7 posts tagged “new orleans”
Sunday, Rob and I took the streetcar to Loyola University New Orleans just to walk around.
EDIT: Here's more info on the statue.
On Saturday, Rob and I went walking along Rue Royal (Royal Street) to check out the antique shops and art galleries. At one point, we even stumbled onto a gallery party, and got free wine and appetizers in the middle of the day. Score!
I saw this graffiti in the bar's bathroom. I snapped a photo of it, and then realized Johanna was two stalls away and was probably wondering why I was taking flash photos in the bathroom. I had to explain later.
New Orleans is such an amazing city, and has been through such a rough time. I know the re-building still has a long way to go, but New Orleans residents really love their city, and they're bringing it back to life.
I didn't post any celeb house pictures, cuz I felt like that would be an invasion of privacy, but above is a "painted lady" restored to look like it originally did.
We also saw the house where Anne Rice used to live, though she's since moved to San Diego.
P.S. I know Brangelina's address!
Rob had a trade show in New Orleans, so he tacked on a few extra days, I flew down, and we had a little vacation.
When I checked into our first hotel, Rob was still at his show, so I decided to amuse myself by walking along Bourbon Street. I'd been to New Orleans before, but I still experienced a little culture shock. Bourbon Street is so loud, and colorful, and there are SO many bars and pizza places and tourist shops, and porn, and strip clubs. My head was spinning. I stopped in a tourist shop to buy some postcards, and then randomly chose a pizza-by-the-slice place to get a snack.
After eating a slice of pizza and drinking a Red Bull, I headed back to the hotel. On my way, I passed a courtyard my mom, Rob and I had stopped in on our last trip to NOLA. The same old-time jazz band was playing, which was really fortuitous, because I'd wished I'd bought one of their CDs. I stopped to listen to them play for a while, and when the band paused to let a marching jazz group pass by, I walked up to the front and asked the lead singer if I could buy a CD. We got to talking and he asked where I was from, and when I told him, he asked if he could play, "Chicago" for me. I was flattered. The band played "Chicago" as promised and then took a break. The singer came over to sit with me and we chatted some more. I asked how long he'd lived in New Orleans, etc. At one point, he told me to tell Rob that he's a lucky man. Haha! (I did.) I left with a promise to come back and see him, but unfortunately we ran out of time, and I never did. :(
On our third day in New Orleans, we decided to go to Oak Alley plantation. Oak Alley is very well-known; scenes from several movies have been filmed there, including "Interview With the Vampire." We went with "Tours by Isabel" and Aget, our tour guide/driver, was very knowledgeable about all kinds of Louisiana history. We passed several plantations before reaching Oak Alley. For being such a large house, I was suprised at how few rooms there were. The hallways were really wide, so the rooms themselves weren't all that large. One cool feature, though, was the huge wrap-around porch on the second floor. I had never before been to a plantation, so it was interesting to see. On our way back into the city, Aget drove us through the New Orleans Garden District (gorgeous!) and I saw the Loyola New Orleans campus, tucked away between all the Garden District mansions. I think I studied at the wrong Loyola. ;)
On our second day in New Orleans, we had beingets (fried dough with powdered sugar on top) for breakfast at Cafe du Monde. After walking around a bit more, we went on a cemetery tour (something I have ALWAYS wanted to do) in Saint Louis #1 Cemetery. I didn't know that numerous people are buried in the same vault ... they just wait a year and a day (by that time the body has decomposed) and then they shove the next body in. Not much rest for the dead in New Orleans. After that, we ate at a place called the Coffee Pot. I had jumbalaya. During our trip I ate a lot of local food, including a muffuletta sandwich, alligator soup, jamabalya, beignets and gumbo. Yummy. After resting and eating at a barbeque joint for dinner, Rob and I hit Bourbon Street and stayed out late. :)
My dad is a member of a small-business organization, and he was selected to travel to New Orleans to represent his chapter at a national convention. I had never been to New Orleans and had always wanted to go. I figured this was the perfect opportunity. Rob decided he wanted to tag along as well.
Rob and I flew in from Chicago and arrived a few hours before my parents got in from Detroit. We checked into the Hotel Montelone and headed out to explore. We stopped and had a muffuletta sandwich, a famous New Orleans food with Sicilian roots, at Central Grocery. We continued walking around and going into little art galleries, etc., of which there are a ton in the French Quarter. Once my parents arrived, my dad had to go to a conference, so Rob, my mom and I set out to explore Bourbon Street. The nice thing is, you can walk up and down the street and drink. ;) My mom and I each had a daiquari and got a complementary shot with our drinks. Rob had beer (what else?) Mom and I convinced some guys to let us hold their "Huge A-- Beers to Go" sign. Hehe. Later we stopped in a little courtyard to listen to some local musicians play jazz. It was a great first day in New Orleans.
P.S. Most of the photos above were taken by Rob.
