Well, I'm kind of sad. I sort of use blogging to remember and chronicle my life. I had written out a big long post on another site, it saved a bunch of copies and they disappeared when trying to clear them out. I think that platform might not be overly stable, anymore, and is hardly if at all supported, so I think it's truly time to move things here and use this as my "system of record", as it were. I am going to endeavor to recreate that post. I'm SO GLAD I kept all the pictures I used in a separate folder. Woot!
Here we go....
This is my friend Lisa. She is one of my best friend. I'd never been to New Orleans, but it's been on my list for a long time....
This is us looking cute on the plane in our witches hats. I think we both like to do things to draw attention to ourselves, EVERY day and EVERY event is an opportunity to be unique!
We take a weekly dance class and often attend arts and other events with a wonderful human who has a house in New Orleans, and she let us rent it while we were there. Here's the front door of our cute little NOLA home, and my bed:
We stayed in what is called "Uptown", right off the St. Charles street car line. The neighborhood was adorable and we had SO MUCH FUN walking around! New Orleans sure knows how to do Halloween! I don't have a huge tolerance for drunks or drunk people, and I don't hang out in bars, so it's unlikely I would ever go during Mardi Gras, but I can sure appreciate Halloween time there!
Here's a pic of our cute little neighborhood and some art we saw:
This is one of the houses we passed by the first night. There was SO MUCH of this, throughout New Orleans. Also, so much art honoring the Jazz roots of New Orleans. This was a power box we passed by on one of our walks, the second pic:
On the same street where we stayed, there was this adorable little coffee shop. We never really went inside, but they, too, decorated super cute. It was slightly weird to see such vibrant flowers in October when in Reno, most everything is brown by October LOL:
That first night, we walked to a nearby steak house. We were there at happy hour, and met Tommy, who's been shucking fresh oysters at this restaurant for over 30 years. He was friendly and it was the beginning of many culinary delights.
The first night was just enjoying our space and sort of making plans for the rest of the time, or at least for the next day =) . We got up the second day and went to have beignets. As my friend said, "If you want to go to Cafe Dumonde and have that experience we can do that. They serve A LOT of people, so they make them ahead and they sit under a heat lamp. OR, we can go to this delightful little coffee place near our house and have them made fresh there." I chose option 2, and it was glorious! I didn't know what Cafe Au Lait was, but it was also delightful. I tried chicory for the first time this year and while I am still a huge coffee fan, this, with the steamed milk, is very good.
(LOVED this art in the coffee shop. We indeed, had a beignet of a day =)
Maybe I was just receptive....of maybe I have been embracing a new era of optimism and even more sickening positivity than normal, but to me, the New Orleans sign game was on point.
Now, just some probably nerdy pictures of things that appealed to me as we started to walk down in the French Quarter.
Amazing art in the Voodoo Two bar as we were I swear I've heard of this place.
walking down the street.
I was pretty sure I would be in love with this place and this first tasting absolutely confirmed it! I don't care if we only visited the most tourist-trappy places possible, it was still amazing for me.
We then went to the Vampire Cafe, and then the gift shop. SO COOL!
The food, though, was also delightful, BIG bonus. When we went to the Vampire Cafe shop, I found a series of books that was from directly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. It was so hard for me to imagine the devastation and all that happened because now, all these years later, you couldn't even tell. Next time I go, I may need to make it a point to do a Katrina tour. I didn't want to be depressed, but I would hope whoever gave it would have pictures. I am sure they are possible to find, and this could be a future endeavor, for sure. The series, again, is about vampires, witches, and supernatural folks, oh my.
Just sayin'...I knew I'd find kindred spirits here too. LOL
So, while we were walking down the street, near the waterfront, we saw what was clearly, some sort of video shoot happening. This was the dapper scene we saw:
We kept seeing them down in the French Quarter, so I finally stopped and asked what they were filming for because it was such an unusual costume. I was sort of hoping for some low-key awesome super hero thing. No, it was for the NFL and I didn't pay attention to whether or not the footage even got used. Apparently the Saints were playing the Jaguars. LOL This made me laugh a lot.
We did SEE Cafe DuMonde, we just chose not to eat our beignets there
The mighty Mississippi was majestic and beautiful. Seeing the paddle boats was great. This was something we didn't get to do this time, perhaps another time....
