Living Our Dream

Shreveport, LA Part I: Shreveport Riverfront

Shreveport, LA

We started our sightseeing in Shreveport with a drive downtown to see the area around the Shreveport riverfront. Shreveport, LA, which was originally named Shreve Town, was established in 1836 on the banks of the Red River. It was named for Captain Henry Shreve who was a riverboat captain and inventor who designed a special boat to clear log jams (called snags) from rivers to make the rivers navigable.

The Red River had a series of log jams 150 miles long called the Great Raft. The section of the jam around the area that was to become Shreve Town extended from 17 miles upstream to 8 miles downstream. Captain Shreve was asked by the Secretary of War to clear the Great Raft from the Red River in 1832. The Work was completed in 1838. There is a statue of Henry Shreve gazing out over the Red River in front of the Riverview Theater in downtown Shreveport.

In spite of the fact it was a weekday, and in spite of the fact it was the opening day of Mudbug Madness (more about that later), we found a free parking spot in a little gravel lot right along the river. We began walking upstream.

There is a nice riverfront park where they apparently have concerts and special events. The park had some interesting stainless steel roses along the water. The roses have colored lights in them that light up at night.

The next photo is a closeup detail of one of the roses.

The glass-domed building near the center of the photo below is the Barnwell Conservatory, which is located adjacent to the riverfront park.

Although we usually like anything that has to do with plants and flowers, the Barnwell Conservatory is fairly small, and it was much too nice a day to go inside to see flowers. We were content to walk around the small outdoor garden and then continue strolling along the river.

Behind the conservatory was a purple martin house. Purple martins, which are members of the swallow family, are very fast and agile, so we couldn't get a good photo of an individual bird because they were too busy flitting back and forth trying to keep their newly-hatched offspring fed.

Purple martins are considered to be highly beneficial because they eat a lot of insects. Unfortunately, the purple martin population in the U. S. declined with the release and spread of European starlings in the 20th century.

In front of the conservatory, Paul stopped to admire a pelican sculpture.

Back along the river, we saw the boat for the one-hour "Spirit of the Red" sightseeing cruise pass by.

There are also lots of casinos along the river. In the photo above of the Barnwell Conservatory, the tall buildings behind the conservatory are the Eldorado Casino (left) and Sam's Town.

Shreveport has a sister city right across the river called Bossier (pronounced BO-zher) City where we could see more casinos. On the Bossier City side of the river, the casinos are on riverboats on the water and the hotel part of the casino is a tower on land. The next photo shows the Horseshoe Hotel and Casino.

A little way downstream, the riverboat of the Boomtown Casino almost looks like it is steaming around the bend in the river.

Also right across the river in Bossier City is the Louisiana Boardwalk. After we walked along the river on the Shreveport side, we hopped in the car and drove across the bridge to the Louisiana Boardwalk on the Bossier City side.

The Louisiana Boardwalk is a large, outdoor mall that reminded us a lot of Branson Landing in Branson, MO.

There is a trolley that visitors can ride to save steps.

We went on our little excursion to the Shreveport/Bossier City riverfront a little later in the day because there is a Texas Roadhouse in Bossier City very close to the Louisiana Boardwalk. Participating Texas Roadhouse restaurants have 8 or 10 different earlybird specials for $7.99 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM Mondays through Thursdays. Our favorite is the 6-ounce sirloin steak. Since we're on our 2011 Zeller Foodie Tour, we figured we might as well take advantage of the special since we were going to be so close.

One of the fun things about Texas Roadhouse is the fact they have barrels on salted peanuts to munch on while you're waiting for your table, and they don't care if you throw the shells on the floor. Since we were there early, we didn't have to wait. Fortunately, they put buckets of the peanuts on the tables, too.

Dinners include two sides, rolls and cinnamon butter (yum!). We always get a salad for one of our sides. Margery likes the Caesar salad, and Paul likes the house salad with bleu cheese dressing. For our other side, Margery got a baked potato, and Paul got mashed. Margery could hardly wait for the photo. Her fork is poised in the background with her first bite ready to go.

As usual, the dinner was excellent. The steaks were juicy and full of flavor. A 6-ounce steak isn't huge, but with a few peanuts beforehand, a nice salad, rolls and butter, and potatoes, we got plenty to eat.

We mentioned Mudbug Madness earlier, and we promised more information. Mudbug is another term for crawfish (south) or crayfish (north). Mudbug Madness is Shreveport's annual crawfish festival that is held Thursday through Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The entertainment at the festival on Thursday and Friday runs from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, then there is a big gap in the schedule until evening. Because it was Thursday, and because we went to downtown Shreveport later in the day so we could go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, we missed the late morning/early afternoon entertainment for the day. Therefore, we decided to go back a little earlier the next day so we could see what Mudbug Madness was all about. Our next post will tell you what we found at Mudbug Madness.

Jeanerette Museum

Berwick, LA

Jeanerett is a small town along Bayou Teche about half way between New Iberia and Berwick where we were staying. Margery found the Jeanerette Museum when she was doing her research into things to do.

Jeanerette is called "Sugar City," and, in addition to local history, the Jeanerette Museum has a lot of information on growing sugarcane and processing it into sugar. We have been hearing so much about sugarcane at all the Louisiana plantations we have visited, we wanted to learn more.

Another reason we decided to go the Jeanerette Museum was so we would have a good excuse to drive along Bayou Teche. The drive is quite scenic with many old plantation homes that were built in the 1800s. The photo below shows just a few of the mansions we saw.

Since most of the homes are privately owned, it's hard to find out much information about them unless you talk to the locals. The house in the photo below, however, had a plaque on the pillar by the gate that said "Arlington 1861." When we later Googled the name, we found out the house was for sale for $995,000. 

Franklin is another town along Bayou Teche on the way to Jeanerette. Franklin, which was named for Benjamin Franklin, was founded in 1808. Franklin is very charming with its white lampposts running down the center of the main street. The lampposts, which date back to 1915, were restored in 2005.

The town of Jeanerette was named for John W. Jeanerette, who came to the area in the 1820s from South Carolina. He worked as a tutor for a planter's family, and he also opened a store and saloon. By the 1830s, he had saved enough money to buy a plantation. John Jeanerette also became the town's first postmaster.

When we got to Jeanerette, we had no problem finding the museum. The Jeanerette Museum is in a 100-year old cedar house on the banks of Bayou Teche in back of a small park right on the main road.

Inside the museum, we watched their excellent video on sugar. From the video, we learned more about how sugarcane is grown and processed. Although sugarcane does produce seeds, it is most commonly grown commercially using stem cuttings. Short sections of stalks containing at least one node are buried horizontally in a shallow trench. Sprouts appear from the nodes. The photo below shows a field of young sugarcane plants.

Although sugarcane is still harvested by hand in some locations, growers in the United States use mechanical harvesters that cut the stalks at the base, strip the leaves and chop the stalks into short lengths all in one operation.

