Today started out by trekking it across downtown to the other side of the French Quarter. We were headed towards Jackson Square… and I knew there was the original Cafe Du Monde across the street at the French Market…so I thought if nothing really opens until 9, if we get there around 8:30 or so… we shouldn’t have too much of a wait.
HA. Nope. The line stretched all the way down the block. Then we found out there was another line on the other side of the building for take away… and it was just as long. ha Craziness. BUT… its Cafe Du Monde. You have to get coffee and beignets once if you’re in New Orleans, right? So we waited.
Coffee itself came to North America via New Orleans in the mid-1700s. It was grown in some French West Indies colonies in the 1720s, and French settlers brought coffee with them as they settled the Mississippi river area. During the Civil War, coffee was scarce, and people started grinding up chicory roots- the root of the lettuce Endive into the brew to give it more flavor and body and an almost chocolate quality to the coffee.
Cafe Du Monde has been open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day at this location at the French Market since 1862. The French Market location itself stretches back prior to European settlers in New Orleans, the Choctaw Indians used to use this high dirt natural levee at the bend of the Mississippi to trade goods with the river traffic. Then French settlers used this area to trade and sell produce and dairy and then in 1718, the city of New Orleans was officially founded here.
Ended up taking us about 45 minutes to order and get our food…The Beignets were very good. Basically a doughy funnel cake. I wore black. ha Not a good combo with all the powdered sugar… and the wind was blowing in so strong from some incoming rain that I was getting other people’s powder sugar on me. ha The coffee…. meh… I’m so picky about my coffee and it has to be oily and strong… no acidity. A dark French Roast is my thing. The Cafe Au Lait was weak… Kegan said the same about his black coffee. The do have a no chicory French Roast coffee that if I end up by another cafe again, I’ll try that instead. I’m sure objectively, its great to most people. Just wasn’t my thing. However, Norah’s hot chocolate was spectacular. ha I’d order that again.
This Cafe Du Monde sat directly across the street from the prettiest and most famous plaza in New Orleans- Jackson Square.
Historically, it is significant because it was the Place d’Armes- or the weapons place- the center of the city. It is also the site of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase. The Spanish built the St. Louis church in the background in the late 1700s and the building to its left, The Cabildo in 1795. After General Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, the square was renamed in his honor as the savior of New Orleans. The equestrian statue went in in the 1850s.
We were first headed to the Cabildo, the actual building where the Louisiana Purchase was signed. Today it is part of the Louisiana State Museum and houses various historical items on display.
There was a great display of historic Jazz items.
Tuba Fats’ SousaphoneVintage tableware from the Roosevelt Hotel from 1950. The Roosevelt, where we stayed earlier this week, used to host various big bands in the ballrooms and has always hosted fancy dinnersThis was so interesting! Antoine’s, that we ate at last night- and had the Oyster’s Rockefeller- used to issue a postcard with each order of Oysters Rockefeller! How neat! If they were at 1.2 million orders by the 1946…image how many orders they are up to now!There was an entire room dedicated to historic photographs of George Francois MugnierI loved this image of the French Market showing the old French butchers. We’ve walked along these same arched openings at the French Market…so I loved seeing this old photo of how it used to be. Looks like Mardi Gras has always been the same zoo it is today 🙂
They had lots of items, paintings and artifacts from the Battle of New Orleans- more on that in a couple days when we visit the Chalmette Battlefield
There was so much more about Katrina in the exhibit, but I feel like everyone focuses so much on Hurricane Katrina as all they know about New Orleans…anything I’d write or photograph here has already been said or filmed so much better in any of the 100 documentaries on Katrina. My favorite was When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in 4 Acts by Spike Lee. It is on HBO Max. It was filmed in 2006 just after while clean up and resettlement was still going on. Still FEMA trailers lining every street and the culture of New Orleans still missing. It was powerful to watch. He even did a follow up documentary called If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise- revisiting the areas 5 years later.
The next exhibit was far more festive: The history of Mardi Gras.
After leaving The Presbytère, we took a walk down Pirate’s Alley, an alleyway with legend that famous pirate Jean Lafitte or his brother Pierre used to arranged meetings here. No actual evidence of this being true- but its hard to believe a pirate would be making back alley deals, literally in the alley outside the The Cabildo which held the prison at the time… but maybe its one of those hide in plain sight things.
William Faulkner rented a space in the alley in 1925 and wrote his first novel here. St Anthony’s Gardens attached to St Louis cathedral.A view down pirate’s alleyJackson Square has a long history of tarot readings, palm readings and other rituals in the square- so only fitting Norah would get a tarot card reading from someone there. The vendor asked I not put her in the photos but that I could photograph the table. The reader said Norah showed very “strong” cards for such a young girl. That she was going through a period of change… that she needed to trust herself, trust her abilities, don’t self-doubt so much… (pretty much what any preteen needs to hear, right?) I’m not sure what anything in Tarot “means”… but I did take a photo of the cards in case anyone has a Tarot background and cares to interpret Norah’s future 🙂
We continued walking along the waterfront on a walkway called the Moonwalk- named after Mayor Moon Landrieu that commissioned it to be built.
