06 July 2017, Thursday

We were going stir-crazy at home and have three weeks left of summer before school starts, so we decided to take one last mini-vacation to New Orleans.  Through AirBnB we found a neat old Victorian-era house in the Lower Garden District big enough for 6 people, so we invited Isabella’s best friend, Cassandra, to come with us.  The floors creak and the rooms smell like old books.  I love it.

We didn’t do much today.  We arrived around 3:00 p.m., figured out where we were allowed to park, found a little grocery store to stock up for breakfasts and dinners, and then Adam, the three girls and I walked down to the French Quarter just to wander a bit.

The weather is hot and muggy with pop-up thunderstorms every once in a while.  (The “feels like” temperature is 110F, the actual temp is around 90F.)  After walking back from the grocery store, Holden wanted to take a shower and opted to stay home with Max instead.

Max doesn’t like crowds or noise, so downtown New Orleans isn’t his cup of tea.  It’s usually very crowded, there are noisy street performers and musicians, and many open-air restaurants wafting food smells into the air. It’s either festive or chaotic, depending on your disposition.  We took him once and he was clearly overwhelmed, so now we leave him in the apartment which he likes much better.

Below: view of our neighborhood through the front room window. You can see the moody weather … pretty blue sky on one side, ominous thunder clouds on the other.

View of our back yard.  It was crawling with hundreds (if not thousands) of baby lizards.  They were generally less than 1/2 inch long and cute.

The walk from our house to the French Quarter is 1.4 miles.  There are a lot of shops along the way so it makes for an interesting and fun journey.  Below: a seersucker suit: $700.

The girls giggling over naughty t-shirts in this store.

Being Thursday, most of the artists aren’t out at Jackson Square.  That’s more of a weekend thing. I’m hoping tomorrow afternoon, which is a Friday, will bring the artists out.

I was a little disappointed about the lack of art (although not surprised), but across the street Cafe du Monde was less crowded than we’ve ever seen it.  Usually there is a huge line you must wait in to get a table, but this time we were seated immediately.  Score!!

Cassandra’s first beignet.

Corner of Jackson Square across the street from Cafe du Monde.

We wandered around for another half hour, then took an Uber back to the house for wine time and a light dinner.  (Salad, brie and crackers, fruit.)

07 July 2017, Friday

Adam woke up before everyone else (as usual) and walked to Starbucks for his morning coffee.  Nothing else really opens before 10:00 a.m., so we waited around in the apartment and let the kids sleep in until 9:00 or so.  Then we all walked over to Jackson Square to check out the Friday morning action.

I like this photo (taken near our apartment) because to me it represents New Orleans; the juxtaposition of fancy sitting right next to shabby.

Hand-rolling cigars.

Festive decorations on the upper balcony.

Run-down building, but the occupant cares enough to decorate.

Below: The Magnolia Sugar & Spice Praline Kitchen & Hot Sauce Bar.  They have warning signs (“taste at your own risk!”) and let you try them all out.  I tried a couple made with ghost peppers (they actually weren’t too bad) but none of the kids were brave enough after they discovered that you are supposed to sign a waiver before you start tasting.  They just watched me to see if I was going to die.

My favorite was called Satan’s Rage.  It had a nice front flavor, and the heat wasn’t bad enough to obliterate your ability to taste the next bite.  Holden eventually tried that one, too.  We would have purchased a bottle except nobody wanted to carry it around all day.

We ate lunch at Cafe Pontalba, right on Jackson Square, and tried an appetizer of alligator — half of it blackened, the other half deep fried.  It was good, although it was nearly indistinguishable from chicken.  It is a healthy meat:  it has nearly twice as much protein as the same amount of beef; about 1/3rd the amount of total fat, very little cholesterol, very little saturated fat.  (I don’t know why we don’t have any pictures of it. I guess we were too busy eating and just forgot.)

In the afternoon, we headed to Barataria Preserve, about 30 minutes out of town. We wanted to see alligators or some other kind of wildlife. What we did do is go out into the swap and then get drenched by a downpour.  I saw one small alligator that quickly hid underneath the boardwalk (nobody else saw it) and we all saw some enormous grasshoppers.

It started out really neat — you could hear intense, rumbling thunder off in the distance.  It gave the swamp a great “swampy” atmosphere.

Then the rain came.  It was bone dry, then suddenly it was pouring.  It was as if Mother Nature had turned on a shower faucet.