After harvesting, the canes are taken to the sugar mill where they are washed, shredded into small pieces and crushed between rollers to extract the juice. Crushing machines used to be turned by hand or by animal power. Outside the museum, there is a mule-powered sugarcane crusher. The canes would have been fed into the slit in the side of the machine where rollers would have pressed out the juice into the iron kettle.

Bagasse is the byproduct left over after the sweet juice is extracted from the woody stalks. The bagasse is dried and used for fuel for the boilers that produce steam to power the sugar mill.

The juice is then mixed with lime and heated to drive off water. In the past, shallow, open kettles were used. We have seen those kettles everywhere we have gone in southern Louisiana. Modern methods use vacuum kettles to remove water more efficiently at lower temperatures to prevent scorching of the sugar.

After most of the water is driven off, the sugar begins to crystallize. Molasses, which is the thick syrup that is left, is removed from the sugar by centrifuges. The resulting raw sugar is then sent to a refinery for final purification and bleaching into white sugar. Incidentally, most of the brown sugar we buy in the grocery store is really white sugar that has had molasses added back.

On average, one ton of sugarcane yields 180 pounds of raw sugar, 7 gallons of molasses and 270 pounds of bagasse. The remainder of the weight is water, which is evaporated.

One room in the museum had a lot of wooden foundry patterns used to cast gears and other components for local sugar mills.

The foundry, which is located next door, donated the patterns that are no longer needed to the museum. The reason some of the patterns are no longer needed is because many of the local mills have closed due to hurricane damage and environmental pressures against the burning of bagasse for fuel. The foundry is shown in the next photo.

The room with the patterns also had a great piece of local folk art in the form of a alligator hand-carved from cypress.

In addition to sugar-related items, the museum also had lots of photos and items that speak to local history such as these Mardi Gras costumes...

...and these household and kitchen items.

There was also a whole room dedicated to local wildlife. We called it the "man cave." There were mounted specimens of fish on the walls, and there were examples of other wildlife like the armadillo, alligator, wood duck, bobcat and otter shown in the next photo. The canoe-like boat is a pirogue. The pirogue is a traditional Cajun fishing boat built from cypress. The flat bottom is suited to the shallow waters of the swamps and bayous.

One surprising thing we learned about at the museum was that there was a WW II prisoner-of-war camp just 2 miles west of Jeanerette. Most of the prisoners were captured in North Africa and were under the command of General Erwin Rommel, the "Desert Fox." The prisoners were employed on local farms and engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane.

While the museum isn't a major attraction, we did enjoy it, especially the video on sugar production. It is worth stopping if you are taking the scenic route along the bayou.

Another thing we found out about when we visited the museum was Le Jeune's Bakery, which is located a couple of blocks away. The museum had several photos and newspaper articles about the bakery, which has been owned and operated by 5 generations of the Le Jeune family dating back to 1884. All their products are made from scratch using recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation.

LeJeune's Bakery specializes in French bread that they bake three times a day. If you know when to go, you can get it hot out of the oven. But we were interested in their other specialty - ginger cakes. In addition to being able to buy at the bakery, several local grocery stores carry Le Jeune ginger cakes, and you can also order their products online.

Signs direct customers to the side door because they're too busy in the back baking to man the front counter. In the photo below, Paul is trying to decide how many ginger cakes to buy.

The ginger cakes are fairly large (probably 6 to 8 ounces each), and they're only $1.75. We bought two. We should have bought more because we started eating the first one right there in the parking lot. Yum! They were as good as the ones we remember getting at the King's Arms Tavern Bakery in Williamsburg - maybe better.

We again took the scenic route along the bayou back to the motor home as we munched on our ginger cake. We planned to relax for the last couple of days of our stay in Berwick before we headed out to our next destination.

New Iberia, LA Part II: Shadows on the Teche

Berwick, LA

After we visited the Conrad Rice Mill, we drove a few blocks to an antebellum mansion called Shadows on the Teche. The mansion is located on Bayou Teche (pronounced Tesh). Bayou is a Native American word meaning small river (usually slow flowing), and teche is an Native American word meaning snake. The name doesn't come from the fact the bayou has snakes in it, although it probably does, but from the way it twists and turns.

Bayou Teshe starts from a point west of Baton Rouge and winds its way south where it joins the Atchafalaya River at a point just west of where we were staying in Berwick. Bayou Tesh was once the main channel of the Mississippi River a few thousand years ago until silting caused the river to change its course.

Shadows on the Teche was built between 1831 and 1834 by wealthy sugar grower David Weeks. The Weeks' sugarcane plantation was on Grand Côte Island (now called Weeks Island), but the site of the plantation was considered too remote for the family. Therefore, Weeks bought a 158-acre tract of land on the banks of Bayou Teche in New Town, which is now known as New Iberia, where he built the home that became known as Shadows on the Teche. The house is built of brick in the Classical Revival style. It has 8 columns across the front.

As the house was being completed, David Weeks went on a trip to New England to find a cure for a recurring, unknown illness. He died while on that trip shortly after his wife Mary and their 6 children had moved into the new house.

After her husband's death, Mary was responsible for the daily management of both the family's sugar plantation and of the Shadows, and for raising her children. In 1841, Mary married a Louisiana lawyer by the name of John Moore. Although Mary kept her inherited properties legally separate, John frequently provided advice to her on business matters.

During the Civil War, Mary Weeks Moore was confined to the second floor of the Shadows while Union troops occupied the first floor and the grounds. Mary died in her sleep in 1863 in her second-floor bedroom. Out of respect for their former host, not only did they bury Mary on the property, but the Union troops did not burn the home when they left.

Tours at Shadows on the Teche are offered on the hour. We arrived after the hour, but the lady who was to be our guide graciously offered to take us on a tour anyway even though we were a little late and even though there were just the two of us.

The Shadows remained in the same family all the way until 1958 when it became part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This home became an extraordinary gem when it was discovered that the family never threw anything away. Consequently, original furniture, china, and even clothing and letters are all there. Unfortunately, we can't show you the inside because photography wasn't permitted, but the photo below shows some of numerous trunks and boxes that were found in the attic after the National Trust took possession.

The painting shown below of one of the daughters was hanging in a bedroom. Margery was particularly intrigued that the dress the little girl is wearing in the picture was found In the attic in perfect condition. The dress was displayed on the bed.

In 1919, William Weeks Hall, great-grandson of David and Mary Weeks, bought out his aunt's share of the house to become sole owner. William Hall restored the home in the 1920s and lived there until his death in 1958. It was William Weeks Hall who worked with the National Trust for Historic Preservation so the home could be bequeathed to them upon his death.

There is a beautiful view from the second-floor porch of Bayou Teche (the olive green patch toward the right) through the moss-draped live oaks.