Instrument Men Fountain along the wayThe Joan of Arc statue in the street median.Well, this was our lunch destination. The Central Grocery – the birthplace and home of the Muffuletta sandwich. So that was disappointing. Their website said they were looking for a temporary location while their building had repairs done from Hurricane Ida in September…. but it looks like they never found that venue. Oh well, next trip. Our next destination was Esoteric Occult Goods, an oddities shop…but it, too, was closed. I could only look through the door.We did stop into Voodoo Authentica to see some voodoo related items. We stopped by the Jean Lafitte National Park and were able to get a National Park stamp for Norah’s book while we visited. It had a lot of history of the Mississippi Delta region and the swamplands around New Orleans. I didn’t know John James Audubon basically got his start as a wildlife artist drawing and painting birds from the Louisiana swamplands for his Birds of America series.
By now, we were really hungry… and a couple places we stopped all had 2 hour waits… so we walked back towards our hotel hoping to find something with decent reviews without a wait. We found Mr Ed’s Seafood House…and only a 10-15 minute wait. I really wanted raw oysters. When in NOLA, right? Can’t get them this fresh and good at home… We also decided we’d try Charbroiled oysters for the first time. I think it was a mistake to order them here…they were totally burnt and overdone.. but the fried seafood hit the spot and Norah’s kid’s shrimp basket was stellar too. We kept stealing shrimp from her plate and calling it shrimp tax lol.
Raw oysters
Kid’s Shrimp
Charbroiled oysters
Creole Sampler of Jambalya, Etoufee and Red Beans and Rice- Kegan said he wasn’t impressed
The seafood platter. Tons of breaded catfish, shrimp and oysters. I left stuffed and happy.
Our next stop was The Escape Game to play their Heist room. Our game guide Eric the previous night booked us this private room for very cheap the following day… I was happy about it not costing and arm and a leg. lol
Of course we ESCAPED! We recovered a stolen Monet from the egotistical museum curator before he returned from a staff meeting and saved the day. These escape rooms really are the highlight of Norah’s life right now. Its amazing to watch her go through and solve some of the riddles that I’m sure adults struggle with. ha And I’d be lying if I said Kegan and I didn’t enjoy them, too… its a brain workout… but its a great sense of accomplishment to “beat” the game. We really do work well together… and usually its a good mix of all 3 of us figuring out various parts to win.
As we walked back, it started sprinkling on us… and just as we reached the last hotel intersection- it was pouring rain like this…. couldn’t have timed it better!
We hung out in the room for a couple hours and watched the 2nd Matrix movie- Matrix Reloaded. Norah was just as into #2 as #1.
We last minute booked another escape room at Escape My Room- our favorite place so far (the one with our game guide Laszlo). He was supposed to be off tonight, but when we walked into the Private investigators office, awaiting who would greet us this time- we heard a familiar voice- our man Laszlo had traded shifts and was there again! It was a great surprise. I’m sure all of the guides there are great… but we’re basically old friends at this point…ha
The room we booked for tonight was very different.. and we weren’t sure how we would like it… it was called Smuggler’s Den and it was only a 45 minute room instead of an hour…and….like 30 minutes of it happens in the PITCH BLACK DARK.
In the end, we escaped with 13 minutes to spare! Pretty good on a 45 minute room… we had some great teamwork…and Kegan really knocked this one out of the park. I don’t think I would have made it out on my own. Blindly feeling your way around a room for clues and items was totally different that the normal cerebral puzzles and visual clues, but Kegan was very methodical, sweeping the room around the perimeter and putting some texture items together way before I did. Norah was on “11” for the whole thing. I think the dark really freaked her out for a while. Every bump or nudge and she was like WHAT WAS THAT?? WHO’S THERE?? hahaha It was a little funny. She finally settled in about halfway through. She was so amped she was talking at extreme volume afterward. haha
Later after a walk back to the hotel, we ordered delivery Shake Shack from the shop down the street. It was so close, a guy literally walked it down to the hotel for us. haha No fancy dinner for us tonight- just good ole cheeseburgers and fries.
Tomorrow we’ll explore more of the French Quarter for the last day… and hit another Escape room….and dinner is a followup to Shaya- a booking at Saba, the newest restaurant in New Orleans by Chef Shaya. Since Shaya was one of our favorite meals EVER, we’re excited about that one and we don’t even know what is on the menu. ha
We started out today with coffee and pastries from the downstairs shop of the hotel. I shared this because the girl working put a little heart in Kegan’s cappuccino and told him he was just a pleasure to serve this morning. Kegan. A pleasure. If anyone has ever seen my husband prior to 9:30am or so, you will cackle out loud at this statement. haha He came back to the room and said “someone thinks I’m a pleasure in the mornings” LOL
Norah thought this was amazing. I just see some inadequate government services. lol We thought the stained glass windows on this building were neat. Our first stop was Music Legends Park, which is an open space park with live jazz every day starting at 10 am.However, this morning, they had it roped off and it was the seating area for the Cafe Beignet in the background… so maybe since Covid they have been using the tables as an outdoor dining space? Not sure… but I could only snap a photo of a few statues and the fountain.
We continued through the French Quarter to the Museum of Death.
It was a tiny little museum, probably a little overpriced in hindsight. Dedicated to all things dead. The front had taxidermy animals… then a serial killer room with letters and drawings and newspaper clippings from various serial killers over the years. Then some more macabre crime scene photos of famous murders, some African and tribal rituals involving death, like shrunken heads and carved animal skulls. They even had a small area on terrorism with video of 9/11 and a theater in the back corner with a running reel of black and white images of suicides, homicides and other gruesome deaths.
