…is like a garden without flowers.
—Lori McNee
Yesterday, while Dan and Alex and James and Tom went to see, as Tom has called them, “piles of dead people” in historic cemeteries, Mark and I walked through the arts district centered around Julia and Camp Streets. We saw a lot of good art and some that was less than good (the installation of irregularly shaped walnut boards layered with Pantone-colored shapes springs to mind; it looked like an IKEA catalog—”You can have this lovely walnut-veneer table with an inlay in this yellow or this blue or this pea green….”). By far, the best art we saw was the show at Lemieux Galleries featuring the art of Aron Bella, “Kelp and Potatoes: Musings of Ireland.” Obviously, I can’t put up pictures of the copyrighted artwork, so go take a few minutes and take a look at the offerings of the galleries, which you can link to from the arts district website.
The only tale I can tell about the sojourn was that in the first gallery we visited, Mark and I were enjoying the offerings of the 26 artist represented, when without warning, I suddenly started getting very hot. I was sweating down my back and wondering if I’d pass out. Mark, however, said he was fine. I’d never experienced that kind of overheating except when I had the worst case of flu I’d ever experienced. I’d sweated through my jeans and shirt then. My mom says its the only time she’d ever seen anyone actually turn green with illness. Other than being overheated, though, I felt fine. Mark and I went into another gallery, and the discomfort didn’t let up, so I told him I needed to get something cold to drink and to sit down. Ten minutes later at a nearby Starbucks, I was fine. It was very weird. I’m attributing it to be touched by a demon or some poor soul roasting in hell. (I suppose that knowing we were going on a ghost tour last night planted that in me head.)
I didn’t really take any pictures in the district (lazy day), but Mark did, so I’m posting his photos here and will caption them.
We had lunch on the patio of Flamingo-a-go-go (https://flamingonola.com). Nice setting, friendly staff, decent food, good music. Mark had a gumbo/jambalaya/red-beans-and-rice combo and strawberry shortcake for lunch. I had a pepperoni flatbread and key-lime pie (not shown).And here are some random shots through the neighborhood and our walk back to the hotel.
Dinner last night was at Landry’s. We learned our lesson from previous nights to make a reservation. Our waiter was fun, and I think most of us enjoyed our dinners. I just had a hamburger. I’ve been overeating and feeling a little miserable all week, so last night, I learned my lesson and only ate half. We gave the other half and my extra fries to a homeless guy who seemed very excited to get it. Here are James, Tom, and Dan at dinner.
We followed up our dinner with a ghost tour in a carriage. I can’t say it was the best ghost tour I’ve ever been on, but it was okay. It was nice not walking for a change—we’ve been doing oodles of that—but I think it was a bit expensive for what we got. Even so, it’s always nice to have a night out with the boys. While we were waiting to start, Cosmo, the mule pulling the carriage parked behind ours, decided he wanted Alex’s attention.
I didn’t know until last night that only mules are used in New Orleans because they’re stronger than similarly sized horses and handle the heat and humidity better than horses.
After our tour, we stopped and checked off another NOLA must-do box—beignets at Cafe du Monde. They were good, but to be honest, they’re just fried dough that you can get at any festival in the Midwest and coated in powdered sugar—a LOT of powdered sugar. Mark and I didn’t realize that each order included three beignets, so when we ordered four, we actually got twelve. This morning, there was so much powdered sugar in the bottom of the bags (of course we couldn’t eat them all) that Alex used a teaspoon of it to sweeten his coffee.
I’ll post today’s adventures either later today or at the airport tomorrow as we wait to fly back to Ohio.