Our tour guide offered to take our picture with the Spanish moss and the bayou in the background.

After our tour of the house, we strolled the grounds and headed down toward the bayou. As we looked back up the bank, a gnarled, old oak provided a nice frame for the view of the back of the house.

The bayou was running a little high, but there is no danger of flooding at this time.

Earlier, when our guide found out we wrote a travel blog, she asked us to spread the word that this area of Louisiana is not flooded and that they are open for business. Her request was echoed by so many business people that we ran across that depend on tourists. Not to minimize the plight of those who have been or will be flooded along the Mississippi River or in the Atchafalaya Basin; but the news media tends to sensationalize the news so much one might think the entire South is under water. We have been trying all week to take a Cajun swamp tour, but the tour needs at least 8 people to make the trip economically feasible. Every time they get several reservations, someone calls to cancel and they have to call off the trip.

After we finished up at Shadows on the Teche, we drove a few blocks to Duffy's Diner, which Margery found online while doing research. Since it was well after noon by the time we visited Conrad Rice Mill and Shadows on the Teche, and since it was about a 45-minute drive back to the motor home, we decided to go there for a late lunch. Duffy's got some pretty high reviews for their po' boys, their burgers, and their fried chicken.

Duffy's Diner has a 1950s look with Coca Cola memorabilia, a checkerboard floor, and pictures of Elvis and James Dean on the walls. Rock 'n' roll oldies played in the background.

We decided to try another po' boy - this time fried shrimp. They assured us we wouldn't be disappointed, and we weren't. In the next photo, Margery is saying, "Now, this is a po' boy."

This is more what we expected when we got burned when we splurged on the grilled shrimp po' boys at Mahoney's back in New Orleans. The po' boys at Duffy's were supposed to be 6 inches for a half, but they were closer to 8 inches long. The bread was much wider than at Mahoney's, and the shrimp were falling off the bread.

Like Mahoney's, these shrimp were fresh and delish. Unlike Mahoney's where half a po' boy was $15, the po' boys at Duffy's were $4.60 for a half and $7.95 for a whole. Since the price was so reasonable and since we didn't get enough to eat at Mahoney's, we ordered one and a half po' boys and a side of sweet potato fries to split. Boy, were we stuffed when we left!

Duffy's also specializes in old fashioned soda fountain favorites; and they had chocolate sodas, which are Margery's favorite. Unfortunately, we were way too full to even think about dessert, so we had to pass.

We have more Cajun Country sightseeing to report on, so look for our next post.

New Orleans, LA Part III: Botanical Gardens

New Orleans, LA

Last year when we visited New Orleans, we went to the City Park to see the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. To read last year's post about the Besthoff Sculpture Garden click here. Adjacent to the sculpture garden is the New Orleans Botanical Garden. We love to visit gardens; but unfortunately, we were there last year on a Monday, and the garden is closed on Mondays. Since we didn't have time to return on another day back then, we made the garden a priority this year.

The New Orleans Botanical Garden was a WPA project during the Great Depression. It originally opened as the New Orleans Rose Garden in 1936. The 12-acre garden, which is part of the 1,500-acre City Park, has over 2,000 varities of plants from all over the world. The entrance is shown in the photo below.

The next photo is a view from just inside the entrance toward the conservatory.

The first path we followed took us past a large southern magnolia tree. The white, waxy flowers are bigger than dinner plates.

We paused for another photo as we started down the path toward conservatory and the main part of the garden.

A vine-covered walkway provided welcome shade as we passed the tropical garden.

In the photo below, Paul stopped in another location to try a bench framed by a rustic trellis.

Behind the conservatory are rows of old brick cold frames. These structures were once covered by glass and were used to protect tender plants and seedlings in cool weather. They are now used for plant trials and to display plant collections.

There is also a fairly large train garden. The trains weren't running, but we enjoyed seeing the rustic-style buildings designed to look like some of the buildings in New Orleans.

One of the things we liked about the garden were some of the picturesque garden structures like the tea house in the Japanese garden.

The brick pavilion in the next photo reminded us of Williamsburg.

The garden was also dotted with numerous sculptures like the mythological water nymph in the water garden shown below.

Although there are undoubtedly even more flowers blooming a little earlier in spring, there were still plenty when we were there. The first composite photo shows several day lilies...

...and the next shows a variety of different flowers that include orchids, amaryllis and water lilies.

We really enjoyed our time at the garden, but Paul would liked to have seen more of the plants identified. Since he was a serious gardener back in our stick house he likes to know what everything is.

After leaving the garden, we headed to Mahoney's Po' Boy Shop. Po' boys are a hoagie or sub-style sandwich served on New Orleans French bread that is sliced lengthwise. Po' boys are traditionally made from seafood (oysters or shrimp, usually fried), but they can be made from anything - ham, beef, meatball or sausage. Mahoney's even has one made with chicken livers topped with Creole slaw that was a winner in the 2009 New Orleans Po-boy Preservation Festival.

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum that we visited the day before had some good information about how the po' boy got its name. There are several stories about the origins of the po' boy, but the one that is most popular and the the one supported by the Southern Food and Beverage Museum says the name is the result of a 4-month streetcar strike in New Orleans in 1929. Bennie and Clovis Martin were brothers who owned a restaurant. The Martin brothers were former conductors themselves, and they regularly gave free sandwiches to the strikers, whom they referred to as those "poor boys."  Southern dialect shortened the name to po' boys, and the name eventually came to refer to the sandwiches.

Mahoney's Po' Boy Shop is another Triple D restaurant. It's located in an old house on Magazine Street in the lower Garden District of New Orleans.

We kind of wanted to try a traditional seafood po' boy, but we have recently had quite a bit of fried seafood. So when we found out they had grilled shrimp, we decided to try that. The other thing that sounded good from the video of the Triple D program was the root beer-glazed ham. We ordered one of each in the 6-inch size to share.

Prices for po' boys at Mahoney's range from $7 to $9 for 6-inch to $11 to $14 for 12-inch. Prices do not include any sides. Six-inch shrimp po' boys (fried or grilled) were at market price, which was $15 when we were there. That's a lot of money for a small sandwich. We thought long and hard about it and decided to splurge when they told us the shrimp were caught less than 24 hours prior and had never been frozen. The shrimp po' boy was so expensive, we decided to skip the sides. After we cut the sandwiches in half, Paul couldn't decide whether to dig into the ham (left) or the shrimp first.

Both of the po' boys were excellent. Have we mentioned we like the good food in New Orleans? The saltiness of the ham was offset by the sweetness of the root beer, and the root beer added a unique flavor. The shrimp had a lot of shrimpy (not fishy) flavor with a hint of old bay seasoning, and the sandwich was topped with fried green tomatoes and house-made remoulade (a French version of tartar sauce, usually somewhat pink in Louisiana).