The girl at the front was a bit concerned we were bringing in a 9 year old… but I told her this kid was more morbid than I was. I said, Thank you, I do appreciate you letting us know- but we killed a deer this year and she kept asking to poke its eyeball. She’s going to be fine. ha And…she was. The girl replied with “I always wanted to stick my thumb in someone’s eye socket…… if you are good with it, I’m good with it!” She looked at some photos, but she wasn’t really super interested in most of it because it was just letters and small photos on the walls.. and we gave her the cell phone to play games while we watched the film, she wouldn’t have had a clue what was playing on the TV. She walked out no more scarred for life than she was when we walked in 🙂
I thought it was a bit boring…and really wasn’t that macabre or gross. I was disappointed. I don’t know what I expected or wanted. Maybe some actual gory color photographs, a video of a live autopsy, they had an embalming table there, maybe a video of the actual body preparation process?
There was only one small set of 4x6s in a case that I was actually surprised to see and had a “ooohhh, this is taboo” feel. They had the crime scene images from the murder of a woman, supposedly a Hollywood actress named Linda Carr (but I cant find a single Google link about anything with her name) who was found bound on her bed with a bag over her head. Those photos really piqued my interest…but that was about it.
Treme is considered the oldest black neighborhood in America.
Our first stop was at a visitor center at Basin Street Station that had some historic signs and photographs
A photo of Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana. The man responsible for the shift from violence to pageantry for the Mardi Gras Indians. He was the “chief of chiefs” for over 50 years until his death in 2005. Originally the Mardi Gras Indians were a group of violent people- who would execute revenge during carnival to their enemies. They would dress up in carnival suits for disguise, stab or kill someone they had been waiting to seek revenge on… and then disappear into a nearby bar to change clothes. They say there were always tons of disposed of and bloody costumes found after Mardi Gras from all the events of violence. Sort of sounds like The Purge in real life. Waiting all year to carry out your violent revenge during a set timeframe. Chief Tootie was the first to say “stop fighting with your guns, and start fighting with your costumes and your minds”. Now, different tribes compete every Mardi Gras for the best costumes, with feathers and jewels, bright colors- all handmade, made over the full year leading up to Mardi Gras. Chief Tootie believed if you had to work all year on your costume, you would be distracted from other events that might lead you down a dark path…and also, you wouldn’t want to throw away your beautiful costume or get it dirty with blood carrying out revenge plots and fighting.
Wikipedia summed up the Mardi Gras Indian tradition better than I could:
The start of Carnival involves the Chief marching in the back of his tribe, while non-costumed followers trail behind the Indians, known as a second line. Ahead of the tribe is a “Spyboy” who is a block or two ahead. He will motion to the “Flagboy” if the road ahead is clear or not. The “Flagboy” will then alert the chief.[11] The chief will then make the decision as to what road to take. Because of the ambiguous nature of the Indians, there is no telling what path they make take around New Orleans. This makes finding their exact location difficult to pinpoint each year. When two tribes meet each other on the same path, they will have a battle. This battle no longer involves bloodshed and weapons, but chanting and dancing, as well as an informal competition as to which chief has the “prettiest” suit.[10] The chants are in a native language, and can tell a story, shared experience or taunt the opposing tribe. The relationships between the tribes have become calm since the work that Tootie did with changing the traditions of the Mardi Gras Indians.
That led us down the street to Louis Armstrong Park and to Congo Square.
Congo Square is basically the birth of music as we know it. Under French law or Code Noir (Black Code) enslaved Africans were required to be given 6 hours for recreation on Sundays. They began gathering here, playing music, selling goods, preforming healing or voodoo rituals- earning their own money- to eventually buy their freedom and the freedoms of their family. They learned French here, too, from some of the free people of color who wanted to help enslaved people escape slavery. As we looked at a few sculptures, a guy came up to us and decided we were getting a tour from him lol just started talking, telling us the history of the square, the park, the neighborhood. He knew his stuff though! Mandela the Storytella was his name. We hung out with him for probably 20 minutes hearing about his plans for the future, the city’s history, etc before tipping him and going on about our day. I had to respect the hustle. He had printouts of historic events and people and maps, he knew a LOT about history… he knew we’d be the type he could corner and talk to. Ha but end of the day, it was a good experience. Statue dedicated to Big Chief TootieThe big man himself, Louis Armstrong. Satchmo the Great.
Louis Armstrong is from New Orleans. Born in 1901, he got in trouble at a very young age of about 10 for firing a gun in the air on New Year’s eve and was sent to a group home. There he was given a choice to learn the cornet and then he could pick any instrument he wanted to play. He learned the cornet, tried out the drums and eventually landed on a trumpet as his instrument of choice. He grew up mastering trumpet and as a young man, followed his mentor King Oliver to Chicago to play in the Creole Jazz Band. Eventually he was recruited to New York to form his own bands and lead… and the rest is history. Records, jazz shows, television… we all know Louis Armstrong’s songs, voice and talent. He eventually settled in Queens but always reconnected with New Orleans. He was even the king of the Zulu krewe at Mardi Gras one year. He really did clear the path for all future Jazz and black musicians… they don’t call him Pops for nothing.
