The Big Easy

Selfie on Burbon Street!

We awoke to another cloudy day in New York this morning, and after grabbing some brunch at one of the local diners on 9^th Avenue, we headed off for our last walk around the theatre district and Times Square.  Then it was off to JFK for our flight to New Orleans.

When we touched down in New Orleans, it had just finished raining, so the air smelt humid and warm.  We thought the temperature in NYC was OK, well New Orleans was much warmer… a bit like a Singapore feel to it – very warm and humid outside, and freezing cold air-conditioning when you went indoors!  The trip into the city in the cab was just like any other big city…. until we got to the historic French Quarter!  One minute we were travelling along a main road, and then we turned into a side street, and straight away the streets became narrow and we were surrounded on both sides by historic old 2 and 3 story houses – just like I had envisioned New Orleans to be.  Amazing!

We checked into our very funky “W” Hotel, which had its own shared balcony, that overlooked a lovely cobblestoned courtyard that had day beds and lounge chairs… a perfect way to while away the evenings after returning from some jazz!  After unpacking, we set off to explore a bit of New Orleans.

Our hotel is just a couple of blocks from Bourbon Street… so, seeing as we were in New Orleans it was only appropriate for us to see the street where Jazz started.  We had been warned that it was a bit of a tourist trap, so we were not expecting much authenticity – and we were right!  There were lots of lights, seedy bars and “gentlemen’s” establishments, street performers and the occasional music bar.  As you would expect, jazz was the most common sound wafting out of the bars, but we could also hear blues, country and rock music as we were walking the street.  We caught a quick drink at the Music Legends Park where we listed to a jazz trio, and then it was onto the Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar for some dinner.

Kellie had researched many jazz spots to go to, and her suggestion for tonight was Fritzels European Jazz Pub.  We got there just in time for the “Fritzel All Stars” first set for the evening.  An excellent traditional jazz group of piano, clarinet/sax, trombone, bass and drums.  They were excellent!  If this is the standard of music we can expect this week – we are in for a treat!

We wandered back to the hotel, popping into some galleries on the way.  The rules on alcohol in public places is much more relaxed in New Orleans (at least in the French Quarter, anyway), so it’s interesting that in the evenings, every second person seems to be carrying a plastic cup with booze in it as they walk along the footpath.  I guess, in order to see everything, you’ve got to move around – so why not take your drink with you….?

We finished off our first day in New Orleans with a late evening drink and chill in the courtyard, before heading off to bed.

Home of the Beignets!

We woke this morning to overcast skies with the threat of rain, but made our way down to Decatur Street – the home of Café Du Monde.  This café is famous for it’s Beignets and Chicory Coffee.  One of the iconic foods in New Orleans (there are many of them!) are these square pieces of dough, fried like a donut and covered by powdered sugar.  They originated from the Acadians, who were the descendants of the French colonists that settled in Acadia – up near Nova Scotia – and then re-settled in Louisiana.  The Beignets are a wicked treat, and worth queuing in line for (we had to queued for about 15 mins before our order was taken…. It was twice as long if you were queuing for a table!).  The Beignets were washed down with a Chicory Coffee, also another New Orleans icon.  Chicory coffee was made from a mixture of ground coffee beans and roasted Chicory root.  Chicory has none of the caffeine of coffee, but it use originated from France, not for this quality, but as a coffee substitute during times when coffee was hard to come by.  French colonies like Louisiana followed this practice and used Chicory particularly during the civil was when coffee was hard to get.

After Tim had scoffed the Beignets, we moved on to book our Jazz history tour for later in the week and then visited Jackson Square – named after the 7^th President of America who spent a good deal of time in New Orleans.  Around Jackson Square on one side was the Pontalbas, built in the 1840’s.  The floors above the street-level shops are thought to be the oldest continuously rented apartments in the USA.  On another other side of the Square is the St Loius Cathedral which is thought to be the oldest continuously running Cathedrals in the USA.  Next to the Cathedral was a museum with some of the history of New Orleans which we spent some time exploring.

