NOLA Last Day

Required experiences: sazerac, city tour, parasol dance, beads

Quote of the day:
Gary: "I can't see how we're going to eat anything when we get back home. The food at home is awful."
Then the bread pudding came. "Even the raisins are better here."
"How do they do that?"
"It's not fair."
Another late morning, but it worked out well because we were in Jackson Square just as the memorial service for a local artist let out. This was the "blue dog" artist George Rodrigue. The two museums flanking Jackson Square were adorned with enormous black bows. The first person out of the church was a lady with a parasol who did a mournful dance.
We saw the hearse, so we knew not to clap. Phew.
Speaking of death, we hopped off a Hop-on-hop-off bus when we got to St. Louis Cemetery 1, which was somehow even creepier than the other cemeteries. We stayed on the bus past all the other stops. The French Quarter is the place to be. Travel guides insist we step off the beaten path, but I say there's a reason that path is worn. I know this is an unsophisticated point of view but I stand by it. Would I want someone to come to St Louis and not see the Arch and the zoo? No. It's the best stuff.
We ate dinner at the Gumbo Shop, where Gary had a steak that almost brought him to tears and elicited the quote above. How sad we have to chew through the rest of our lives in Saint Louis. I had a shrimp creole pasta that was good but not worth relocating. I might move for the bread pudding.

We packed and settled in to watch a movie, but New Orleans still wanted to play, and sent a huge brass band around the corner. We sat on the balcony waiting for them to turn from Bourbon on to Saint Anne. Eventually Gary could take no more and we ran downstairs ... just in time to watch them turn the corner and pass right under our balcony. We chased them to a street off of Jackson Square. The band threw an unsolicited string of beads at me. YOU THINK YOU'LL LEAVE WITHOUT BEADS? New Orleans said, I KNOW YOU DIDN'T PUT ON YOUR BRA BEFORE YOU RAN OUTSIDE, THAT EARNS YOU BEADS.

Well, I thought, beads, I might as well go by the bar and drink out of a to-go cup on Bourbon street and embrace the cliche. My mistake was going for the trifecta: I thought I could wear my beads and drink a Sazerac in a to-go cup, but the bartender refused to go through the Sazerac ritual in anything but a glass.

O SORRY New Orleans said. YOU WANTED TO WATCH A BAND FROM YOUR BALCONY. HERE'S THE ENTIRE TULANE MARCHING BAND. AND HERE'S SOME CHEERLEADERS FOR GARY.

Gary has video. I'll see if I can post it when I get home.

After the marching band, the people on Bourbon tried to keep us awake all night, but ultimately they failed.

Comments

[Hattie]

It's astonishing that the town maintains its essence through all the changes. Can't say the same for San Francisco, my home town.

[Arlene]

It's great to know that New Orleans is still New Orleans, even after Katrina. And I'm glad you're having such a great time. But before you move there for the bread pudding, try New Orleans for a week in July. I know Saint Louis is humid, as is Philadelphia, but humidity in New Orleans is in a class by itself.

[TheQueen]

Hattie - Oh no! Last time I was in San Francisco was fifteen years ago, then once twenty years ago. How has it changed?
Arlene - Or the four people we talked to, three had come there to rebuild and had stayed. Only one native. The native had been born in St.Louis and adopted NOLA as his home. He agreed the humidity is worse there than even St. Louis.