A statue dedicated to Sidney Bechet. You can’t downplay the importance of Sidney Bechet either. He was a fantastic clarinet player around the time of Louis Armstrong, too. He played in New Orleans before touring the country and then eventually London and France. He was jailed in France for 11 months for accidentally shooting a woman when he was aiming for another musician who said he played the wrong chord. He eventually played at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. He never learned to read sheet music, in all his years of music… very interesting.Statue dedicated to Charles “Buddy” Bolden. Buddy Bolden really is the father of jazz. A cornet player, he was one of the first musicians from like 1900-1910 who was know for playing loud, improvising….combining ragtime with the blues, creating the “Big Four” beat that is the basis for most early jazz. By the age of 30, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent his life in a mental institution… Across from Louis Armstrong Park is an unassuming yellow building with a plaque on the front… this is where Cosimo Matassa opened J&M studio and recorded some very famous songs. Tutti Frutti by Little Richard was laid down inside this building, along with nearly every Fats Domino song you know. Jerry Lee Lewis saved up his money and travelled down here to record his first songs, 5 years before recording with Sun records. The studio closed for good in 1974, but is now a historic marker for its significance.
The church was closed when we arrived, sadly… but the pews are all originals from the mid 1800s. There is a pink stone alter that is hundreds of years old. The stained glass windows are all imported from France and depict 5 male saints on one side and 5 female saints on the other side.
Sidney Bechet was a parishioner here. So was Big Chief Tootie, So was Homer Plessy (of the famous Plessy v Ferguson court case on segregation that rules “separate but equal” was OK).
The archdioceses was set to close St Augustine in 2005, but parishioners asked hurricane volunteers to help them protest and they barricaded themselves inside the church. The catholic church decided to “reconsider” and placed the church on probation status pending they fix some falling down elements of the building, address falling attendance, etc. They made the repairs, they applied for grants, and in 2009, the building was finally removed from the probation list of potential church closures.
Dooky Chase’s. A famous landmark restaurant in New Orleans and an icon of the civil rights movement. Thurgood Marshall, a local attorney… as well as Martin Luther King and company used to take meals here when in the area, discussing business and strategy in the upstairs dining room. Leah Chase- the wife of the owner, became known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine and ran the restaurant from the 1950s through 2019 when she died at the age of 96. Barack Obama ate here in 2008 with her and famously got in trouble for putting hot sauce in her gumbo before he tasted it. ha Even presidents have to follow Ms. Chase’s rules. We were headed to Willie Mae’s Scotch House. Another famous establishment…and might very well be the best fried chicken in the whole United States. We waited for quite a while, placed a take out order, waited another long while… so the chicken would have had to be pretty good to make up for all that touristy waiting… and it really was. They slather the chicken with a spicy creole spread of some kind before they bread and fry it… and it was outstanding. A tad greasy if I was getting super picky… but it’s fried chicken. Their cornbread was great… their fried shrimp was great. A very satisfying lunch.
After lunch, we had completed our itinerary for the day until time to eat again (notice a pattern here this week? ha eat. eat. eat. ) So we sat in the room and watched the original Matrix movie with Norah because she’s been begging to watch it so she can watch the new Matrix Revolutions. She loved it.
We ventured back out after dark and walked back into the French Quarter in the direction of Antoine’s Restaurant.
Antoine’s has been a restaurant here since 1840. Owned by the SAME FAMILY. Mind blowing. That’s through the Civil War, 2 World Wars, Prohibition, Vietnam, Katrina…. they have weathered it all. They have 14 dining rooms… it is an incredibly huge operation.
From their website:  Lining the walls are photographs of the rich and famous who have feasted amid the splendor … musicians, politicians, military personnel, sports figures, royalty … the list is endless. It includes George Bush, Bill Clinton, Franklin Roosevelt, Pope John Paul II, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Kate Hudson, Jimmy Buffet, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby to name just a few!
Our last stop for the evening was Escape Room #8,054 lol. This time at a new venue called The Escape Game. We did The Playground where you have to complete your report card by completing various subjects before the deadline so you can make it to the big kickball game! We made it with 13 minutes left and our game guide said he was shocked we made it out, most people with only 3 people (because it is a big space for 12 people) only make it to the second room. He said he basically thought “whatever” when we walked in and said we didn’t want help and we had a 100% track record and it was just us 2 with a kid. But… we changed his mind. lol He gave us a discount on a room tomorrow night and he’s our guide again… so we’re looking forward to doing The Heist where we steal artwork.
We walked back to our hotel…this time Canal street was all lit up with Christmas lights. Very pretty
Tomorrow we are being proper tourists and hitting some major tourist points like Jackson Square, Cafe Du Monde, some Voodoo Shoppes… should be fun if I can keep Kegan from wanting to murder all the other inconsiderate tourists. ha
Today was a sight seeing day…and ended up being a pretty light one. I’m usually really good about timing how long things take and how much space we need for each item on the itinerary, but I keep over estimating everything here and we end up with a lot of downtime in the middle of things. But that’s OK… it might be nice to not be totally exhausted after a vacation for once. ha We checked out of our hotel and headed to the National World War II Museum. We arrived via Lee Circle- named after the monument in the center in honor of Robert E. Lee. As you can see… the statue has been removed and is now just an empty pedestal. It was one of 4 monuments removed in 2017 by vote of the city council that were dedicated to confederate slaveholders.
I definitely see the “you cant erase history” side of the argument…. but in a city that is 60% African American… I think I have to agree that if 60% of the city sees these monuments in a negative light and as a sign of an oppressive past, what is the benefit?…. interesting to actually see the empty circle standing as a sign of changing times.
We arrived to the museum…and it was a bit bigger than I anticipated.