Next is another awesomely decorated house and a very cool map of New Orleans
I am the first person to admit that I am a giant nerd. In the last couple years, I watched "The Originals" which is good, old-fashioned vampire stories. When I went to Texas last year, the person I was there visiting was watching this show and it TOTALLY sucked me in. I don't honestly remember what episodes I saw with her, I kind of blocked it out because I am that weird human who has to watch something beginning to end =) The family featured, called the Michaelson's, are the original vampire family, hence the name of the series. There was a subsequent series called Legacy that was also very good, I thought. At any rate, much of "The Originals" took place in New Orleans and it's one of the things that I most wanted to see. I am also an old-school Anne Rice fan, so I also wanted to see Lestat's house. The "ghost tour" thing seemed a bit creepy to both of us, so instead of that, Lisa and I went on a "True Crime" tour. It was "meh" and I won't do that again. We thought our guide was going to be amazing because he was a professor, but he wasn't all that. At any rate, I present the Michaelson Mansion and Lestat's New Orleans House (the guy with the eye patch in the first photo was our guide):
Then we heard a story about a house where there was a widow who ran the house after her husband died and she was apparently a really awful human. She killed and tortured a lot of slaves and was generally a terrible person. At some point, Nicholas Cage bought the house, but no longer owns it. It was also the place where they filmed American Horror Story: Coven. I haven't watched that. I'm not sure I will....a part of me likes AHS, another part is really freaked out by it. It's called the LaLaurie Mansion and if you want to learn about the heinousness, here's a place to look: LaLaurie Mansion
A perfect New Orleans French Quarter picture....with the moon
So, let's talk a bit about the Street Car. We did have issues one night, the night of the big Halloween Parade. If the next car is coming towards you and it's full, they slow down long enough to tell you you'll have to catch the next car, and they don't stop. This is problematic if you are trying to go somewhere, so that night, we took a Lyft. AND...the street car was still an amazing bargain! We paid $15 for an unlimited 7 day pass, and this pass allowed us to ride all Street Cars, all busses and ferries! We were making money after the second day! The next day, we went to City Park, wanted to see a graveyard, ate more awesome food, bought pralines and snowbliz's, and went back down the Quarter at night.
Spanish Moss is so pretty! The way it hangs, it's sort of spooky and ethereal!
Here's the very sad story that totally caught my imagination on this headstone, pictured above: "This monument is erected to the memory of James Gallier, architect, of New Orleans, born at Ravensdale, Ireland July 24, 1798.
By his son, as a tribute to his genius, integrity and virtue.
And of Catherine Maria Robinson, born at Barre, Massachusetts, wife of James Gallier.
They were lost in the steamer Evening Star, which foundered on the voyage from New York to New Orleans, October 3rd, 1866. (I actually thought the lower case d was a weird carved o, meaning it would be the 30th, but when Googling, I saw it was the 3rd.)
After Googling, I discovered there was a horrible hurricane. At the time, it was the worst maritime disaster in America's history. Wow. If you'd like to read more about this shipwreck, you can find stuff here: Freepages - Evening Star Disaster
That night, we found this house we'd seen, that Lisa had been looking for, where there are HUNDREDS of skeletons, and they are SO FUNNY! They all have signs and the puns are SO GOOD. Here's an example
Now, the Snobliz, was truly a unique experience. Apparently, New Orleans is famous for its shaved ice. However, the place we went, Hansen's Snobliz, apparently, the man created a new machine, and held the patent for it, so HIS is unique and man is it delicious! Another thing....I had never thought that one could pair sweetened condensed milk with fruity flavors, but I did and it was amazing. Lisa had chai and some coffee flavor, I had blueberry, I think Strawberry or something pink, I don't actually remember, with the milk. OMG!
And....New Orleans is a perpetual party! Later that night, we went BACK down to the Quarter, and like, this was straight up either a Tuesday or a Wednesday night, and there were tons of people on the streets
The next day is where things took a bit of a challenging turn. We were walking back to the Uptown Coffee place, to have yummy fried dough and coffee again. Let me tell you, New Orleans streets are no joke. Because of all the beautiful trees, those tress have compromised many sidewalks and many are cracked with tree limbs making them uneven and super hazardous. My dumb ass, however, tripped not even on a tree root, but rolled my ankle not paying close enough attention, on a sidewalk just walking down the street. I fell HARD. I didn't hear anything pop or seem like it tore, so I sat there for a minute and then thought "Well, I can let this ruin our time, or I can just get my ass up and make the best of things." We'd been walking a TREMENDOUS amount during this whole week, Lisa and I seem pretty well matched in this way, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. Not going to lie, there were some uncomfortable moments. We got our coffee, and by the time we hit the Street Car, I knew when we got off, where there was a CVS, I was going to be stopping to get some ibuprofen and an ankle brace. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!! I looked up CVS and was able to find what was in stock at the store we were going to, so I'd know if we had to travel very far or I could get my needs met relatively easily, right across from the Street Car.