When we went on the shrimping trip in Biloxi we learned that much of the shrimp sold in grocery stores and restaurants is not only frozen, but it is farm raised and not wild. Fresh-caught wild shrimp is much more flavorful. The shrimp at Mahoney's was definitely fresh, wild shrimp

We liked the sandwiches; but we were disappointed at the portion size, especially for the shrimp. We knew a 6-inch po' boy wouldn't be that big, but the bread they use is a lot more slender than we envisioned. And as you can see in the photo above, they must have used the skinniest loaf of bread they could find for the shrimp po' boy. The ham was at least piled pretty high; but there were only 7 or 8 medium-size shrimp in the whole 6-inch shrimp po' boy. For the price they charged, we expected the shrimp to be overflowing and falling out of the sandwich.

Since the po' boys were a little on the small side, we weren't that full. It was only about 3:00 PM when we finished eating, and we knew we would be hungry later so we stopped for a quart of ice cream on the way back to the motor home. :-)

We had a few days to relax before we headed out to our next destination. During that time, we had yet more food adventures to report on for our next post.

New Orleans, LA Part II: The French Quarter, Beignets and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum

New Orleans, LA

After visiting Oak Alley, we were anxious to get into the French Quarter so we headed for the Algiers Ferry first thing the next morning. The Algiers Ferry runs back and forth between Algiers Point, which is on the side of the river where were staying, and Canal Street at the southwestern edge of the French Quarter in downtown New Orleans.

The ferry is free for passengers and only costs $1 for automobiles. However, parking in the city is expensive and sometimes hard to find, so we always leave the car at Algiers Point. The parking lot at Algiers Point is privately operated, so they can charge anything they want. Rates go up to at least $10 when there is a special event in the city, which is the case many weekends; but since it was a Tuesday, parking was only $5.

The crossing takes about 10 minutes, and the ferry runs about every half hour. We arrived a little before the ferry was about to depart to the city. Riding the ferry gave us another opportunity to get a good look at the Mississippi water level. The photo below is a view from the ferry just before we left the dock. The lower deck of the ferry is to the right with the railing around it, and the ferry dock is to the left. There should not be water behind the row of trees to the left of the photo. However, the levee beyond the trees still had several feet to go before the water reached the top. As we mentioned in our last post, the levees protect the city to several feet above flood stage.

The Army Corps of Engineers started opening spillways upstream of New Orleans to divert water to Lake Pontchartrain several days ago, so the water level in New Orleans is staying fairly constant. They are also considering opening spillways upstream of Baton Rouge, so no major flooding is expected in New Orleans.

The current was fairly swift, but commercial shipping in New Orleans remained unaffected. We saw numerous freighters and tankers passing by in just the few minutes while we were waiting for the ferry to depart.

When the ferry docked on the other side of the river at Canal Street, we headed toward the French Quarter along the Riverwalk. The Natchez is a stern-wheeler that does various sightseeing and dinner cruises on the Mississippi River, and it was just departing on a two-hour cruise.

One of the things we love about New Orleans is the charm of the old buildings in the French Quarter. The next photo shows the old Jackson Brewery. The brewery was originally chartered in 1890. It survived Prohibition by brewing near beer and other beverages like root beer. The brewery closed in 1974 and was later remodeled and converted into a shopping mall.

Jackson Brewery is located across from Jackson Square, which is named for Andrew Jackson who was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. At the back of Jackson Square stands St. Louis Cathedral. The first church on this site was built in 1719. The third church, which was built in 1789, was remodeled and expanded into the current cathedral.

The French Quarter is filled with two and three-story buildings with the well-known filigree ironwork balconies and porches. Horse-drawn wagons carry visitors on sightseeing tours.

Our first stop in the French Quarter was Café Du Monde for beignets (pronounced ben-YAY). Beignet means "fritter" in French.

Biegnets are deep fried French doughnuts that are covered in powdered sugar. Did we mention we like the good food in New Orleans? We learned from getting powdered sugar all over ourselves last year, and we wore light-colored clothing and took along some Handi-Wipes.

Café Du Monde is located at the edge of the French Market. The first section of the market contains permanent shops, and the remainder of the market is an open-air farmers market/flea market.

Following Hurricane Katrina, it took several years for vendors to begin to return to the open-air part of the Market. Last year, there were some empty stalls, but this year it looked like they were just about filled to capacity.

After we accomplished our first major goal of the day of having biegnets, and after we walked through the French Market, it was time to move on to our second major goal of visiting the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. The French Market is at the far northeastern end of the French Quarter, and the museum is located beyond the opposite end of the French Quarter all the way at the far end of Riverwalk Mall. The plan was to take the trolley because there was a stop right at the French Market and another stop right by the far end of Riverwalk Mall.

The fare on the New Orleans trolleys and buses is only $1.25 for adults and $.40 for seniors over 65. You can also buy unlimited all-day passes good on all the trolleys and buses for $5.

Unfortunately, we found out when we boarded that the line was closed for repairs past Canal Street, which was only about 2/3 of the way to the museum. By that time we had only walked about a mile, but it was hot and humid so we figured riding 2/3 of the way was better than nothing, so we hopped on.

We got off the trolley at Canal Street and walked the last half mile to the third floor of the far end of Riverwalk Mall to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. The museum details the history of foods, beverages and ingredients that are unique to the south and specifically to New Orleans. Since we like the good food in New Orleans (Did we mention that?), we wanted to learn more about it.

Sugar was (and still is) a major crop in this area. It was grown extensively at the plantations up and down the Mississippi River in Louisiana. In the photo below, Paul is standing by a centrifuge basket used in later sugar production to separate the molasses from the crystallized sugar.

Seafood is of major importance in the cooking of New Orleans. Margery watched part of a video about seafood.

The museum is fairly large, but we were a little disappointed because we felt their displays were a little sparse and a bit uninteresting. They had numerous plaques with excellent information about southern foods, but we were too hot and tired from all the walking we did and ended up just skimming most of the written information.

Regular admission to the museum is $10, but AAA members and seniors can get in for $5. We're glad we both got the discount, but we still question whether it was worth walking all that way to get there even at the reduced price.

Even though we didn't take time to read many of the plaques, a few things did catch our interest. One was the description of some of the problems early settlers had baking bread. Early settlers had to import flour. Flour didn't fare well on the long ocean voyage, and it frequently arrived moldy or rancid. Bakers experimented with mixing rice flour and wheat flour to stretch the wheat flour. A few unscrupulous bakers also tried to get away with mixing in a small percentage of rancid flour to stretch the good stuff. It was also difficult to get a nice, crisp crust on the bread because of all the humidity. With the Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans bakers finally had access to wheat from the Midwest, and the prospect for good bread improved.

Another interesting fact we picked up was about sugar. Sugar cane had been grown in the area around New Orleans since the time of the first settlement. However, we didn't realize sugar production didn't really take off until sugar growers began coming to Louisiana in the late 1700s and early 1800s to escape the slave revolt in Haiti. By 1853, Louisiana produced one quarter of the world's sugar.

