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Published: October 11th 2010
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New Orleans
Jackson Square w/ St. Louis Cathedral And off to the Big Easy we went!!
Nikkie had a Starbucks conference in NEW ORLEANS so I decided to join her in New Orleans for a weekend. We stayed at the Sheraton on Canal street. It is centrally located and thus easy to walk to everything. It always amazes us how much we walk when we go on these trips.
The first stop was JACKSON SQUARE where there is a nice STATUE OF JACKSON. A nice park next to the Mississippi with a very interesting history. You can get some nice pictures if you stand next to the Mississippi and look back on Jackson Square with the ST. LOUIS CATHEDRAL in the background. Across from Jackson Square there is a little restaurant (again can't remember the name) but you can sit outside and so this is where we had our first PO-BOY experience (the jazz there was awesome - just think "Oh when the Saints"). We kept on walking to the French market where you can find all kinds of useless stuff (a lot of jewelry), but then again this is the stuff that entertains the ladies so it has to be done. That night we did a "ghost"
Cafe du Mont
Beignets and chicory coffee tour. As most ghost tours goes it is more historical than ghostly. We did have a couple very "interesting" moments though. In one particular spot the tour guide showed us this building and told us to take a picture. So she went around and looked at everyone's picture and on some of our pictures you see this blur of light that show up on the picture (it looked almost like a tennis ball). So picture after picture we took and every time this "tennis ball light" showed up. And I swear there was no light anywhere to be seen - no reflections, no artificial light. So off course there was a story as to why this "tennis ball" keeps showing up. Scary to a degree I guess. We were sort of dumb-founded for a couple minutes. But again the most interesting part of the ghost tour was learning more about the history of New Orleans. One of our goals visiting places is not just to see places, but to actually also learn the history behind the places. We were there 3 nights and each night we had to do CAFE DU MONT. I don't know if the place ever close
(I doubt it does). Do not miss this place on your trip to NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). BEIGNETS and CHICORY-COFFEE. This is all we got (if they serve anything else we did not know about it). Beignets are donut-like baked goodies buried in powdered sugar. The chicory-coffee is very hard to explain but it was incredible. And since we are on the topic of food. Try the pralines. They are good for that sweet-tooth. You can get them anywhere and everywhere.
The FRENCH QUARTER. Put on your walking shoes and hit the road. Great shopping (and very expensive). Hit ROYAL, CHARTRES and DECATUR STREETS for some awesome art and antique shopping. The one moment the streets are filled with hundreds of people and the next you are the only one there. We loved the streets, the balconies, the architecture, the flowers, the history, the rush, the silence... NOLA is a unique place. It's hard to imagine that just a short while ago the entire city was under water. They say that NOLA will never be the same. The businesses, the people... Next we visited the GARDEN DISTRICT. Take the trolley and stare in amazement at the houses - sorry
New Orleans
Awesome street music MANSIONS. We passed a park with the zoo, gardens, aquarium, etc. It looked like a good area to just walk around in, but we never made it. Oh and no visit to NOLA should go without visiting the ST. LOUIS CEMETERY. All the graves are above the ground. It is sad to see how neglected most of the graves were. Most people do tours of the cemeteries, but we just did it ourselves (the groundskeeper ended up giving us an awesome free tour). Look out for the grave of the "VOODOO-QUEEN".
We were in NOLA for Halloween. What an adventure. Nikkie and I dressed up as pirates. And so we hit BOURBON STREET with 3 of our friends. What an adventure. We saw every kind of freak you could imagine seeing. It was incredible. We saw some naked people, some old people, some very old people, some young people, some very young people, plenty of beads and some incredibly drunk people. And we were caught in the middle of the mob where we could barely move for about half an hour. And by the end of the night we had some very sore feet with no taxi in sight.
Bourbon Street
The Starbucks "team" partying it up What an event. It was close to Mardi Gras but not yet the level of Mardi Gras.
And last but not last THE NEW ORLEANS MUSIC SCENE. What an incredible place for music. At the start of our visit we saw "grandpa" perform. He is blind, takes a 20-mile cab ride every day and just sits on the street corners and plays his music. Catch him singing "Stand by me". It will bring tears to your eyes. And then go to the other NOLA institution - PRESERVATION HALL. It was mind-blowing. It is a hole-in-the-wall place with about 4 wooden-benches and total room for about 70 people and in the front you have the old-timers just playing their hearts out. It was bone-chilling, hair-raising stuff. I don't know much about jazz, but that was by far the best "concert" I have been to. Go there. Please go. Jazz fan or no jazz fan. Go - you will love it. It's rustic, it's dark, it's small, it's uncomfortable and yet it will be one of the very best things you will ever do.
One note of caution though. The city of New Orleans does not do credit cards. There are a couple places that take credit cards, but for the most part it is cash. Take plenty of cash with you, because there is no big-name-bank ATM's and the ATM fees range from $6 to $10 a transaction. Be warned.
As far as our books goes we did not accomplish much, but we were able to cross off 4 things including the French Quarter, Preservation Hall, and the NOLA music scene. 30 down and 3014 to go.
Til next time
From a very sugary place
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