Hit and Run New Orleans

I was in New Orleans with the family for a few days after Christmas and was able to get out and take a few photos. I didn’t do any research and for the most part had no idea where I was going. I’d been there once before for three days on business, but I was staying in a downtown business hotel and didn’t have a car, and I had business stuff to do, so all I was able to do was able to do tourist-wise was to walk around the French Quarter. So I already knew I hated Bourbon Street, but we went there anyway and had an enjoyable time walking around for a couple hours. It’s far more touristy now than it was back in 2001 when first I visited.

Since the family sleeps in, I was able to get out and do my usual thing in the mornings. The Tree of Life is a popular attraction, but I didn’t know anything about it and came in from the back way and just noticed it was a really cool looking tree. I struck up a conversation with a woman who was walking her dog and she told me the story of the tree. It turned out that she was from Indiana and knew Kurt Vonnegut when she was a child. Her father was a professor at Culver Military Academy up by Lake Michigan and the Vonnegut’s had a summer house there. One day her father was singing Opera while working on a ladder. Vonnegut walked by and stopped to listen. The two became friends and sang opera together when they’d see each other. The woman had fond memories. He was a nice man. And funny.

On the third day, I was fortunate to stumble into the Bywater district, or what I would call the art, and artsy, district. There are a lot of murals and many of the houses date back to the early 1800’s and are painted with vibrant colors.

One morning I was able to get out to the nearest wildlife refuge, hoping to see an Alligator. No such luck, and the actual swamp area was nothing I couldn’t see in southern Indiana, but there was enough along the way to really make me want to spend more time there and see the deep swamps.

As you would probably expect, we are the type of people who search out and compare beignet’s so of course we had to try this famous beignet place on Bourbon Street. We got the seat behind the speakers and were able to hear the musician talking between numbers. New Orleans is a place where a lot of musicians and artists can still manage to eke out a living. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get out and explore the late night Jazz scene, but I could see that there is one and that it’s fantastic. I’d love to get back there and explore that aspect of the city someday.

The skater is a painter named Nathan that sells his art in Jackson Square.

Stay tuned for Part 2, which will be color.

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