There was also some interesting information about the origins of the sandwich called the po' boy, but we're going to save the po' boy for a future post.

After we left the museum, we again had to walk half a mile back to the ferry dock. We were really tired and hot by the time rode the ferry back across the river to Algiers Point and got to the car. We headed straight for the motor home to put our feet up. We need to recover quickly, because we have more to see and do.

New Orleans, LA Part I: Oak Alley Plantation

New Orleans, LA

It was another short drive of only about two hours from Biloxi to our next destination in New Orleans. It took us almost four years of full-timing to stop in New Orleans even though we passed close by every year when we left Florida on our way west. When we finally stopped last year, we wondered why we waited so long. We ended up really liking the good food, the laid-back attitude of the people, and the charm of the French Quarter. Did we mention we like the good food?

We stayed the same place this year as we did last - Bayou Segnette State Park. In fact, we had the same site we had last year.

As you can see from the view down the road in the next photo, it wasn't very crowded. There was a group of people around the other side of the loop most of the time we were there (those sites are closer to the bathhouse), but our side of the loop stayed relatively empty throughout our stay.

Bayou Segnette has 30/50-amp electric and water hookups only. They also have free Wi-fi. The roads, pads and patios are paved. Some sites, like ours, have wooden decks, too. The grassy sites are widely spaced.

Louisiana State Parks no longer accept America the Beautiful passes for half price camping (unless you're a resident of Louisiana or of one of the few other states that accepts the passes), so we had to pay full price of $24 a night. By the time they added a $6 transaction fee (charged by the Louisiana State Parks) and the $10 reservation fee (charged by the online reservation service), our total was $26 a night - a little high for no sewer hookups, but not bad for a nice campground near a big tourist city with 50-amp electric and free Wi-fi.

Like last year, they are still doing construction work on the levee beside the canal adjacent to the campground. Although there is no construction and it's nice and quiet on the weekends and at night, construction starts at 7:00 AM on weekdays, and you can hear the engines of the construction equipment humming and the backup beepers beeping. You can also frequently hear the thunk---thunk---thunk of the pile driver. It was a lot hotter this year in New Orleans, so we ran the air conditioner day and night for most of the time we were there. That pretty much covered up the construction noise.

This year, part of the road on the way to the campsites has been torn up and is now dirt/gravel, but at least it's relatively smooth. The road in the camping area is still paved so there's no dust around the sites.

We had a lot we wanted to do while we were in New Orleans, so we headed out the next morning to see Oak Alley Plantation. There are quite a few old plantations between Baton Rouge and New Orleans along the Mississippi River. We enjoyed our visit to two of them last year, so we decided to see another one this year. To read about last year's visits to Houmas House and Laura Plantation, click on the highlighted names.

Oak Alley Plantation gets its name from the long, double row of live oak trees lining the way from the entrance of the house to the Mississippi River. In the early 1700s, a settler built a small house on the site of the current mansion. It is he who planted two rows of well-spaced live oak trees. All but one of the trees are original which makes them about 300 years old. One was struck by lightening and had to be replaced.

Visitor parking and the entrance to the grounds are in the rear. The grounds of the plantation are well-groomed and attractive. The flowers in the photo below greeted us as soon as we had paid our admission fee and started down the walk toward the house.

There is another tree-lined walkway up to the back of the house, but the view is not as spectacular as the one in front.

The large kettles in the two photos above were used for sugar making. Sugar cane was a major crop for plantations along the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The stalks were crushed and pressed to extract the sweet juice, and the juice was then boiled in the large, iron kettles to thicken it. When the sugar crystallized, it was placed in barrels. Molasses, the syrupy byproduct of sugar making, is used to make rum.

The next photo shows the rear of the house. Costumed interpreters greeted us on the back porch and directed us around to the front where the house tours start.

As with many historic houses, photography is not permitted inside. One notable exception was Houmas House Plantation we visited last year. Not only was photography permitted, you were also allowed to sit on the furniture and play the antique piano if you knew how to play.

Our tour guide, who is shown in the next photo, told us about the history of Oak Alley.

Jaques Telesphore Roman was a the son of a prominent New Orleans family who made their money in sugar. Jacques was a Creole, which means he was of French descent, but was born in the New World.

In 1836, Jacques wanted to be a sugar grower like other members of his family, so he and his wife Celina purchased the land where Oak Alley is now located. Celina was reluctant to move out from the city, but Jacques promised to build her a grand house overlooking the river.

Jacques built the house in the Classical Revival style with 28 columns surrounding the house to match the 28 oak trees that stood in front. The porches are deep and totally surround the house to provide shade. The walls are solid brick 16 inches thick. Ceilings are high to allow the heat to rise, and there are central hallways on the first and second floors running the length of the house to allow breezes from the river to enter.

Jacques died in 1848. His widow was totally inexperienced in running the plantation as a business, so her son eventually took over. Unfortunately, pressures of the Civil War, the period of reconstruction that followed, and Celina's excessive spending forced the sale of the estate and most of the furnishings in 1866.

The property changed hands a couple of times, and Oak Alley flourished for a while. The owners who bought the plantation in 1905, however, didn't fare well. The plantation was boarded up and became a victim of the elements and the creatures that took up residence inside.

Finally, in 1917, Oak Alley was purchased by Jefferson Davis Hardin, Jr., who poured his fortune into Oak Alley in an attempt to restore it, but he ran out of funds before it was completed. Can you say, "money pit?"

In 1925, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Stewart became resident-owners of Oak Alley. They completed the restoration of the house and installed modern conveniences like electricity and indoor plumbing. The Stewarts, who are buried on the grounds, also set up the non-profit foundation that runs Oak Alley today.

The house is furnished with pieces true to the antebellum period, but very few items original to the house remain because most everything was sold after Jacques died.

When we finished the house tour, we took time to pause for a couple more photos at the front of the house.

Then we enjoyed more of the gardens around the house.

We're not sure what the next flower is, but it certainly was striking. It's possible it is a member of the iris family. It is only about 2 inches across.

On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, the "Colonel" talks about the Civil War behind the house. We listened from a distance for a short time; but even though there was shade available, it was too hot and humid for us to hang around very long.

Oak Alley also has guest cottages and a restaurant on the grounds.

Before the current 15 or 20-foot levee was built by the Army Corps of Engineers following a massive 1927 flood, there used to be a grand view of the Mississippi down the rows of oak trees from the second-floor porch. However, the close proximity of the river meant there was a threat of flooding, especially in the spring. Back in the day, the landowners were responsible for their own levees, and they were only about 5 feet high. The landowners needed to work together because your protection was no better than the weakest levee.