We then walked down part of Royal Street, which is known for it’s art galleries and you can see a statue of Jesus in the garden behind the Cathedral (St Anthonys Garden), which when it is lit up at night casts a shadow on the back wall of the Cathedral.  We then moved on to Bourbon Street to find the oldest building in New Orleans – Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmiths Shop…. now a bar, as most places in New Orleans are!  We ten passed by Preservation Hall (more on this later in the week!), and onto our lunch spot which was Napoleon House.  Napoleon House was built for Nicholas Girod who was mayor of New Orleans from 1812 to 1815, and he had plans to make it the residence of Napoleon in 1821 – by the Frenchman never made it to New Orleans, having died before he could make his escape.  Again, some iconic food was on offer – with Tim scoffing a Po Boy (the traditional submarine sandwich).

After lunch we headed to the Hermann-Grima House on St Loius Street, and joined a tour.  It is a well preserved example of how the wealthy class lived in the “golden age” of New Orleans in the early 1800’s.  The house was occupied first by the Hermann family who were wealthy agricultural brokers, but they had to sell after they went bankrupt and the Grima family bought the home and occupied it right up until 1921 when it was made into a rooming house for single women.  It was then restored and opened to the public in 1971 as a house museum.

We then headed back to the hotel as the rain had started to become a little heavier, for a bit of R&R before the evenings activities.

After our rest, we headed out in the pouring rain, to Langloi for dinner.  Arriving as drowned rats, we joined the rest of the 12 guests for an interactive dinner experience.  The restaurant had been set up as an experience, where the hosts and chefs cooked in front of us (allowing some of us to participate if we wanted) and gave commentary as they were going.  It was fascinating as most of the dishes were traditional, or had traditional New Orleans elements to them.  We were able to tick off a few more iconic food dishes like, Gumbo (a Chicken and rice stew/soup), a Pork and Boudin Roulade, Banana Ice Cream (Kellie has an excellent Cantalope and Peach Sorbet) and Pecan Praline bites with Coffee.  It was a magic experience.

The restaurant was the brainchild of Amy Sins, who had won a reality TV cooking show and used the proceeds to create this experience.  By happy coincidence, one of the other couples at our table were also in New Orleans from Houston to celebrate their 25^th Wedding Anniversary – they were married on exactly the same day as us!!!  The other two were a young couple who were engaged to be married in January next year.

After dinner, we set off for “Snug Harbour Bar” – a famous New Orleans jazz spot to catch the 10pm show.  It was a 15 piece jazz band led by Delfeayo Marsalis.  They sounded awesome…. We can’t show you any pictures as they would allow any cameras or phones – but they were great!  Delfeayo is one of 4 sons that are all jazz well known jazz musicians, as is their Father Ellis Junior, and their grandfather Ellis Senior.  Two of them Branford and Wynton have produced Grammy Award winning record albums.  The band also featured Jeff Watts on drums, who has played with many of the Marsalis family and also in the Late Night Show band…. he was a bit of a show stopper!

We hit the sack exhausted, and hoping that the rain will ease by tomorrow.

The spooky New Orleans Cemetery.

An early start for this morning as we headed off to breakfast at a 24 hour bar and diner in the French Quarter, which was also the meeting point for our Cemetery Tour.  The Cemetery we visited was the St Loius No. 1 Cemetery and was the oldest Cemetery in New Orleans and used to be outside the city limits (in the 1700’s and early 1800’s).  Our guide walked us to the cemetery via the site of one of the most infamous brothels of old New Orleans, and onto one of the oldest Churches – that sits adjacent to the Cemetery.

Many famous New Orleans residents are buried in the cemetery, which has mainly above ground crypts that are used to house many generations of the same family.  Some of the crypts hold as many as sixty family members, and are still being used today.  The cemetery, like a lot of old New Orleans, is sinking at the rate of about 3 cm every 100 years, so there are a few crypts that are half submerged, or have sunk into the New Orleans soil.