There were different wings each dedicated to different phases of the war. An actual Higgins boat on display in the main lobby. Andrew Higgins was a businessman from New Orleans, who was already making small boats. Makes sense in hindsight that a man from the Bayou would know the benefits and physics of designing a shallow flat bottom boat. General Dwight Eisenhower is quoted as saying, “Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.” There was a big wing with actual airplanes from the war and three levels for viewing them from below and then at eye level.The exhibits were amazingly well done in terms of visual effects. This was the exhibit walking through the logistics and history of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
My only complaint…. and you know by now, I usually have to have ONE. lol Is that even though it is the NATIONAL World War II museum, so one would expect a very American-centric view… it was painfully so. There was almost zero mention of Russian assistance in terms of causing the split of German forces that made it possible for D-Day to succeed…and Russia lost 20 million people in this war. To minimize their contributions and almost leave them out of the story completely just felt wrong. The museum acknowledged the internment camps of Japanese Americans- but almost became a propaganda film about how good they were treated while there. Our trip this summer to the Topaz Museum which focused on the camp from the perspective of interred Japanese Americans painted a very different story of burning furniture to stay warm in the winter and the total loss of personal property and businesses that were never addressed after their release.
My reason for being annoyed about it is not to downplay the American role in the War. We really did “save the day”. We sacrificed, we banded together- we worked through a lot of American issues at home (women in the workforce, minorities allowed in factory jobs., etc) to create a fighting force and equip our military in a way we could have only imagined prior. (I think in the museum they stated that prior to the war, America’s military strength was ranked 19th, behind Romania. That’s hard to believe with today’s military budget and innovations). But to gloss over the real facts and put that sacrifice into perspective in the grand scheme adds to a characteristic I tend to be annoyed by in America. Our schools and media teach our children that we alone are good enough, we alone save the world and that its our American exceptionalism that makes the difference…and I think that adds to the “us vs them” mentality of seeing ourselves as different from every other country in the world. And I know it benefits our government that we think that way…and it has its benefits for us as a country that Americans believe we collectively have this in common in terms of “sticking together” through crisis. But…just a personal pet peeve. I like the facts and only the facts, please. 🙂 We love the glory of the victory, but we tend to forget to give credit to the shoulders we stand on.
Some other random images from the museum that caught my eye…and were new to me or intriguing.
Americans in the beginnings of the war. The people remembered the horrors of The Great War and they wanted no part of another. Less than 20% of Americans supported an entry into the war prior to 1941. They had a room dedicated to the Los Alamos atomic bomb project and an interactive screen for demonstrating principles of the nuclear reactions that cause the explosions. I had never heard of the “Ruperts”. Fake parachuters deployed to fake out the enemy about the real landing spots of the troops. They even included sound playing devices of gunfire and had burning flares to mimic battle sounds and smells.I loved the irony of this one. A black soldier holding a group of Nazi prisoners at gunpoint. So very fitting.The down escalator had this very immersive graphic of being at a Nazi rally.
There was also a Victory Theatre with a very good film covering the highlights of the war. I would recommend adding on that with your tickets if you visit.
After we had soaked in about as much World War II as our brains could handle, it was time to lunch. Right down the block was Cochon Resturant and Cochon Butcher. We first tried Butcher…but it was super crowded… and there were just a couple items I had my heart set on… and the full restaurant had those as well… so we chose to go grab a table at the restaurant.
We ordered about every appetizer and boucherie item on the menu and shared them between all 3 of us.
Pork and Bacon PieMacaroni and CheeseCollard GreensBoudin BallsPork BellyHead CheeseCracklins
Every dish was amazing. The pork belly had an apple butter base and was garnished with Vietnamese clove and star anise pickled onions and Thai basil. I could not have imagined a better combo together if I tried… amazing.
After lunch walking to our next spot, we still hadn’t had coffee yet… so we stopped in Provisions, a coffee shop at the Hilton.
They had Aunt Sally’s pralines at the counter… which is where we had planned to walk next…so it saved me a 4 block trip. We had to sample the local dessert. It was what we expected. Caramelized sugar, melted over nuts. Nuts a bit chewy, sugar a bit grainy… but tasting very homemade and very nostalgic of good old southern confections.
We walked on to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
On our way we passed the Louisiana Civil War museum- the oldest museum in Louisiana, its been here and open since 1890…(about the same time that Robert E Lee statue went up in the circle.) They were closed today…so no tour through… just the outside of the cool building.
The inside rear portion of the Ogden museum was separate from the tower… and I honestly think we took a wrong turn and ended up on the empty 2nd floor with this amazing and empty rotunda room.
We went back down the curved wooden staircase and took the elevator like I think we were supposed to and we ended up in the 2nd floor exhibits as we expected. lol
They had a lot of very large black and white drawings by local New Orleans artist Willie Birch
My favorite exhibit of the museum was a collection of photographs and exhibits by an artist named RaMell Ross, who is actually a black man from Rhode Island- who has spent the last 7 years immersing himself in the southern Alabama black experience. I learned he had a documentary nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy in 2018 about his experience in the South called Hale County This Morning, This Evening…I’m going to have to check that out soon.
