Gabi On The Go: May 2010

We left the hotel looking for a bacon n' eggs kind of breakfast.

This is what we found: Voodoo BBQ & Grill.

Food here tastes really good, but it isn't the healthiest.

We decided to walk to the Gardens District, starting from it's cemetery.

Since the city is above sea level, the graves here are above ground.
Otherwise they would be washed out.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 was established in 1833 by the city of Lafayette, an American city which was later incorporated into the current city of New Orleans.

According to the site graveaddiction.com Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 has been seen in many movies, including Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire.
The cemetery is also featured in many of Anne Rice's books.

After the cemetery, we walked around the Garden District.
It's a very fancy neighborhood, also know as the English area.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Garden District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Central City/Garden District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: St. Charles Avenue to the north, 1st Street to the east, Magazine Street to the south and Toledano Street to the west. The National Historic Landmark district extends a little further. The area was originally developed between 1832 to 1900. It may be one of the best preserved collection of historic southern mansions in the United States. The 19th century origins of the Garden District illustrate wealthy newcomers building opulent structures based upon the prosperity of New Orleans in that era.

We were given the information - from the Tourist Information Centre - that the movie the Curious Case of Benjamin Button was filmed here, at 2727 St. Charles Street. Of course we took pictures, but something felt not right. Sure enough, when we got home, we searched and found out that the address the lady gave us was wrong. Oh well... at least we were in the right neighborhood!

I love this sign...

The place is beautiful, but Mike was a bit disappointed because we didn't see too many gardens at the Garden District!

If you have millions of dollars, this is a good place to invest in real estate.

Although it feels like we are in a very fancy area somewhere else in the States, the beads hanging on the trees reminds you that this is the fun capital of the south.

Viva Mardi Gras!

To get there, you can either walk about 30 minutes from the French Quarter, or take the St. Charles trolley for $1,25. But walking around is recommended.

The trolley makes you travel in time, but fortunately without the segregation!
I love the big window wide opened.

Next visit: Louis Armstrong Park.

We actually couldn't go in the park because it's been closed since the Hurricane Katrina.
They are renovation the whole thing.
But we were happy to just walk around the area.

The park is just outside the French Quarter and it looks like it will be a great place to visit when its open again to the public.

The neighborhood around the park is also nice and we felt safe, although many people told us to be careful here. I guess it can be a rough area at night.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: The Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts is a theater located in Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was named after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was born in New Orleans. The theater reopened in January 2009 after being closed following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. It will serve as the longterm residence of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Orleans Ballet Association, New Orleans Opera Association, and Broadway Across America touring productions.

Back at the French Quarter...
I can't get tired of taking pictures of these houses!!!

Love the Samambaias everywhere!

Louisiana style disco!

EVENING

Paraphrasing "When the Saints Go Marching in", "when the sun refused to shine," we hit the bars looking for good music!

It's our last evening in jazz paradise.
We must enjoy it as much as possible!

We had dinner watching this band - that I don't know the name- playing old jazz.
I thought a lot of my dad watching western movies.
It touched me very much, and I am sure the public around, all 60 plus!

But the real fun started later at the Blues Club, on Bourbon Street.

These guys were awesome!
The real stuff!
Most of them have been living in New Orleans for a long time and have the blues in their veins.

They are all Italo-Americans.

They were definitely the most fun band we saw in New Orleans!

This is Johnny, a real character. He was born ans raised in New Orleans and has the southern accent mixed with the Italian one. Really sweet!
He talked a lot with us and told us amazing local stories, including stories about Sam Silver Dollar, a mafia boss who kicked Al Capone and his men out of the city, back in the days!

The best horns in New Orleans!

Forget about tables! The bar is still the best place to hang out.
See those cups there? They are Hurricanes, a very powerful and popular drink.
It was all liquors you can name, or at least it tastes like it.
A couple of those and you are calling for an evacuation plan!

Some romantic times too...

A special guest: Al "Carnival Time" Johnson.
He is famous in the city for his catchy song Carnival Time.

Click here to listen to Al "Carnival Time" Johnson's famous hit

Doesn't Mike look like a New Orleans native?

I had to post these two here.
They were the most fun and energetic couple we saw during this whole trip.
What an energy! Good for them!

You can tell this was taken by the end of the evening, after hurricanes.
The ladies are dancing New York, New York here.
Good thing I was wearing my Havaianas (flip flops).

It is not Mardi Gras, but it is carnival time in New Orleans!

Johnny telling Mike good stories...

What a evening!
Here is Mike at the airport, about 4 hours after we left the bar.
I guess we said goodbye to New Orleans with style as well. :)
Maybe we just should say see y'all later!

Second day in New Orleans... and my birthday! We started with a walk in the French Quarter again, looking for a place to have a nice breakfast. Our first option was the restaurant "The Two Sisters Court", but it was fully booked until 2:30pm.

So, we went to "Cafe Amelie," considered one of the best in the city, and "the one that locals would go," according to yesterday's tour guide Ken.

We still had to wait for half a hour for the next available table, but the place was so beautiful that we didn't mind to just hang out outside, in the garden.

And the food was great, indeed! I had cat fish sandwich and mike enjoyed an Italian meat one.

But the best was definitely the dessert!!!

A melting chocolate cake with home made vanilla ice cream on top.

The meal cost around $30.

Next stop was at the French Market, a flea market selling pretty much everything you can find in the souvenir stores in the city.

Music is everywhere in the market.

A very fun place, specially today, a very hot Sunday.

If you want to get into the southern mood, you better get a hat!

Mike and I showing off our new hats.

His was on sale for $12, and mine was $27.

Don't we look cool?

Outside of the French Market, dozens of people were just hanging out, listening to some jazz music.

Isn't it like this anywhere else in New Orleans, though?

But it is still good to tell you about it! :)

Night time! Party time! More fun time!

We walked back to Frenchman Street - our favourite for night life- and tried to eat at a gourmet pizza place. While we were waiting to be seated, I asked a costumer about the food. He was very honest and said the food was not so good. Well, we ended up talking to this group of friends for another half an hour and decided to take their advice and change restaurants. That's how we ended up on "Marigny," an excellent Italian/New Orleans food place.

This was the best food I've had so far here: bbq shrimp, with green collards and grits. Grits a very popular southern food, hard to explain exactly what is made of, but from what I understood, it is like a porridge, with a totally different taste. I loved it!

Mike had a equally great pasta with Italian sausage.

And we both share a peanut butter pie for desert.

A bit too sweet for my taste. All this food with wine cost us less than $50.

Pretty good for a great restaurant in a fancy area in New Orleans, isn't it?

With our tummies full, we hit the bars looking for good music now. And it wasn't too hard to find. Just down the street, we had about 10 different options for quality live music.

We chose this band - that I am not sure about the name - playing jazz and funk music.

I think because New Orleans is the centre for great jazz music, it is really hard to find bad musicians. Every bar you go to, the quality of music is unbelievable.

From there, on the way back to the hotel, we ended up at the Lafitte's - the oldest continuously running bar in the U.S. where we were drawn in by this beautiful piano sound.