After our work was finished, we picked up lunch to take back to our air bnb so that we could get changed and ready to spend the rest of the day in New Orleans. It was a beautiful day! We rode the cable car into the city and walked to the French Quarter. There were lots of art gallery stores and stores that sold chandeliers. The distinctive feature of the architecture in the French Quarter are the iron railings.
This street band was actually really good. We listened for a few minutes and watched other interesting people in the crowd. There was no shortage of interesting people to watch!
While Laurie held our place in line at Preservation Hall, Dan took Jeremy and I to see St. Louis Cathedral. As we were walking away from Laurie and Preservation Hall, a guy walking past Dan said, "Nice shoes, big guy!" Totally random but made us laugh.
The street in front of the Cathedral is filled with palm readers and fortune tellers and artists of various kinds. Walking between the church and the vendors the contrast was so stark.
We walked around the block to a lookout point. The church on one side and the Mississippi River on the other.
While we were there looking at the church a guy approached Dan saying, "I bet I can tell you where you got those shoes." Dan let him guess... He said, "On the bottom of your feet." The guy kept talking and next thing we knew he had squirted some shoe cleaner on Dan's tennis shoes and was shining them. Mesh top tennis shoes aren't exactly meant for liquid shoe cleaner, but the guy was tenacious. lol. He shined those shoes. I was standing there laughing but knowing this guy was going to expect some money. Dan handed him a dollar--which didn't go over well. The guy wanted $10! lol. At which point I remembered Dan lived in Kenya and knows how to barter. Dan gave him a $5 and the guy asked for the $1 for a tip! Dan did not give him the dollar. We had a good laugh and started wondering how in the world Dan's shoes attracted the attention of two people in less than an hour.
It was time to head back to Preservation Hall for the 5:00 show. The gray green building in the picture below is Preservation Hall--home of New Orleans jazz music.
The inside is as unassuming as the outside. It's a very small, very informal room with very limited seating. We sat on cushions on the floor. There was one row of people on cushions in front of us and the musicians were within arm's length from them.
There was trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bass, drums and piano. All of the musicians in the group we saw were older. 4 were black and 2 were white. All had a long resume of musical accomplishments. We enjoyed every minute of the show; however, we were also glad the show was only 45 minutes as we were sitting cross legged on the floor with no wiggle room! The music was amazing, authentic, and informal.
And since we were half a block from Bourbon St. I'll throw my thoughts on the city in here. We did not walk on Bourbon St. Just seeing down it was enough. From where we were the street was blocked off so that cars could not enter and the revelry didn't spill too easily into other streets. Laurie saw some colorful things that we missed while she was waiting. We watched parents push strollers with young children into Bourbon St and wondered what they were thinking. In conversation over supper, we talked about sex trafficking and wondered how many victims are on that street. We talked about the sense of hopelessness that we felt pervaded the city.
I had seafood gumbo for supper and then we set off for the highly acclaimed Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee. (I stole this picture off of instagram since I didn't take one!) It's an outside cafe. All they serve are beignets, coffee, and hot chocolate. The floor is covered with powered sugar! Jeremy said they taste like a funnel cake. Laurie and I think they are a lot like a mandazi that they make in Kenya. Either way they were yummy!
We took the cable car home. It was pretty empty, but there was one guy who was more than willing to talk smack with Dan about the Eagles vs. Saints playoff game that was just days away. Basically the guy was the only one talking. Dan didn't say anything--only admitted he was an Eagles fan. We all felt a little better when another local admitted to being an Eagles fan because he loved Randall Cunningham when he was a kid before the Saints were in New Orleans. It was local flavor and insight into the racial culture. It was fascinating and entertaining to observe.
I think all 4 of us fell asleep quickly in our very squeaky beds that night!
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