As we left Oak Alley, which is about 50 miles upstream from New Orleans, we parked across the road and walked up to the top of the levee to take a look at the Mississippi. We have been monitoring the reports of flooding up and down the river since before we got to Biloxi.

They are predicting record floods for many areas (we already canceled a stay in an RV park overlooking the Mississippi River across from Natchez, MS due to flooding, and we're hanging loose on another stop in southern Louisiana Cajun country), but New Orleans is well-protected by levees. Even though the river is predicted to crest a little above flood stage, the levees protect to several feet above flood stage. The water at Oak Alley was high, but there was still at least 6 or 8 feet to go before the water got to the top of the levee. The crest was only predicted to be another foot or two higher at the most, and the crest wasn't expected for almost another week.

Last year, we discovered the great New Orleans tradition of the muffuletta sandwich. Did we mention we liked the good food in New Orleans? We were hungry for a muffuletta, so we stopped at a restaurant called DiMartino's to pick one up on our way back to the motor home from Oak Alley.

The muffuletta is an Italian submarine-style sandwich with meats like ham, pepperoni and salami, and with provolone cheese. Rather than a hoagie bun, the muffuletta is made using round, Sicilian bread that is 9 or 10-inches in diameter. The sandwich is topped with chopped olive salad and drizzled with olive oil.

Last year, we got great muffulettas from Central Grocery located in the French Quarter. Central Grocery claims to be the inventors of the muffuletta back in the early 1900s. Our neighbors up the road at the campground, who were locals, told us about the excellent muffulettas at DiMartino's, which is only about a mile or so from Bayou Segnette State Park. DiMartino's has tables inside so you can eat in, or you can order your food to go like we did.

When we got back to the motor home, we couldn't wait to dig in. The photo makes it look like the muffulatta is on a hamburger bun, but it's 9 inches in diameter, and one sandwich was almost more than the two of us could eat.

Wow! Central Market may be the inventors of the muffuletta, but DiMartino's sure makes an excellent sandwich. We think we like them better than the ones from Central Market, and the best part is we don't even have to go downtown to get one. The bread was outstanding - a little softer than at Central Market, and we also like the fact DiMartino's serves their muffulettas warm. Did we mention we like the good food in New Orleans?

As we said earlier, we have a lot we want to do while we're in New Orleans, so we'll have more posts coming up.

New Orleans, LA, PART VIII: New Orleans School of Cooking

The New Orleans School of Cooking was something that came up in Margery's online research of things to do in New Orleans. We both enjoy watching cooking shows on the Food Network, and we both like to eat. Therefore, a demonstration of New Orleans Creole and Cajun cooking followed by samples seemed like a no-brainer.

In addition to group cooking demonstrations, the school has private demonstrations and hands-on cooking classes. We opted for the group demonstration. There is a different menu for each day of the week, and you can pick the day and menu that suit you best. We decided to go on Thursday, the last day of our stay, because we liked the menu of corn and crab bisque, shrimp creole, bread pudding and pralines. We always pronounced it pray-LEANS, but we quickly found out it's pronounced praw-LEANS in the South.

We arrived a little early for our 10:00 AM demonstration and had a little time to look around the school's gift shop. The photo below shows the outside of the school. That's Margery in blue waiting by the door.

Each demonstration seats over 60 people, so the shop soon got pretty crowded. If you're going to a demonstration, reservations are required, and make them early because your name will be called for seating in the order of when your reservations were made.

During the demonstration, iced tea, water and coffee are provided. Each guest also receives either a complimentary Abita beer or Abita root beer. Abita is a small brewery about 30 miles north of New Orleans. They brew about 90,000 barrels of various kinds of beer a year and about 5,000 barrels of root beer. We choose the root beer, which was excellent.

The chef, Kevin, was a hoot. His quick wit and humorous stories made the demonstration even more enjoyable. He started with a little history of New Orleans cooking, which is a blend of styles and flavors. Creole is city-style cooking, and Cajun is country. Both styles use of lots of spices and herbs which were introduced from the French colonies in the West Indies.

Although recipes for all the dishes were provided, Kevin said most cooks in New Orleans cook by taste. They also cook according to what they have available. For example, if you have shrimp, you make shrimp Creole. If you have chicken, you add chicken instead. If your short of cash, you put in fish, but you call still it shrimp Creole.

As another example of using what's available, traditional cooking uses onions, celery and carrots to add flavor to dishes. New Orleans doesn't have sandy soil, so they couldn't grow carrots. Instead, they use onions, celery and bell peppers. This combination is widely used in New Orleans cooking and is known as "the trinity."

Kevin started off with the bread pudding since it had to bake the longest. He used French bread, and added the other ingredients as he broke the bread into smaller and smaller pieces as he stirred. Then he poured the oatmeal-like mixture into pans and topped it with brown sugar for a nice crust.

After getting the bread pudding into the oven, it was on to the shrimp Creole. The first step in making shrimp Creole is to make a roux (pronounced rue). Roux is a mixture of flour and a fat or oil and is used as a thickening agent in soups and gravies. Combing the flour with fat prevents the flour from clumping as it would do if you added it to your soup directly. In French cooking, roux is made from butter, but you can use almost any oil (except olive oil - the flavor is too strong) or even lard. One part flour is added to one part fat or oil in a skillet. The mixture is cooked and stirred for at least a few minutes to remove the raw flour taste. Cooking longer will make a peanut butter-colored roux which is good for soups and gumbo, and cooking it to a chocolate color is good for adding rich flavor to meat gravy.

One great takeaway we got from Kevin was how to shorten the time it takes to make a roux by toasting the flour ahead of time in the oven. By baking flour 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours to a peanut butter-color or 3 hours for chocolate-color. The flour (without the fat) is spread in a thin layer on a cookie sheet or shallow pan in the oven and stirred every half hour. After you achieve the desired color, cool, sift, and store in the pantry. When you're ready to make the roux, melt the fat (or heat the oil), stir in equal amount of the browned flour and you have instant roux without further cooking. Then combine your soup or gravy with the roux and heat a few minutes until thickened.

Kevin sauteed a large quantity of "the trinity" in his roux to make the base of the shrimp Creole. Stock is then added (use what you have - either chicken or vegetable, but fish isn't recommended because the flavor may be too strong). Then add tomatoes (use what you have - fresh or canned chopped tomatoes or tomato sauce), spices (use what you have - Cajun spice, paprika, shrimp boiling spices or whatever).

As the demonstration progressed we could watch what was going on in the pots and on the counter by means of overhead mirrors.

Simmer the Creole mixture 45 minutes to an hour, then add pre-cooked shrimp (or chicken or fish) about 5 minutes before serving.

While the bread pudding was baking and the shrimp Creole was simmering, Kevin made the corn and crab bisque. Then he and his assistants began serving generous samples of all the dishes. Everything was yummy! Even Paul who isn't a big fan of bread pudding, thought this one was pretty good.