After the Museum of Southern Art we debated on going to the Southern Food and Beverage museum… but we were sort of museum’d out for the day. The World War II museum was a LOT… so we just decided to do a drive-by of Lafayette Cemetery #2 out in the Garden District. We can’t actually enter any of the Lafayette Cemeteries. They have been closed by the archdiocese since Covid began… which makes me giggle a little. Are we going to give the dead people Covid? lol I’m sure it has to do with the fact that there is way less upkeep and damage to the old vaults without tourists parading through and ruining everything. Our impromptu tour guide(more on that next post! ha) told us someone walked off with a skull into Congo Square and he had to call the police. People are crazy. lol
We checked into our new hotel for the rest of the trip- the Kimpton Hotel Fontenot. We booked it using points… and free points are insanely better than paying ridiculous amounts of money for fancy hotels. ha In hindsight, we should have just booked here the whole time. The bed is more comfy, the room is cleaner and they actually changed the air filter in the room and I’m not stuffy the whole time. ha (I’m such a crotchety old lady, aren’t I?)
We just decided to hang out in the room for a couple hours until time to go to our dinner reservations and another escape room. We had to call maintenance because our tub was missing a stopper and the drain was really slow already… so he took 30 minutes to clean out the drain, then said the stopper was broken, thats why it was out… so he went back to find another stopper. Came back, couldn’t get that one to work, came back again and started chiseling at cement or something inside the drain pipe… hahaha… and eventually we heard a “ah! I got you…” hahaha and he had finally conquered the broken drain stopper. So now Norah can take a bath- the highlight of her hotel experiences because we haven’t had a bathtub now for 3 years… lol (ahem…Kegan…)
Our reservations tonight are at Commander’s Palace- a famous and formal restaurant in the Garden district that has been serving dinner since 1893. The Brennan family took over in the 1970s… and they hired a young pup from Massachusetts at 23 years old to run the kitchen in the 1980s… someone you may have heard of now…but was a nobody with no Creole or Cajun experience and very little restaurant experience- Emeril Lagasse. Ella Brennan basically groomed Emeril into a great chef and of course, his aptitude and dedication took him where he is today… but you do have to give props to the lady that made it all possible.
If you want to read more from Ella Brennan on Lagasse, you can click here for an article: https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/article/emeril-commanders-palace-ella-brennan
Dinner took a LONG time… we sat down at 6:40… and we had to ask them to hurry up the check at 8:30 because we had a 9 pm escape room reservation.
Overall, I see the allure. I have never had friendlier service and on-point food delivery, drinks full constantly. (They even swapped out our water glasses for fresh ice water glasses after they sat for a while…which made me laugh. It is still cold water. ha) They were super nice… I’m pretty sure the co-proprietor of the restaurant chain came around to our table to ask how the meal was. They require a collared shirt, closed toe shoes, no jeans, jacket recommended… so it definitely feels very nice. It was very good food- but it was overly salty…and just not as good as Shaya… or even Cochon if I’m being honest. Definitely a good meal, but for the cost, the exclusiveness, the legacy of the great chefs that have ran the kitchen there… I felt a bit let down.
We took a quick Uber back to Escape My Room for a 2nd room – The Mardi Gras Study. This time, Ms. Delaporte was trying to find a family heirloom she hid with a letter to her daughter to know she was safe to come home after we found the REAL murderer in the Jazz Parlor room.
We escaped this room in under 30 minutes. A record, according to our game master…so he brought in an “extra puzzle box for us to see if we could work out in the remaining 30 minutes.
We didn’t think we were going to make it, but we worked our way through all 4-5 of those locks and puzzles with 4 minutes remaining. Our game master “Laszlo” said the entire staff was sitting and watching us, shocked we were figuring it out that quickly. ha I think they just like Norah.
So after we are finished, we are talking to our British game master Laszlo and talking to him about Norah’s perfect pitch and music grasp (not to reveal anything specific-but one task in a room has you pressing a chord on the piano to unlock a secret hatch) and Norah just says “oh! no problem-i got it” and just glances at the sheet and strikes the chord. Where the rest of us have to actually follow all the instructions that are written around to try to get the right keys pressed together haha – he tells us she’s incredible… and then he asks her if she sees things when she hears music- (sort of like her piano teacher asked her if she sees colors when she plays notes)- apparently thats a very big thing among musicians- called synesthesia. Turns out he has that! He says he sees colors from voices, notes, music, etc… he says we should really look at getting her music theory lessons, he recommends a couple schools in the area that have great advanced studies programs.. we tell him we are just starting to explore where to live for the next 7 years or so, so we can hopefully find great opportunities for education for Norah. This starts a long discussion where he says “ok, since you guys are kind of our favorites around here… I’m gonna drop the act.” He loses his British accent, turns out he’s a local jazz musician from Ohio, via Lawrence, Indiana… he has tons of music connections, he knows teachers, instructors, professors… we connect on Facebook. We might be doing some remote music theory lessons with him as he has 3 music degrees and tours with Kool and the Gang and other bands. It’s strange the connections you can randomly make. He did message me the name of the top school in the suburban area I said I had looked at around New Orleans as a potential option…if we weren’t turned off to the city after a week here. At first glance…it looks really great. But looks really competitive… I’m not making any life decisions this week. ha Just putting it in my back pocket though. 🙂
Tomorrow we walk all through Treme, eat dinner at Antoine’s and have another escape room. Until next time!