I gave Holden my shawl, which he wore like an old woman.  He has never liked getting his head or face wet.  He handles it much better now than he did when he was a little boy, but he still grumbles quite a bit.  By the time we got back to the car, the rain had stopped.

Soaking wet, we drove back to the apartment.  Holden and I walked to the grocery store a few blocks away for dinner items.  By then it was wine/snack time.  We ate brie, crackers, ham, salad, popcorn, mac n’cheese, and fruit.  Our evening’s entertainment was a rerun of Happy Days and a couple game shows.

08 July 2017, Saturday

We started this morning with the Honey Island Swamp Tour of the nearby Old Pearl River and various bayous that branch off the river.

We’ve done this same tour in the past, but the kids always have a good time and it was a first for Cassandra to see wild alligators.

Every time we’ve done this tour, the swamp is different.  The first year, during late summer, the water was covered in a carpet of green plants.  We went once at Thanksgiving when the alligators were hibernating.  This time, the water level is 7 feet higher than normal due to copious amounts of extra rain, which changes the habits of the wildlife yet again.  Since it’s different every time you go out, it’s something we like to do each time we visit.  It’s fun to see the changes.

Holden and Josie waiting on the front porch to be called to our boat launch.

On the water:  here comes an alligator approaching the boat.  You can barely see him — he’s right under the spot where the tree branch originates. (It’s easier to see the wake he’s leaving behind.)

Now he’s much closer.

Pretty reflection of the trees in the water.

Wild hogs hiding in the tangle of tree roots.  It was a mama and three babies.  Black piglet swimming (middle of frame) and brown piglet peeking out from the roots.

The tour guide said yesterday there were four babies, and today they are all acting skittish and cautious.  He figured one of the babies got eaten by an alligator and it spooked the others.  They really wanted the treats (marshmallows) the tour guide was handing out, but they were scared to swim up to the side of the boat out in open water to get them.  They stayed in the protection of the tree root area.

Mama (right in the middle of the frame) keeping a close eye on her babies.

Little brown piglet hoping for one more marshmallow to be tossed where she could reach it.  The other brown piglet never worked up enough nerve to leave the safety of land.  The third baby was black, like the mother.  He was the bravest.

A sudden and rather violent downpour.  The extra water didn’t bother the alligators.

Fishing shacks/cabins lining the river.  Many are only accessible by boat and many of them don’t have electricity.

If the river level gets too high, your house gets wet.

Waiting for the your guide to get the waterproof tarps out to protect everyone’s legs and feet from getting drenched.

We returned to the city for lunch at Cafe Pantalba …

… and afterwards, on our walk to the next destination, ran into a parade.  When it got closer, we discovered it was a Celebration of Life. In proper New Orleans style, instead of a solemn funeral procession, there is a jazz brass band and people marching, dancing and singing to celebrate the life of someone recently passed.

In this case, the purple and turquoise ribbon is for suicide prevention and awareness.  Juston Hornsby was only 26.  When I learned that, it was hard not to cry.  The “parade” suddenly wasn’t fun anymore.  You could see tourists getting excited, “Ooh, a parade!” and then realize what it actually was and quickly stop taking photos and clapping along to the music.

Our afternoon activity was Clue Carré, a New Orleans “Escape Room.” We did one of these 3 years ago in Manchester, UK. You enter a room and have 60 minutes to solve various clues and puzzles to figure out how to escape the room with the correct combination on the door. Everyone had a blast doing this (no photos allowed inside).

It was really fun.  We did the Vampire Hunter Room:  (from Clue Carrè’s website) The vampire has traveled to his hiding place to hibernate and hide his family’s riches. He has been resting for quite some time. The power is out in his estate. You have exactly one hour before he wakes. You are the team of hunters tasked with navigating through the darkness and killing the vampire with a stake through the heart before he wakes.

In this room, you won by staking the vampire rather than escaping the room.  Their stats (at the time we played) are that 44% of people succeed in this room.  The record time was 25:28 … the average escape time is 55:59.  We managed to stake the vampire with 7 minutes to spare.  #killedit

Taking a break to celebrate our hard-earned success: fresh pralines on our way back to Jackson Square.  We headed back in that direction because I wanted one last chance to see if the art scene had improved.

It hadn’t. Not too many artists out today, either.  I wonder if they are all taking a break because it’s the weekend after the 4th of July celebrations.  They may have had an exceptionally busy last weekend that spilled over into the beginning of the week (July 4th was a Tuesday this year.)  I guess I’ll never know. A few people were out, but not many.

In the end, we came home with some great memories but no new paintings.  Maybe next time!