All That Jazz
It’s safe to say we saw a completely different side to New Orleans today. Instead of going straight to the French Quarter, we ventured up the famous Magazine Street.
We had grabbed a few extra slices of bread at breakfast this morning and some apple and cinnamon muffins and made ourselves a packed lunch for the road. It’s hard to find a small lunch anywhere here and we feel like we are just eating WAY too much! A “sandwich”, as we know it – 2 slices of bread with something in between – is virtually impossible to find. A “sandwich” here is like a humungous burger with pickles and salad, not to mention those ubiquitous fries! Packing some Peanut Butter and Vegemite sandwiches (we brought the Vegemite from home!) was just what we needed.
Julia Street, where our hotel is, is lined with boutique art galleries and is known as Gallery Row. We saw some fabulous artwork; enough to inspire the artist in us all, and loved visiting all the different galleries. It had started to drizzle with rain but it was still super steamy and warm so it didn’t bother us too much. We continued our walk up to Magazine Street and got to admire the gorgeous, colourful architecture along the way. Lots of the buildings follow the exact same design, right on the street front with two sets of steps, one on either side, and French doors across the front with long shutters. They have shuttered windows on their second storeys too and each house, though the same design as all its neighbours, is so individualised with its own vibrant bright colours and quirky additions.
If I had to sum New Orleans up in one word, I think it would be “colourful”. The boldly bright-coloured houses, the people in their brightly coloured clothes, often with multi-coloured hair and multi-coloured tattoos, the colourful people you meet on the street and the posters and art work hanging everywhere you look. The atmosphere is incredible!
As we walked further along Magazine Street, it took us past rows and rows of trendy little shops, all painted different colours, selling vintage clothes, plants, good coffee (Ross was excited) and fashionable homewares. It was a little bit Byron Bay, a little bit Paddington and had such a great feel. Ross got himself a couple of vintage shirts, one of which – a little Hawaiian number – was so bright it could be seen from space and should have come with a health warning. He’s looking forward to wearing/flaunting it on Loud Shirt Friday but his colleagues will need to be pre-warned and wary of possible eye injury when he does! (Oh well, at least we had been able to talk him out of the Woolworths-the- fresh-food-people green and white checked shirt he’d wanted to buy in Florida!)
We also went to one very cool, colourful little café where Maisy got to sample her first ‘Snoball’. The lady who owned the café was only tiny and she emerged from her back room with a brick of ice almost as big as she was! She placed it carefully into the antique-looking snoball making machine and after a bit of crunching and whirring, out popped a perfect little snoball! Everything was organic and she’d made all of her own sauces and toppings; Maisy choosing the homemade strawberry and mango sauce, laden with big chunks of strawberry and mango! She had also made her own chocolate and cheesecake brownies which were pretty hard to go past.
We’d booked some tickets on the Natchez, the paddle steamer on the Mississippi, for 2:30 so we had to be back by then. For some strange reason, Ross and I, the only watch-wearing Joneses on this trip, have both decided to keep our watches on Sydney time. I think it’s just nice to know what time it is at home. We had to subtract 2 hours when we were in Florida and Georgia but now we are in Louisiana, it’s 3 hours we have to subtract so we’re still getting used to it. The kids think this is pretty weird and keep urging us to switch to local time. We now agree there is some merit in that. I think you know what’s coming.
We bought some $3 all day public transport tickets, which give you unlimited trips on the bus and trolley until 10pm and is an absolute bargain. We bussed it back to the wharf, where the mighty steamship should have been waiting for us. Curiously it wasn’t there. “Oh, it must still be making its way back from the last tour”, we wrongly assumed. We were feeling quite smug about making it back in such good time, still with 15 minutes up our sleeves. Walking up to the ticket booth, Ross confidently stated that we’d like to confirm our booking on the 2pm cruise. The young girl in the booth scrunched up her face and said, “WHAT?! What do you mean? That cruise left at 2pm”.
“Huh?” We all looked confused. “So what time is it now?” Ross enquired.
“It’s quarter to 3!” she laughed. Oh bugger. It wasn’t great news. Sam kept making jokes about our ship already sailing and that we’d missed the boat! We started to explain to the girl that although both of us were wearing large, clearly visible wrist watches on our arms, neither of them actually had the time on them and we were still keeping Australian time…..but it just sounded silly. She couldn’t quite get it – who could!? Basically we’re just weirdos. We agreed (*though some convincing followed) that we’d set sail tomorrow, same time, same place. I think I’ll be switching to local time just in case.
Fortunately, after that debacle, we noticed there was no queue at Café du Monde so we were able to get a table straight away. There is so much history here and this was the café that started as the original French Market coffee stand back in the 1700s! Ross attempted to ask for a macchiato and I was hoping for a decaf cappuccino but this was a simple place and you had your coffee one of two ways: black or white. Not surprisingly, the coffee was great and we got to taste the beignets (sort of like doughnuts) that the café is also famous for, which came absolutely drenched in icing sugar. They were scrumptious! Maisy also met a funny clown who called her “Red” and crafted her a beautiful balloon flower. He had her in stitches!
Taking a walk around town, we noticed the manicured grounds of the St Louis Cathedral, which stands starkly against its Bohemian surroundings, right in the centre of town. It reflects the French and Spanish heritage of the city and beside the hedgerows and flower beds are clumps of banana trees, giving it a tropical feel.
There’s a laneway behind the Cathedral, housing the New Orleans Museum and we noticed a group of guys gathered around a park bench with a giant tuba, a clarinet and a drum sitting on the ground next to them. They were obviously taking a break but told us they’d be back on in around 5 minutes. Well it was well worth the wait! These guys were fantastic! Pretty soon the whole street was buzzing with a huge crowd gathered around, with young and old grooving along to their brilliant Dixieland jazz tunes! They weren’t young themselves and you could tell they were just loving what they were doing and that they were seasoned musicians, at it for an awfully long time. The banjo player was a lot younger, and the only white guy in the band, but you could tell they’d taken him under their wings and he was great too. The trombone player was a real character and had a kooky dance he did while he played. The clarinet player was insane! He was such an amazing player and he, the trumpeter and the trombone player could all sing as well as anyone! They were unashamedly asking for money and at one stage asked the crowd if they were ready for some audience participation. This entailed, reaching into your pocket, finding three small coins and then emptying everything that was left after that into their bucket! They had the crowd in the palm of their hands.
We’ve noticed that the drivers in New Orleans are extremely polite. Pedestrians seem to have right of way, anywhere, anytime! Even if the pedestrian light is emphatically red and a driver sees you need to cross the road, he or she will stop and smilingly wave you across. It’s so refreshing.
After hitting the Embarrassing Suits’ happy hour, we caught the trolley to a great little area our concierge recommended as the “place where all the locals go” to have dinner and hear some great jazz. She was right on the money! Every restaurant in the street had a live jazz band and they were incredible! We ate at Miss Jean’s and enjoyed a fantastic band with tuba, trumpet, drums and a guy who played a mean keyboard. They were awesome! Walking back along Frenchmans Street and up Royal Street, we were treated to AMAZING jazz with every doorway we passed. Talk about spoilt for choice! There were some pretty awesome buskers on the street too – one guy playing blues guitar to rival Eric Clapton and wow could he sing!
We stopped off at Walgreen’s for some Ben and Jerry’s icecream and walked home enjoying the tunes in our ears and the warm, balmy night.