We had a pretty chill morning, making coffee and opening presents in the hotel room. Our first event was the Christmas Brunch at the Roosevelt Hotel where we are staying. On our way down we stopped in the lobby for photos since it was much less busy this morning that it had been on Christmas Eve at 11pm. Ha
We were seated in a ballroom with a great Jazz band playing Christmas songs along the side and TONS of brunch stations and selections on a buffet. Some highlights- a crab imperial Benedict station, a raw bar with shrimp, oysters, mussels and ceviche shooters, meat carving stations with sirloin, turkey, ham, etc, waffles, hot breakfast items, salads, a cheese station and desserts. I wish I had 4 stomachs because I would have eaten everything, it was all great.
After brunch we hung out in the room again to digest the large amount of brunch we just ate and the 3 mimosas I had with it ha. Then we headed across the city to the convention center where we had timed entry tickets to the NOLA ChristmasFest. It was a bit of a trek for us… but we knew we only had to walk it once because we would be taking a Uber to dinner later and then back to the hotel.
A sculpture dedicated to Hurricane Katrina across from the convention center
The ChristmasFest setup was really cool. Very open, spread out, various carnival rides, vendors, some food and drink and some ice skating!
Norah chose to make a wax hand art sculpture to take home over getting her face painted.Ice Bocce was definitely the highlight of the day. Norah asked to play this about 6 times. A collective coloring wall. We of course had to add our name. Posing for photos on the Elf Walk at the #elfie station Norah even got the staff to take photos of her lolThey had a Dumbo ride “just like at Disney World!” According to Norah lolNorah decided she wanted to ride the spinning cups around by herself, so we stepped aside and let her go on by herself. Then two other little girls climbed in her car with her haha they had a good time together
After ChristmasFest, it was time to head to the dinner I think I was most looking forward to on the trip- Shaya out in the Garden District. We had watched an episode on New Orleans of Somebody Feed Phil and he was hanging out with Chef Shaya and he was discussing the love and care that he put into the pita bread at his restaurant and the hummus process- and man, have we both craved that pita bread ever since….so it is with great pleasure I can say- it 100% lived up to the hype and surpassed our expectations.
Norah was excited for the non-alcoholic drink list- she chose Matcha Lemonade We shared a bottle of Barbera wineThe fried chicken hummus. We were only going to order the Tahini hummus and the waiter suggested this instead as it’s their favorite dish. So glad we listened. The bread. Omg. The bread. It came to the table straight from the bread oven. Puffy and fantastic and they brought us 9 total pieces ha we took the last 3 home for breakfast the next morning. Ikfa- a whipped cream cheese dip that was fabulous with dill and shallot. Mixed picklesA mint and beet dip that was very fresh. The braised lamb shank with a tabouleh salad Kegan totally annoyed that I make him wait to eat everything while I photograph it first haha Norah with her requested chicken meal with pistachio rice and whipped feta.
After dinner, it was back in an Uber across the Garden District back downtown to the hotel. It was a very pretty drive along gorgeous houses. Not 100% certain we didn’t hear gunshots at one point at a stoplight. We’ll just say they were fireworks… Christmas fireworks…Ha
Today started by getting ready and putting on our Christmas Eve best to head down 1/2 a floor to the Teddy Bear Tea. The Roosevelt Hotel has been hosting this event for 30 years with appearances by Santa and Mrs. Claus, Rudolph and others. It was a super cute kid show… and the food was pretty good, as well as the waiter who kept our mimosas filled at all times. And I needed those mimosas. My only complaint was that they literally sat us at a table where the speaker for the whole ballroom was blasting 3 feet from my chair. It was terrible. I took one for the team and sat in the “direct” line of fire…and I couldn’t hardly hear anything Kegan said the entire time because they were blasting out a Christmas songs most of the event. It definitely felt like the worst seat in the house and if I booked it again, I’d be one of those people requesting a specific table- AWAY from the speaker. Ha
Photo evidence of my arch nemesis, the Christmas speaker as seen from my chair. My god. Lol They brought Norah the children’s plate, of course. She wasn’t thrilled because she had already picked out the crustless quiche as her choice (because we thought you had to order from the menu, not that they were bringing everything ha. BUT… she discovered an Uncrustable PB&J on her plate…and instantly, things were looking up 🙂 I gave her my mini quiche anyway. ha Towards the end the hotel manager and some other folks brought around big silver trays heaping with teddy bears and handed them out to the kids. It was cute. They had projected snow globes all around the room for photo ops
After tea and changing back into more comfortable walking shoes, we headed out the back entrance and towards Canal Street to start walking towards the water and the aquarium, which was our big destination for the day. Its hard to find things open on Christmas Eve obviously…so I was excited I found a couple things to squeeze in!
This church is right outside our hotel room window. Very cool architecture.This Walgreens we passed has to be the most vintage Walgreens sign in the world. I LOVED it. First glimpse of a New Orleans streetcar. This one running up and down Canal Street.
Canal Street is a major roadway downtown, named for a canal that was never dug. It has a big median in the middle- widely accepted as the widest street in America – that used to be known as “no man’s land”. It served as the dividing line between the French-speaking (and Spanish Speaking) city and the English speaking city.
We stopped by Spanish Plaza, a big open area on the waterfront, next to the aquarium, the Harrah’s giant casino and other riverfront high end shoppes. It was constructed in the 1970s as a reminder of Spanish heritage and has a plaque for each province of Spain.The Creole Queen steamboat was docked right there. It’s made to look and run like an old paddlewheel steamboat, but it just got its start in the 1980s as a tourist boat for dinners and sightseeing.