Finally, Kevin showed us how to make pralines. Pralines are essentially a candy made from sugar, butter, pecans and milk. We sampled some previously at a store in the French Quarter, but they couldn't even begin to compare to the ones Kevin made, especially since his were served warm.

The greatest thing Kevin demonstrated is how recipes can be flexible. Just like you can add shrimp, chicken or fish to the Creole, you can also add any number of things to the bread pudding. Kevin doesn't like the traditional raisins unless you simmer them a while in rum, brandy, or a flavored liqueur to plump them up a little before adding them. You can also make pina colada bread pudding by substituting pina colada mix for some of the milk, then adding coconut and crushed pineapple before baking. The possibilities are almost endless.

Afterward, Kevin chatted with the guests, answered more questions and posed for photos. As you can see, Kevin is a big dude.

The cooking demonstration was over around 1:00 PM, and although we weren't hungry after all those samples, we decided to walk up to the Central Market to get yet another muffuletta to take back to the motor home for dinner.

Apparently the street entertainers we saw the previous Friday weren't only there for the festival that was going on because we saw entertainers around Jackson Square on this day as well. There was this interesting musical combination of Sousaphone and clarinet.

The cooking school is only about two blocks from St. Louis Cathedral, and we walked past it on the way to the Central Market. The cathedral is open to visitors if there isn't a mass going on, so we went inside to take a look. We're used to more contemporary church services held in more modern buildings, but there is certainly something to be said about the dignity and majesty of a large church or cathedral like St. Louis.

After we picked up our muffuletta, we headed back to the ferry and back to the motor home. After spending a little time relaxing and doing a few things in preparation for our departure the next day, we sat down to enjoy our muffuletta. We had only gotten halves to share before, but this time we got a whole since it was for dinner. The things are almost a foot in diameter, and we almost finished it all.

We were both really surprised at how much we liked New Orleans. We liked the laid back attitude, the huge variety of things to do and see, the food and the people. Almost everyone we ran across seemed friendly and happy, even after all they have been through. New Orleans also reminds us a little of our old hometown of Pittsburgh. Unlike Pittsburgh, New Orleans has no hills, but the cities both share a river heritage. Both cities have a mix of old and new buildings in the downtown areas, and they both have ethnic neighborhoods. Even though we extended our stay a day, we feel like we still have a lot we want to see and do in New Orleans, so we'll definitely be back.

From New Orleans, we headed west. Look for our next post to see where we ended up.

 

New Orleans, LA, Part VII: More French Quarter

On our city tour, we passed a museum that was in the Old U. S. Mint at the far end of the French Quarter. After the tour, we decided to walk down to the museum to see what it was all about.

Incidentally, another good way to get around the city if you don't want to walk is by streetcar. New Orleans has three different lines that travel different areas. One travels up and down Canal Street, one travels from Canal Street along St. Charles Avenue to the Garden District and one travels along the riverfront from upstream of the French Quarter to the far end of the French Quarter where the old mint is located.

 

Fares are reasonable at $1.25 per ride, but you will have to pay each time you get off and back on. Transfers from one line to another or to a bus are $.25. You can also get an all-day pass good for unlimited rides and transfers for $5 or a three-day pass for $12.

We learned some interesting facts about the streetcars on our city tour. Streetcars have been a part of the transportation system in New Orleans since the 1800s. Except for a period following Hurricane Katrina, the St. Charles line is the only line that has been in continuous operation since the first use of streetcars in New Orleans. Most of the cars are of the type that were used in the 1920s and 1930s.

Since the type of streetcar used in New Orleans is no longer being manufactured, New Orleans now builds their own cars. They were already adept at replicating all the parts because of all the repairs they had made over the years. Although the newer cars look very similar to the originals from the 1920s and 1930s, the new ones are handicap accessible and some are air conditioned, a big plus with the hot, humid summers in New Orleans.

Rather than take the streetcar, we walked to the mint because we wanted to stop on the way at Cafe du Monde for more beignets. This time it was Paul who forgot and wore a dark shirt, but at least we had Handi-Wipes to get rid if the stickiness afterward. Look how much powdered sugar is on that thing!

The museum in the old mint is operated by the state of Louisiana. It has a display of silver coins and some of the old equipment from New Orleans and from other mints.

In the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson (hero of the battle of New Orleans) fought for the establishment of a mint in New Orleans to help finance western development.

The mint produced U. S. gold and silver coins until 1861 when Louisiana seceded from the Union. The state took over the mint to produce coins for the Confederacy, but the Confederacy ran out of gold and silver bullion within a few months.

After the Civil War, the mint finally resumed making U. S. coins in 1879. The New Orleans Mint permanently ceased operations in 1909.

In the photo below, Paul is checking out an old analytical balance that is very similar to the one that was in the lab at his first job out of college with Westinghouse. The balances are so accurate, there is a glass door to prevent drafts from changing the readings, and the weights have to be handled with tongs to prevent skin oils from adding to the weight.

The next photo shows a machine that was used to weigh the coin blanks. If a blank didn't meet the weight requirements, the machine ejected it.

After seeing the mint, we headed back to the Central Grocery for another muffulletta. On the way, we passed a statue of Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who led the French army against the English in the Hundred Years War back in the 1400s. Margery's family on her mother's side is related to Joan of Arc. Her mother was Swiss, and her maiden name was von Arx (the German version of the name).

Following our walk through the French Quarter, the visit to the mint, more beignets and another muffuletta, we headed back to the motor home. Tomorrow, we'll have something new, so stay tuned.

New Orleans, LA, Part I: The French Quarter

From Mobile, it was about a three hour drive to our next stop in New Orleans, LA. We drove by New Orleans without stopping our first three years of full-timing on our way west, so we decided it was finally time to pay a visit.

Our home base for our stay was Bayou Segnette State Park located in Westwego, which is a suburb just to the southwest of New Orleans. Bayou Segnette has 30/50 amp electric and water hookups only; but, surprisingly, they also have free Wi-Fi. The roads and pads are paved, and the sites are generously spaced. You can sometimes hear a little distant traffic noise and a few distant trains, but the campground was fairly quiet, even when it was full on the weekend.

The other good thing about Bayou Segnette is the Louisiana State Parks honor the America the Beautiful Senior Pass for half-price camping. That means this campground is a real bargain for only $9 a night (plus a little extra for the online reservation fee). The photo below shows or site at Bayou Segnette.

And the next photo is a view looking down the road past our site.

As we researched things to see and do in New Orleans, we were almost overwhelmed by the number of sights and potential activities. To complicate things, we arrived on Thursday afternoon, and the 27th Annual French Quarter Festival started Friday. The French Quarter Festival is one of many festivals that are held in New Orleans, the most famous of which is Mardi Gras. Although the French Quarter Festival has been going on for quite a while, we got the impression more festivals have been added recently to try to let visitors know that at least the tourist areas of New Orleans have recovered from Hurricane Katrina.

