N'awlins

Paul had a business trip to New Orleans for some Chairman's Circle thingy..."Toot, Toot!" (That's me tooting his horn.)  Lucky for me, I got to go with him (free room), but I wasn't invited to ANY of the events (insert sad face here).  He wasn't scheduled for every minute, so we did spend some time together, exploring "NOLA" (New Orleans, LA).  I had a blast!

When we got there, he had a welcome dinner on this fun little river boat.  Since I wasn't invited (do I sound bitter, yet?), I took a stroll along the Riverwalk.

After he sampled the local food at his banquet, he called me to meet him & we headed over to Bourbon Street in the French Quarter to see all the craziness...It. Was. CRAZY!  We knew they allowed open containers of alcohol as people moved from club to club so we expected the revelry, but we didn't anticipate the nudity & other decadence...we didn't stay long - but I was fascinated by all the neon signs & the history of the place...mostly because it was safer to look up as we walked through Bourbon Street!

The next day when Paul was in meetings all day, I took a city tour.  I have been to New Orleans before but all I really saw was the inside of a gym for a gymnastics meet & the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  It was Mardi Gras & we were stuck inside the Hard Rock for HOURS because we couldn't get out due to the crazy crowds.  So I had a great day learning about the Highlights of N'awlins.

Many of the buildings on each block are 3 levels; retail on the bottom, the gallery (for socializing) in the middle with the fancy balconies, & the residential on top.  They will often have a courtyard in the middle & you can see where the slave quarters were located in the very back.  I loved the beautiful balconies with the pretty plants & flowers everywhere!

Creole cottages are common with guillotine style windows.  They are long & skinny with no hallways.  Each room is separated by a door & the doors lined up leading to each room, this creates a draft to keep the home cool.  They are sometimes called "shotgun homes" because if you stood at the front door with your shotgun, you could hit your target straight through the house through the back door.

Camelback homes are skinny in the front wider & often two story in back.  This is a tax dodge effort because homes are taxed by the widths of the front, the back is tax-free square footage.

WARNING - this next description is graphic, so if you are squeamish, just skip this section.
Cemetery's in N'awlins are pretty unique - most are above ground burials due to flood waters.

Families or groups will purchase plots & multiple generations of people will be buried in one grave.  There are usually two, the top for a new burial, the bottom for the remains of a previous burials.  The crypts are sealed for "a year & a day" - after which time the heat of the sealed crypt works much like a kiln & basically cremates any organic matter, certainly expedites decomposition.  Too much?
Well, after that "year & a day" when they are ready to bury someone else, they will open the crypt, then remove the remains of the previous person & shove it to the back of the crypt where it eventually falls to the bottom chamber & mixes & mingles with generations who have gone before them.
You can see multiple names on the doors of these crypts.  When there is no more room they simply move the door to the side of the crypt & start a new list with a new door.

We made a stop at City Park & enjoyed the botanical gardens with their interesting sculptures from various renowned artists.  I loved the beautiful trees everywhere.  These trees are covered with Spanish moss named for conquistador's beards.  Many of them also have "resurrection ferns" covering them - these ferns look dry & dead until it rains & they green up with "new life" as they soak up the moisture.

Roger Indiana's LOVE (duplicates can be found all over the world, the original is in Indianapolis)

Rona Pondick's Monkeys

George Segal's 3 Figures on 4 Benches, & Leonard Baskin's Ruth & Naomi

The Garden District was full of gorgeous southern style mansions of famous people past  present & several prestigious universities...

Food in N'awlins is quite unique & we did our best to sample as much of it as possible! A local recommended Deanie's Seafood Restaurant & it did not disappoint! I had crab stuffed shrimp & Paul had the Crawfish Quartet...Crawfish prepared four delicious ways - crawfish etouffee, crawfish au gratin, fried crawfish tails and crawfish dressing balls (kind of like a hush puppy).

Of course we had a few pulled pork sliders & gumbo many times. I learned that "gumbo" is the African word for okra - it is basically an okra soup. Creole gumbo usually has shell fish in it...it is delish!

We enjoyed a muffuletta sandwich...love the chopped olives on this delicacy! A traditional style muffuletta sandwich consists of a muffuletta loaf split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, mortadella, salami, mozzarella, ham, and provolone. The sandwich is usually heated. The muffuletta sandwich has its origins at the Central Grocery in the French Quarter of New Orleans, originally owned by Italian immigrants.

Pralines are a famous sweet treat as well...the Aunt Jemima on their sign took me back a bit, but that's pretty mild compared to other crazy things I saw...

However, my favorite would have to be the beignets...always fresh & warm, smothered in powdered sugar. I may or may not have made several trips to Cafe du Monde (with & without Paul) to determine if they really were THAT good...yes, they are!

During my city tour, I learned about the levee system & how it failed during Hurricane Katrina. Evidence of the damage still remains. Many homes still had the X-codes written on them. Each X included a date, a time, an identification of the search unit, and sometimes other information about hazards encountered - whether anyone was found, alive or not, was recorded in the bottom quadrant.

Many organizations & individuals contributed to clean up & rebuilding the city. One example would be Musician's Village, a new neighborhood built around a music center where musicians can teach and perform. Musicians Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis teamed up with Habitat for Humanity to create the village for New Orleans musicians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina. I loved the music themed park, too.

I got familiar with the public transportation & I walked around a lot!  From the waterfront to downtown & all over the French Quarter!

I LOVE the Street Peeps...the artists & musicians say a lot about the culture of a city.  Some people/places don't want you to take photos, other's don't mind & encourage it...especially if you donate to their cause...

These guys were hilarious with their taps on their tennies.  They let me do a little time step with them, I still got it - but it cost me two bucks!

Why YES!  That is a bride...strolling through the park, dancing with her groom to the music of this entertaining band & decided to take her photo with the band while her  husband snaps a photo.

Couldn't resist a photo myself...mainly because of "Miss Cindy" in action behind us giving a tourist a psychic reading.  Every other person on the street was a psychic, ready to tell your fortune/future with Tarot cards...yikes!

We saw some pretty crazy stuff...especially here in the French Market...

Apparently, funerals are a time to celebrate that person's life with a parade & a party...

Gators are EVERYWHERE!  Seriously...what doesn't say "fresh popcorn" like a gator head sitting on top of the popper?

Paul actually got to take a Swamp Tour with some other agents in an airboat.  They were given a group photo but I seemed to have misplaced it.  (I wasn't invited, but I was okay with that!)  They got up close & personal with some gators...

N'awlins is a crazy place!  This might have been one of the strangest things I saw...seriously, who has a VooDoo Mart?  It was like a regular drug store type convenience store with random souvenirs...incase you left your voodoo doll at home?