Also, this day was going to be our BUSIEST DAY because we were headed to the Treme Fall Festival, wanted to participate in the Second Line parade, do way more walking around, and then the parade was that night! I got the brace, took some ibuprofen and walked around for a little while, but before we could make it towards Treme, I was hurting pretty good, so we decided to Pedi Cab! Another adventure! Below is the scantest picture of the slightest bit of carnage that doesn't do justice to how awful I felt for a bit, but there was no way I was going to let this ruin my time in this wonderful place. What does it say about me that when I first fell, one of my first thoughts was "OH NO!!! NOT BY BEE SLEEVE!! NO SCARRING!"
I had been unaware of much of the history of black people and slaves in the Treme district and New Orleans before I went there. Treme' is the oldest African American neighborhood in America. Because Louisiana did not become part of America until the Louisiana Purchase, the black culture is rich and diverse. Additionally, many of the folks who were slaves there were from a particular area in Africa and were able to stay together to a much greater degree than many other places in the South. I loved and hated learning about all that history. It still astounds me that folks ever thought it was okay to treat other humans as property.
Powerful imagery. If you want to know more about Treme', Google it, here's a small place to start.
There is Jazz history everywhere, this was in a window near the Festival. The Goddess below was dancing in the Second Line. Such beautiful costumes, colors and I'll tell you what. The pure joy on the faces of dancers and celebrants. I really appreciated seeing it and getting to be a very small part of it.
Later that night was the parade. Just like Burning Man ruins fireworks forever if you encounter them somewhere else, I'm pretty sure I'll never have a parade experience that can ever equal what happens in New Orleans. And these are considered "small" compared to Mardi Gras. It's insane, celebratory, frenetic, frenzied, chaotic, beautiful, bawdy, raunchy, and all the fun!
The bottom picture is one slow, hurt, not very committed to swag person's haul for one tiny parade. These folks are serious about both their partying and their parading.
The next day was a special quest! Lisa and I had talked about and decided we were going to try to find a place to get matching New Orleans themed, sort of, tattoos! We walked down into the Garden District, another beautiful and captivating area of New Orleans!
Garden District!
I found a familiar! This kitty was a-mazing! This really says something about the grit of this place!
The new tattoo! I LOVE that we went to New Orleans and saw a sticker from a Reno store! Junkees!
This was taken the next morning and sent to my coworkers at the school where I work. It was to demonstrate to them that people park bad in places other than Nevada. Please look at ALL that's going on in this picture....and it, also, was coincidentally outside a school hahaha
This is an amazing moon picture that was taken from our bathroom window at our house, by Lisa. I got her and told her about it, but the photo mojo is all her
Monday was all about outlying areas, the swamp, gators, and visiting a plantation. Those air boat drivers are INSANE. I got to hold about a four year old gator. Dude just chased the thing and plucked it right out the swamp. "You gotta have healthy respect for them, but they just big 'ole swamp puppies." Quote of the vacation, likely.
Before we got our van to take us on all these adventures, we had to arrive at the Hilton, where it was to pick us up, but of course we were early, so we were looking for something interesting. Down a literal alley, we found this Antidote juice and coffee place. I LOVE the entire message behind this!! SOBER LIFE!!
This is where we went to catch the air boat, on the way out of the docking area, and more beautiful Spanish Moss.
Here's my gator picture (look at that smile!) and the other air boat. I think we saw like seven or nine gators, which they said had been a record for the season! Yay us!
We went to Oak Alley. It was impressive. I got different pralines there. We had a mint julep. The tour was fun. I have a hard time with this just because the disparity really gets to me. I had the same experience when I went to the palace of Versailles in France. Meh. It was a nice house. And people were treated brutally to take care of it. I don't have much else to say.
I might come back and flesh this out later, I might not. What I KNOW is this is the longest thing I've written here in a very, very long time, maybe since I transferred everything. LOL
Peace!