The guide gave us a very brief view of Voodoo and how it mixes with the dominant religion of Catholicism.  It is apparent that New Orleans has morphed some of the beliefs of both traditional Christianity with the African mysticism to create Voodoo and the connection between the two is stronger than either will formally admit.  It creates a culture of very superstitious peoples, with most New Orleans residents believing in ghosts of one sort or another (every second house, it seems, is claimed to be haunted – in fact every Real Estate Agent will specify if the house they are selling is haunted or not!).

After finishing the Cemetery tour, we headed back to the hotel to grab some warmer clothes for Kellie, as it had turned very cold.  Then we were off to meet up with our food tour.  Our guide took us on a tour of New Orleans Creole (mainly) cuisine at some of the notable establishments within the French Quarter.  We learnt about the difference between Creole and Cajun (an ethnically based difference) which is mainly that Cajun is spicier than Creole.  Both these cuisines had in common that they drew their roots from a combination of French, German, Spanish and African and Native American origins.

On our way back to the hotel to get changed for dnner, we saw that the streets were closed by police on motorcycles with their lights flasing.  As we got closer we realised that this was for a parade!  As we watched we realised that it was a weding parade - and the groom, groomsmen and the grooms family came from one street and the Bride, Bridesmaids and Brides family came down another street and they met at the crossroads before carrying onto the church (we assumed).  This was (we learned later) known as a "second line" - which is a celebration of any kind for which there is a band playing and a procession of people.  The people at the side of the road join for all, or part, of the parade and these are the ones that are technically known as the second line (the official party and band are the first line!).

After our tours we then made our way to “Preservation Hall” – a very famous Jazz club just off Bourbon Street – where we took in a show by the “Tornado Brass Band” of very traditional jazz standards.  Interestingly, their Tuba player had not turned up at the beginning of the gig, so they started with a few traditional favourites that the crown might know, and they got us to sing along with tunes like “Amazing Grace” and “You are my Sunshine”.  It was great to hear the audience sing these with the band.  However, Kellie had booked us reserve seat right up close and personal with the band – so we could hear them say “this audience is going to sing every song tonight…”  and we did!!  They kept playing traditional tunes like “When the saints go marching in”, “On the Bijou” and “What a wonderful world”…. And the audience was in full voice accompanying them.  It was great fun – and I think the band enjoyed it.  After this we then stopped in at Kingfish Restaurant for some dinner before hitting the sack for another early start tomorrow.

At the Oak Alley plantation.

We had another early start this morning so we could be picked up outside our Hotel for a bus ride to a restored plantation west of the city.  There were many plantations along the river in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s – most of them producing sugar cane.  They were situated along the river and were shaped like a long and deep rectangle with relatively short river frontage.  This was because the main method of transport for people and cargo to these plantations, was by the river.  The particular one we visited was called “Oak Alley” and took about 14 hours to reach from New Orleans by Paddle Steamer (up-stream) and 8 hours to go do down-stream… this was the quickest way of getting to the plantation, hose and cart took 5 days!

The plantation was owned originally by Jacques Roman – a French Creole – who built the big house on an already existing sugar plantation for his new wife Celina to live in (she preferred the city!).  It is still a working sugar cane farm, on the part of the property that is not a museum.  It was called Oak Alley, because of the twin rows of grand old oaks that were planted from the front of the property near the river – to the front door of the house.  This Oak Alley had the purpose of creating a tunnel for the cooler air of the river to be drawn into the property and the house…. an early form of air-conditioning!

The plantation building itself and the surrounding gardens were picturesque!  The rows of Oaks being beautiful.  The tour of the house was fantastic, with everything restored as it would have been when the Romans lived there.  At the height of the plantations prosperity, the property would also house over 100 slaves, who lived in small wooden houses at the rear of the main house.  Because of it’s spectacular looks, the house has played a starring role in many movies like “Night Rider” “Long Hot Summer” and “Interview with a Vampire” TV Shows like “Days of our Lives”, Young & Restless” and “Ghost Hunters” as well as music videos by Beyonce.

