Twenty-seven Years Later….

Sorry for no post yesterday with describing Sunday’s adventures. Yesterday was Mark’s and my 27th Anniversary, and we spent it exploring the city with our friends. By the end of our day, I’d walked 25,000 steps and wasn’t up for typing. (That sounds like I walked on my hands. LOL. That much foot time did a number on my back, so I wanted just to settle into a soft seat and take it easy.) Now I’ll try to bring us up to date.

I know I promised photos of our hotel suite, but since our bed’s not made, I’ll limit myself to a photo of the living/dining/kitchen areas. This gives you a pretty good feel for general flavor of the place. Contemporary glam is perhaps the best description. Behind me is a wall of windows looking out onto our balcony. Behind Mark are two bedrooms, and beyond the kitchen is a hallway that leads to the third bedroom and to the door into the suite.

Like Saturday evening, Sunday was another day of wandering and exploring. We started with breakfast at Two Chick’s Cafe, which a happy, inviting restaurant with good food. Our waitress was a doll with a beautiful Caribbean accent. I had a chicken and gouda omelet that was very tasty. I must have needed salt, though, because the salted butter on my white toast was divine! Here are James and Mark horsing around at our table.

After lunch, James—who lived in NOLA a century ago—guided us on a long walk down to the Mississippi. Boy, Memphis could learn a lot about developing their waterfront. We looked at a lot of bad—but also some good—street art around Jackson Square. We thought about getting beignets at Cafe du Monde, but the line was ridiculous. (In fact it was ridiculous every time we walked by the cafe in the last three days, so I have yet to taste the famous treat.) I’m now thinking I might get a take-away beignet from their walk-up window.

The highlight of our walk on Sunday was the river front (and laughing, which the six of us tend to do a lot when we’re together, especially at Dan’s expense). Here are some photos of the walk. (And I’m sorry about the image format. WordPress has changed the way it allows me to add images, and I can’t figure out how to add multiple images at one time without putting them in a gallery or spending an hour adding them one by one.)

I think on every trip, you miss one opportunity—either through your own error or just back luck—and yesterday I missed mine. We stopped in the kind of men’s clothing store that just doesn’t exist in Columbus, and I found a fantastic, floral-print shirt. It had every color in the rainbow and would have been fabulous with my peach pants. Unfortunately, it was the last they had, and it was just a bit too tight on me. Now I’ll spend a year trying to find it online in my size. Lol. At least I saved $80.

We continued down Magazine Street and, after several false starts (thanks to Dan and me—mostly me) found a Mexican restaurant that was actually quite good. Unfortunately, I can’t find in on the map. I think it might have been La Carreta, but I’m not sure. We decided then to walk up to Lafayette Cemetery, but because it was closed for renovations, we could only look in through the openings in the outer wall. Maybe next time I’m here I can go inside. Here are some photos from Monday’s wanderings.

After the cemetery, we decided to split up—one of the great advantages of group vacations. James, Tom, and Dan returned to the hotel. Alex, Mark, and I decided to take a trolley ride for about an hour through Loyola and the zoo area. Mark took this picture of a trolley car passing us.

Even though I’m the only who’s never been to New Orleans, I think we all agree that it’s a filthy city—at least in the Central Business District and the French Quarter. In terms of trash and dust and grime, those areas are at least as bad as New York City. Unlike NYC, though, the sidewalks are a walker’s nightmare. If we get home with no broken ankles, I’ll be surprised. It seems like every paved walkway has been tree-heaved by as much as 10 inches or patched with plywood. (Really? Plywood on the ground in a city like New Orleans?) Every bricked walkway is like a mouth with broken teeth. Even in front of the Hyatt hotel, if you’re not watching the ground as you walk, you’re likely to step into a cavern and face plant.

Having said all that, though, I have to say that the garden district is lovely—just what you expect a venerable old lady like New Orleans to be. Beautiful old live oak trees overhang the streets and sidewalks offering dappled shade; broad boulevards pass trolley cars happily up and down their spines. Enormous, well-tended homes smile at each other.

Alex decided he needed a break when we got back to the hotel.

So that brings us more or less up to today, Tuesday.

One of the things I like to do on trips is find used book stores, though it’s a pastime that I don’t share with most of my friends. NOLA has plenty of used bookstores, including a couple within walking distance of our hotel, so this morning, I struck out on my own while James and Tom went to a quilting store and Dan and Alex attended an owner’s update—a presentation for people in their vacation club updating them on the club.

The two bookstores I visited were Beckham’s Bookshop and Crescent City Books. Beckham’s had a bigger selection, by far, and was like something out of a Harry Potter book. It was dark and dusty and musty and creaky, and the proprietor was a somewhat, um, “off-putting” isn’t quite the word. He was ancient, and I’m sure he’s beloved by regulars, but I got the impression that he didn’t have the energy to be gregarious. While Crescent City was much smaller, it had more of my old friends on its fiction shelves, so in some ways, I was happier there (and cleaner when I walked out). I bought one book at each store: Victory by Joseph Conrad and The Childhood of Jesus by J. M. Coetzee.

I returned to the hotel to pick up Mark and Alex and Dan, newly released from the vacation-club owner’s meeting cum sales pitch, and we went out for lunch. Dan picked a tiny little hole in the wall—Jimmy J’s Cafe—with, again, good food but also a friendly, helpful server who was fun to joke around with. They only serve breakfast food, but of course, for Dan and me, that was just fine.

Dan and Alex wanted to head back to the hotel after lunch since we’d walked so much the day before, but Mark and I were eager to look for galleries in the area. We found a fair number, but really most of the art was “tourist” art—easy to crank out or way over the top or too “pop-y.” Almost all of them represented only one artist, so we saw very little diversity within each gallery, and all of the galleries seemed to have figured out what sells to out-of-towners looking for moments because there wasn’t much more variety among the galleries. We’re hoping that the galleries on Julia Street will be more to our taste.

I didn’t have my camera with me today, and it was grey in anticipation of a big storm arriving this evening, so I don’t have any pics from today, but now that the tornados have passed (yes, tornadoes in south-east New Orleans tonight), tomorrow should be a nicer day. Mark and I are planning to go to the aforementioned Julia Street and perhaps get me a new hat. I’ll take some pictures then.

Dinner tonight was a bit chaotic. We learned yesterday that we can’t just go someplace for a bite. Everything is booked up, so we end up in some mediocre dive eating grilled chicken sandwiches. With the storm tonight, however, we decided to order in. That, however, became a problem because with the storm rolling in, almost all restaurants had stopped making deliveries. James and Tom found a Chinese on UberEats, and Alex and Dan found a sandwich place through DoorDash. Mark and I ended up eating cereal and leftover pizza.

Right now, James is watching a song-contest TV show, and Alex, Dan, Mark, and Tom are playing Mexican Train. See what I give up for my readers? I’m writing this instead of eating brownies and playing dominoes. Lol. Mmm. Brownies.

Signing off until tomorrow.