N’awlins

Three weekends ago, I was in New Orleans for Jazz Fest.  My step-sister lives in the Big Easy and Jazz Fest seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit.

I flew via Dallas, and as we were getting close to DFW, this was the view out the window.  What is this?  I don’t know how to find out what they are, other than to ask here.  I tried looking at the satellite view of Google Maps, but couldn’t find this area.

On Saturday, we ventured around the city.  We had a yummy breakfast of grits, biscuits, and poached eggs at Surrey’s.  Then, we made a stop at Lafayette Cemetary Number 2, which is an old, old cemetery.  New Orleans, being under sea level, buries its dead in above-ground family tombs.  The cemetery was closed by the time we had finished breakfast, but we peeked in and listened to someone giving a tour of the area. 

Some fascinating things: When someone dies, they go into a shelf in the tomb for a year and a day.  If someone else in the family dies during that year, they go into a wall tomb, which are tombs along the perimeter of the cemetery. After the year and a day, the body is raked to the back of the tomb (it’s so toasty in the tombs that they decompose very quickly) and another body can go in. 

I loved the last name on this tomb.  A very New Orleans name.

I would love to be in town for All Saints Day, when everyone comes out, spruces up the tombs, and seems to throw parties at the cemeteries.

Here are some beads on the phone wires.  Mardi Gras must be crazy.

After the tombs, we hung out before heading to the French Quarter.  We tried to catch the St. Charles Streetcar, but one never came going our direction.  So we just walked the neutral zone.

Here I am enjoying a beignet at Cafe Du Monde.  New Orleans is a perfect place for people watching and fried food.

We cruised around the French Quarter.  Thankfully, my step-sister knows that I probably couldn’t handle this place in the dark, so I was happy to be there at 7 pm.  It was still fairly wild.  Lots of skin and alcohol. And odd street performers.  Like this guy.

       Sunday meant Jazz Fest! Juliet and I were so ridiculously excited. The food, the music…the food.  We were in for a good time.

My first snoball.  This was a nectar syrup snoball with condensed milk.  It might have been the tastiest ice-based food I’ve ever tasted.  I’m craving one right now.

This is Melissa taking a picture of her crawfish bread (basically bread stuffed with cheese, crawfish, and spices).  Juliet can’t contain herself!

Here’s one of the brass bands second lining through the festival grounds after their performance. I love the parasols and the general good nature of everything about this. 

  

Me with my namesake.  I love this town!

 

Here’s my dream house.  I love everything about it.  I might do something different with the shrubs, but it even has a bike in front! 

I left New Orleans on Sunday night to a gorgeous sunset over the Mississippi.  This was back when the oil leak had just happened, but no one knew about it (at least no one was talking about it in NO). 

Strangely enough, no one is really talking about it now, either.  I think we’re all overwhelmed with bad news and disasters these days.