bars.  We didn't go into any of the bars, but it was so cool to hear some really good music.  At one point, we must have looked kind of worn out and hot because one of the bouncers let us use the bathroom of a restaurant that had fans and mist machines running.  Ahhh...  Drew and I headed back to the bathroom and I started chatting with a guy who used to be a chef at the restaurant.  Eventually he offered to sell me some weed and blow, but I declined.  Maybe next time.  I did explain the purpose of throwing beads to women as some of the railings on the second story balconies on Bourbon street had a lot of bead necklaces dangling from them.  She wasn't impressed.

We found some gelato on Canal street before making our way over to Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral to hear a couple of trumpet players and a tuba player play some really good New Orleans Jazz.  The women at the Jazz Museum said that there are probably more musicians here than in any other city and I wouldn't disagree with her.  All I heard was really good music.  It was great for Olivia to hear some really sick trumpet playing (that's her school instrument)!

We made it back to the dress shop, picked up Olivia's dress and proceeded to get lost trying to get back to the truck.  I'm pretty sure that compasses don't work in New Orleans because it's easy to get disoriented.  As we were heading down Conti Street, we were serenaded by a small parade coming down the street complete with a police escort.  Apparently, you can hire a parade to lead you down the streets for a couple hundred bucks complete with a small brass ensemble. 

New Orleans is such a special place and I would recommend going for anyone who wants an cool adventure.  You honestly don't need a plan when visiting New Orleans.  Just start walking and the adventure will come to you.  Once again, this was easily one of the best days of my life.