After our tour we then got back on the bus for the trip into the Bayou for a ride in an Airboat – the flat bottomed boats with the big propeller on the back!  They are very noisy, but lots of fun!  Their advantage in the swampy Bayou is that they are able to navigate in even very shallow waters of only a few inches.  The Swampy Bayou were very spooky, with Spanish Moss hanging off many of the tree limbs and dark brackish water.

Our ride took us deep into the Bayou looking for Alligators – and we found some!  A few small ones, as well as two that were over 9 feet in length.  This was pretty lucky, as it was cold, and coming into Autumn, so the Alligators were less common than in the warmer months.  The Airboat captain fed the Alligator marshmallows, so we would swim up close to the boat.  The reason he used marshmallows, was not because the Alligators had a sweet tooth, but because they could only distinguish black and white, so the white marshmallow was easy to see against the dark brown brackish water.

He took us onto the nesting grounds, but it was not nesting season, so we did not see any Alligators…. Except the baby one he had been hiding under our seats in a tank of cool water!  A few of us were able to hold the little fella, while our Airboat captain told us more about the Bayou and the Alligators before we headed back for the dock.

After a brief snooze on the bus trip home, we got ready to go out to “Bacchanal” restaurant for dinner.  It was a short taxi ride from our hotel, and was set up in the back yard of a converted house.  It had a small stage set up for acoustic performances.  We heard a very avant-garde cello performer – not really Jazz, and not really our scene, but you’ve got to try different things, right!

We then headed back to the hotel bar for a quick nightcap before turning in.

Wedding Anniversary Dinner at Fins.

Blog by Tim…. Awoke today to have a lovely late romantic Champagne breakfast with my beautiful wife of 25 years!  We have been married today for 25 years, and they have been the best 25 years of my life!  For more than half my life I have lived with this lady who is my best friend, my strength and constant companion – I am very blessed to have shared the biggest part of my life with her, and I am looking forward to spending the next 25 years together.  I love you Kellie. XO

Back to the holiday….. after our breakfast, we headed off for a Jazz walking tour down near the French Markets.  There is a New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park – that’s right, just like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, and they have Rangers uniforms as well! – but it is quite unique.  The National Park is not to protect anything physical, but to protect and conserve the tradition of Jazz in New Orleans.  We were told the brief history of Jazz by Ranger Karen, who told us how Jazz wove in the cultures and music of Classical Europe, the Blues of the enslaved field workers, the Gospel of Africa, and the rhythms of the Caribbean.  It was an interesting perspective that built in some of the early history of New Orleans.

After this, Kellie had spied some Strawberry Lemonade in one of the market stalls as we had been on the walking tour, so we had to try it out – yummy, and very refreshing.  We then had a look at some of the stalls in the Markets, before heading to the Ursuline Convent that was constructed in the mid 1700’s.  It is one of the oldest centers for the education and training of women in the USA.  It has a church attached to it – that is only in use for weddings and baptisms – with beautiful murals painted on the walls and ceilings.  The wooden roof was put together without any nails, and is still the same original roof!

We then visited the Presbytere on Jackson Square, which is a museum to Hurricane Katrina.  It was a moving exhibit, and showed the devastation of the Hurricane and the strength of the people of the town who re-built after the devastating storm.  It was then onto Lunch – where we ticked off three iconic New Orleans foods… Alligator, Gumbo and a Muffaletta, before heading back to the hotel for a lazy afternoon.

Being our wedding anniversary, our dinner plans were for one of the finest restaurants in the French Quarter – Fins.  It was excellent, with the service being very swift (the Americans like their service to be fast….). There was virtually no breathing space between the appetizer and the Main course.  We then stopped on the way home for a drink at a small wine bar, before heading back to the hotel.

Irving Mayfield and his band.

We woke this morning to some of the best weather we had experienced the whole trip – blazing sunshine and temperatures up near the high 20’s.  We got our walking boots on and headed east for a recommended breakfast spot called “Cake Café” where we were served one of the best breakfasts we have had.  Very simple. Healthy but yummy eggs – Tim had his scrambled with some vegies and Cured salmon, while Kellie had Fried eggs (“over easy” of course!) and salmon – both dishes had some excellent paprika seasoning.