The French Quarter Festival consists of crafts, food and music, and is primarily located along the Riverwalk and in the French Market and Jackson Square areas of the French Quarter. The festival meant even more things to do, but it also meant more crowds. We decided to go over to the French Quarter right away on Friday while the festival was going on, but before it got even more crowded on Saturday or Sunday. We were anxious to get a flavor of the city, and the festival sounded like a good way to do it.

New Orleans was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Beinville. The French colony was ceded to Spain in 1763, but Spain returned it to the French in 1801. France sold the area around New Orleans to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

New Orleans expanded rapidly as a center for growing and processing sugarcane. Since the city sits near the mouth of the Mississippi River, it became a major port for both imports and exports. New Orleans was the largest and most wealthy city in the antebellum South.

As we learned when we visited Vicksburg a few days ago, New Orleans was captured by the Union in 1862. The fact that this capture was relatively early in the war spared New Orleans much of the destruction that was the fate of some other Southern cities.

We took the 10-minute ferry ride from Algiers Point on our side of the Mississippi over to the end of Canal Street on the downtown side of the river. The ferry carries pedestrians for free and cars for $1 each. We decided to park on the Algiers Point side ("special event" parking rate of $10 rather than the regular rate of $5) in order to avoid even higher parking rates on the New Orleans side of the river. It turned out that was an excellent choice with all the festival crowds, traffic, narrow one way streets and no left turns in the French Quarter.

The French Quarter runs along the river and is about half a mile wide and a mile long. It covers an area of about 78 square blocks and more or less coincides with the city originally founded by the French. Depending on how energetic you are, most of the French Quarter is within walking distance of the Canal Street Ferry dock.

We started out walking along the Riverwalk, which runs between the river and the French Quarter. There were numerous food booths and several large stages featuring jazz bands in this area of the festival. Then we cut over a block or two into the French Quarter itself and walked along Decatur Street to Jackson Square.

Jackson Square is named in honor of Andrew Jackson who successfully defended the city against the British in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. Actually, the battle took place a few weeks after the war, but neither side had gotten the news the war was over. A statue of Jackson is in the center of the square.

The square was filled with people, crafts, more food booths and another music stage. Behind the square is the beautiful St. Louis Cathedral.

We don't know if it was because of the festival, or if it is just the way it is in New Orleans on a sunny Friday, but there were a number of street entertainers like this guy pretending to be a robot...

...and this fellow making balloon animals for the kids.

We stopped at Cafe du Monde, which is well known for its beignets. Beignets are French doughnuts made from fried dough buried under a mountain of powdered sugar. Even though the lines were long, we had to try the beignets. There was indoor and outdoor seating, most people wanted an outside table on such a nice day.

We were afraid the table service would be slow because of the crowds, so we opted for the take out window.

The take out line turned out to be even slower than the table service because the three ladies in line in front of us were place holders for their field trip charges of 9 to 10 girls all making their purchases individually; but it was worth the wait. The beignets were delish, but messy. Our hands were sticky and we had powdered sugar all over our clothes by the time we were done. Lesson: If you know you're going to stop at Cafe du Monde for beignets, take along some packets of Handi-Wipes and wear light-colored clothing.

The French Market is located just past Cafe du Monde, and consists of shops, a farmers' market and a flea market. The farmers' market is just getting restarted after being closed down following Hurricane Katrina.

All through the French Market area were smaller stages with jazz bands playing. In front of most of the stages were couples, or even large groups of people, dancing to the music.

The next photo shows more dancers. To the left was what looked to be a bar mounted on some sort of trailer or float. Recorded music was blaring from speakers. The guys dressed in kilts would have a drink at the bar, then they would climb down from the float and dance with the ladies in the crowd. When they got hot and thirsty, they would go back to the bar for a while. The sign on the side of the bar read, "Free beer tomorrow." They looked like they planned to keep going well into the night.

The Beignets were good, but they were just enough to whet our appetites. There is a sandwich that New Orleans is known for called the muffuletta. Muffuletta is actually the name of the large, round, flat loaf of Sicilian bread that is used to make the sandwich, but the sandwich has taken over the name for itself. There are lots of places in New Orleans that serve the muffuletta, but it is generally accepted that the sandwich originated around 1906 at the Central Grocery, which is located on Decatur Street right across from the French Market. In addition to selling sandwiches, Central Grocery is also still a working grocery store...much like the stores in Pittsburgh's Strip District...not as in, well you know, 'strip,' but as in the strip of land beside the old railroad yards along the Allegheny River where fresh produce was shipped in. It is now the location of many ethnic grocery stores and restaurants.

Although there are counters and stools in the back of the store where you can eat your muffuletta, it was pretty crowded so we went across the street and found a bench.

A muffuletta sandwich consists of olive salad (chopped green olives and pickled cauliflower, celery and carrot) spread on the bread with capicola, salami, and several types of cheeses. The sandwiches are supposed to sit 24 hours to allow the flavors to blend, but we think the grocery was serving them as fast as they made them considering the line we had to wait in was 20 minutes long. By the way, the muffuletta with all the olive oil is another good use for Handi-Wipes.

With our bellies full, we were prepared to walk several more blocks to the infamous Bourbon Street. Along the way, we enjoyed the French Quarter architecture with the typical balconies and decorative ironwork.

When we finally got to Bourbon Street, we made a left and headed down Bourbon Street toward Canal Street and back toward the ferry. Bourbon Street is a popular place for carriage tours.

But Bourbon Street is also popular for drinking and for its girlie bars. Bourbon Street wasn't nearly as busy as we would expect it to be at night, but it was still buzzing with activity, even for early afternoon.

 

 

Recorded music blares from the bars during the day, while live bands entertain at night. Some of the bars, like the one in the photo below, have walk-up windows where you can buy drinks to go without even having to go inside.

When we got to Canal Street, we made a left and walked another 7 or 8 blocks to the ferry dock. We figured we walked a total of about 3 1/4 miles. Our legs were tired, but Margery's knees held up amazingly well.

On our way back to the motor home, we stopped at a multi-vendor seafood market that is about half a block east of the entrance to the state park.

The merchants sell a variety of seafood including talapia, catfish, live crabs, live crawfish and our favorite - shrimp. We came across this little 8-year old girl in one stall helping her mom weigh out shrimp for a customer. The rubber glove is almost as big as she is.

We got about 1 1/2 pounds of whole shrimp. These were the medium size. They had at least two sizes that were bigger.

Back at the motor home, it was Paul's job to remove the heads.

Margery removed the shells and de-veined the shrimp. She steamed them, chilled them, and we ate them cold with cocktail sauce. Yum! With the seafood market right up the road, we're gonna eat a lot of shrimp while we're here.

We have only scratched the surface of things to do, so look for our next post.