Notes on New Orleans --

As you know we made another little trip to New Awlins this past week 

[Craig had a work meeting, so I tagged along.]

How do y’all pack for a trip? Through the years we’ve found that we almost always take too much stuff, but the thing is, you never know when you might just feel like wearing something different [that’s the joy of air travel to me – it makes me be a little more concise in my planning.] And there’s nothing worse than getting to your destination and not having the shoes you’d planned…so here’s how I pack –

And while this is a little crazy looking, there are times when I tend to pack only one color combo and have just a couple of pairs of shoes… what can I say? 

I am my mother’s daughter – and she does love her shoes….

So here’s some [very random] notes on New Or-leens

[trying to embrace all dialects here – lol]:

The homeless in the downtown area [where we stayed this time ‘round] creep me out a bit more than those in the Quarter. – Just sayin’. Is it that there are just more people in the French Quarter, or that those downtown are just a little more aggressive and will walk beside you asking for your attention / money/ whatever? 

[FOR THE ENTIRE BLOCK -]

We only ate beignets once – and, YUM, they were great. Discovered that dipping them in the café au lait is THE WAY TO DO IT. – Turns all that powdered sugar into a nice coffee flavored icing – Oh. My. Goodness.

Bourbon Street was as dirty [truly – filthy], disgusting [anything goes sexually], scary [voodoo abounds, and I think even if you think you’re just playing in it, there’s a REAL spiritual warfare amongst us and the demons are loving it], and amusing [have to admit there are some funny sites there - look closely above at the gold and silver men] as always – but still, oh so sad to see all these people 

searching for something that only The Lord can fill. 

 And I always – always love to browse and meander through the art – whether it’s the street vendors’ or museum quality – 

I love seeing how others interpret the world we live in. It’s wonderful.

 Zentangles, anyone? THIS was beautiful [on the street.]

 And of course, I always love to see Blue Dog -  

The gallery art was gorgeous too --

 

 

And of course I loved  the art in the shops - so fun ! 

[And I really thought this was Kelly Rae - but it's a spin off - still so beautiful!]

   The music is penetrating [–and everywhere] zydeco, jazz, and blues – Love. It. 

We heard some extremely good street musicians this year. 

[And noticed that many of them now have cds for sale…]

Parts of Canal Street smell like NYC – and it ain’t good.

The old buildings are gorgeous - both in town and in the French Quarter.

I was strangely attracted to jewelry during this trip and bought chunky tourist stuff, as well as a set of blue / pewter necklace and earrings, and then a gorgeous hand-crafted dancing girl pendant / pin that reminds me so much of my soul sisters – love it. 

She is a beauty -

I get ‘turned around’ directionally when I’m in New Orleans and always think that east is west – and normally I’ve very talented in the direction arena…

The food is just about as delicious as it gets. But we paced ourselves and ate only one big meal a day [as opposed to one of C’s work buddies who said they ate 4 big meals in one day because everything was just ‘so good.’] 

We had crab cheesecake and bbq shrimp at The Palace, gumbo and shrimp po boys at Deanies, and etouffee at  The River’s Edge – delish.

[We'll be back --]

 Oh, and we ate at Copeland’s [a long time favorite] in Slidell – and the ricochet catfish was as good as I remember. Of course Craig at crawfish etouffee everywhere we went – 

he ADORES it. 

Except the Shrimp Basket in Mobile – a place we always love for their fresh Gulf shrimp…

The trolleys are timeless – I hope our boys have some memories of riding through the Garden District and eating brick oven pizza at the end of the line…

good times.

I walked at least two, maybe three, hours each day and loved every minute of it – why can’t I do this at home? When I thought it through I realized that I love walking in downtown areas  - so since we’ve been home I’m happy to report that I’ve walked around town a few days for at least thirty minutes.. It’s a start y’all.