We then started on our walking tour of the Faubourg Marigney area which is notable for its Creole Architecture.  The district has the most intact Creole neighborhoods in New Orleans.  The houses have a variety of architectural styles, but they are commonly painted in vibrant colours – it makes it difficult to walk around these streets without a smile on your face!.  We saw the corner where Tennessee Williams set the house of Stanley and Stella from “A Streetcar named Desire” (the house was never visited by Williams, but he used the location for his play because the area was a working class district in the 1940’s).

In the early to mid 1800’s this area also used to house the mistresses of wealthy white elite of the city – these mistresses were often free women of colour, and frequently these men (although they could not divorce their wives) moved in with their mistresses.  The practice was so common that Rampart Street in this district was colloquially called “Rue de l’Amour”.  Frenchman Street is in the area, and it is the current heart of the New Orleans music and Jazz scene (Bourbon Street dropped out of favour in the 1980’s when it became over commercialized).  Mardi Gas also starts in this district at the corner of Elysian Fields and Chartres.

We then took off on a long walk all the way north to the Botanic Gardens and Sculpture Gardens.  It was quite a walk and the day was very hot, so on the walk back we stopped in at the Bayou Beer Garden for a refreshing pick-me-up, before making our way back to the French Quarter.

After a bit of a rest we headed out to look at some of the galleries along Royal Street, when we got a "whatsapp" mssage from Tony telling us he wanted to Skype us with some news!  We found a quiet place in our hotel courtyard to Skype him - and he told us he had received early entry into Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Commerce at ACU.  We were very proud parents!

With happy faces, we set off for “The Green Goddess” – a restaurant specializing in healthy vegetarian and vegan food.  Very tasty stuff!  It was situated in a little paved laneway called Exchange Place.  After this we quickly hurried off to the Irvine Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse to listen to Gammy award winning Jazz trumpeter Irvine Mayfield and his 5 piece band.  He was excellent, and had probably the best sound of all the trumpeters we had heard on our week here – the trombone player also did some vocals, and had a beautiful rich voice.

Then it was back to the hotel for some zzzzz’s.

The storehouse of Mardi Gras stuff!

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning after our big walk yesterday, and headed off to find the St Charles Streetcar (what they call a tram here in New Orleans!).  It is the oldest continuously operating streetcar/tram in the world and has been in operation since 1835…. And I reckon by the rattles in the streetcar/tram, the carriages we rode in probably dated back to then!!  We took the streetcar/tram west to the Garden district where we had a look at some of the stately home of New Orleans where the rish and famous live….very impressive.  As well as historic houses of famous New Orleans identities, we also saw the houses of actors Sandra Bullock and John Goodman.

We then walked down to the Mississippi River to see if we could walk along the mighty rivers banks.  Unfortunately – NO.  There was ports and freeways that ran along it’s banks that blocked our way.  There were parts where we could see the river but generally it was out of sight.  One thing that is different about New Orleans from Sydney is that New Orleans is still a genuine working harbor/port and there is not a lot of scenery to look at.

Along the way, we stopped off at The Mardi Gras World – which was not a theme park (as the name suggests!), but was where they store all the old Mardi Gras floats and prepare the new ones for the upcoming parade.  We ran out of time to see them all – but there was warehouses the size of multiple football fields full of the Mardi Gras paraphernalia.

We got home and spent the afternoon catching up on some emails, late blog entries and starting to pack for our departure tomorrow, before heading off for an early pre-dinner Jazz show at 5.30pm at the Davenport Lounge at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.  After the jazz finished we set off for dinner at Bayona…. Pretty swish, but a bit underwhelming (maybe we have just been spoilt over this last week by all the fantastic places we have visited and experienced!).  We returned to some "whatsapp" messages from Jess - telling us that she had landed a 3 month contract to work in the HR department of Seimens.  Excellent, as she was trying to get some work experience in HR to see if this carreer direction was something she was going to pursue.