The Aquarium of the Americas was way bigger than I figured it would be… they had great exhibits, crystal clear tanks, exotic birds, an albino alligator…. it was fun!
The highlight of the day, for sure… for both Norah and I…petting stingrays! We sat there for a good 20-30 minutes petting the majestic sea flap-flaps. These guys looked like a real-life Flotsam and Jetsam plotting against Ariel from the Little Mermaid haRed Tail HawkA Great Barred OwlWe left the aquarium to begin wandering around town…stumbled on this statue… and from far away, I’m like “that looks like Churchill… let’s go see who that is…” sure enough- a random Winston Churchill statue. It was apparently donated in the 1970s by the Hilton hotel developers for the “British Square” – the developer was the honorary British consul for Louisiana at the time. We continued on to the Piazza D’Italia- a modern space created in the 1970s to honor Italian American contributions to the city… it had the same black and white alternating granite we saw on cathedrals in Italy… and hence, gave it a very Italian feel with the brick pavers and the columns on the edge and the fountains.
Next, we weren’t going to make it to dinner because apparently we didn’t have enough food with our mimosas for breakfast ha. We found a place on the map called St James Cheese Company that had cheese plates…and grilled cheeses (Norah’s choice) so we headed there to hang out for an hour or so
Everything was fantastic. Great meats, cheese, everything meshed really well. The Stilton Blue was the best I’d ever tasted. The fresh sheep cheese was great. The Raclette was funky… no complaints all around. Kegan wanted the Jamon Iberico, hoping it would bring back Spain vibes… he said it was good, but just wasn’t the same stuff he was getting there. The search continues 🙂
We continued wandering around quite a few blocks trying to waste time until our Escape My Room Jazz Parlor reservations at 4:30.
Statue of Henry Clay in Lafayette SquareBen Franklin in Lafayette SquareNorah being an art deco bird. St Patrick’s CathedralSome famous metal porch architecture that is famous in the French Quarter… but is actually a Spanish style. ha Very New Orleans either way.
We arrived to our Escape Game a little early. I had read that this was the #1 escape game in the city…and it did not disappoint.
We entered into the lobby and the game immediately started. An old timey intercom asked us our business and then “the great detective, Erin McKinney?? We’ve been awaiting your arrival. Please come in” and the small door popped open where Laszlo, our lead security detective for the prestigious Delaporte family told us about the travesty they were currently investigating. The matriarch’s daughter was on the run for the murder of her husband, which Laszlo KNEW she wasn’t capable of committing. We had been called in to assist in uncovering the real murderer. But not only the WHO… but also the WHY and the HOW. Finding the WHO was the most important… but if time allowed, finding the motive and how they killed him were bonus adventures.
Not to give away any details, because it really was a FANTASTIC Escape room… we were able to get all 3 items with 4 minutes to go. When we found our way out of the first room, the guide actually said “thats the quickest I’ve ever seen anyone find their way out of there” over the speaker and then again on the 2nd room “thats the quickest I’ve ever seen anyone put that together.” haha and…. as usual, he was absolutely floored with Norah. She figured out a lot of the clues. He was so shocked by her, he bought her a T-Shirt at the end as a souvenir. We will go back on Dec 26th for another room in the house- the Mardi Gras Study.
Next it was time to meander our way down to dinner, even though we were 30 minutes early. We had reservations at Luke- an old-timey flair’d fancy culinary spot on St Charles Street. I reserved this for the raw bar… I wanted some great oysters and it did not disappoint.
I ate 11 of these, only because Norah agreed to try one. She was not a fan. haha and Kegan doesn’t like them… so I got the entire plate! it was glorious. These were local gulf oysters- so for being from warm water-they were massive and fantastic.
They had a limited menu for Christmas Eve- but New Orleans has a tradition of Reveillon, a French based tradition of a long Christmas Eve meal that stretches into the morning. A lot of local restaurants have a Reveillon meal available for a few weeks at the end of the year. Since this was the ACTUAL Christmas Eve Reveillon date- it seemed fitting to order the Reveillon meal.
They brought Norah a Shirley Temple. She wasn’t a big fan, but she did eat the cherries out of the top.
Kegan ordered a Betty Hayes cocktail… I had a clove, angostura, rum cocktail called a StreetC.A.R.
1st course
2nd course- Turtle soup
Main course – Pork Belly with braised greens and lentils
I forgot to photo the dessert. Imagine that. ha
We walked back to the hotel and settled in for the night in our Christmas pajamas. Norah talked us into opening half of her gifts tonight and the other half in the morning. We agreed.
One of her top requests this Christmas was a game called What Do You Meme? and so I put that in her “early” pile, knowing full well we’d be playing it for the rest of the night… and we did. ha
We added a couple Christmas touches to the room.
We waited around until around 11pm so we could go down to the lobby can get some cute Christmas pajama photos of Norah before bed. The elevator opened to an absolute madhouse of people drinking in the lobby just packed in elbow to elbow and loud as can be. Norah saw the people, the noise…and just immediately hit the button back to our floor. LOL It was a big ole’ NOPE. hahaha
Seriously… what the heck were so many people doing downtown at a hotel at midnight on Christmas eve??? ha
So, we had to abandon hopes and dreams of cute backlit pajama pictures and just call it a night. 🙂 We’ll try again in the morning.
Tomorrow (Christmas) is Christmas Brunch and a ChristmasFest at the convention center followed by another dinner at a middle-eastern restaurant called Shaya that is open Christmas.
