On Friday it was Brian’s turn today to play hooky and he took us to French Quarters and the famous Bourbon and Canal Streets.We had a yummy breakfast at Cafe Pontallsa which is located just caddy corner to the front of the Catholic Cathedral, to your left if standing facing the cathedral. Brian and many born and raised Nolans are in uproar that the city has decided to remove 4 confederate statues, they call a “perversion of history”, dealing with civil war and slavery issues. Just wondering if they will abandon the Christopher Columbus perversion as well.
In any case I had “crab cakes benedict” accompanied by a mimosa and oh my, it may have been one of the best breakfasts ever, so I highly suggest you try it if you get the chance.
Afterwards we went into the cathedral. I was awestruck by the beauty and reverence. I am not Catholic but I lit a candle for my mom anyway because it just felt right at the time.
There is SO much to see and experience in the French Quarters, with the live music, street entertainers, shopping, art, chatting with people, taking photos, gawking (yes, you will too), architecture, lows and highs of the general population, bars, restaurants, risqué shop windows and more.
The one store we had the most fun was called “Leather Voodoo.” I can assure you that I have never perused a store like this before. It is one of the more recent to open and so very cool.
My sweetie bought me a St. Christopher medal for safe travels (which will be left in the car) and a cute pair of earrings.
Brian was eyeballing an unusual item and appeared to be very interested in it, so we surprised him with it as a thank you to him and Nancie.
On the way back to the car we obviously had to make a stop for beignets, as no French Quarter trip is complete without diving face first into powdered sugar heaven at Café du Monde with coffee chasers.
Here is a tip: There are two lines to stand in. One is for take out and the other is for sit down service. Just a tip: sit down service takes much less time in line and if you cannot eat them all, they will bring you a to go bag.
We then took photos of the river and trolleys as we slowly (very slowly mind you, after eating our entire order of beignets) found our way back to the car.
Down by the river there were people enjoying the beautiful sunny day. Some were sitting on the rocky edge of the river, while others were napping on the soft grass hill. The benches are made to be rounded, so if you attempt to sleep on them, you will most certainly roll off.
Our unusual part of the day was when “Ginger Snap” woke up from his nap on the hill, and began telling us about his job as a male dancer at the oldest male dancing bar in New Orleans. After a couple of minutes of a one sided conversation about natural hair color, we casually said nice to meet you and excused ourselves and made a hasty retreat to the car. It was time to begin heading back anyway. LOL
The evening, our last one in NOLA for this trip, brought more gastronomic pleasures when we were taken to dinner at the Ormond Plantation, which re-opened that day after renovations. We had the pleasure of meeting two more friends of Brian and Nancie’s. Neighbors Carlos and Shondell were lovely and fun to talk with, leading to lively conversations that ended up in us being the last one to leave the restaurant. We will all get together again soon.
Such a beautiful evening and we practically had to be rolled out to the vehicles.
A note for the weight conscious. New Orleans IS NOT a place to hang out too long, if you even remotely think that gaining weight is optional.
I have a lot of beach walking to do soon.
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