April 8, 2019 Glorious Sunshine, Incredible Food, Streetcars and Cemeteries - Our Wonderful Day in New Orleans

Since it is still winter back home, we'd be happy to be anywhere warm. But we are thrilled to be in one of our favorite cities...The Big Easy...Nawlins...The Crescent City...NOLA...whatever you call it we love New Orleans. Christy is sitting on the front porch of our home in Bywater for the next week.

This is an artist neighborhood that is quickly being gentrified. I hope the people that make this neighborhood so unique remain here forever. Our country has way too many sanitized neighborhoods for people with money. If there is a God, decals like this will be on the back side of street signs here forever.

This is the Country Club restaurant. It is a few doors down the street from where we are staying. There is a pool side bar here with a hot tub. I read online that the pool used to be clothing optional. Gentrification must be a French word for removing the soul of a neighborhood.

We are walking a couple of blocks to eat breakfast and I turn it into a 30 minute trip...

....because I am taking pictures.

This is Elizabeth's and if you visit New Orleans, you should eat here.

Back at the house before heading out for the day. The original part of this house was built in 1858. I love old houses and this neighborhood has a lot of them.

We head out with no definite plans or destination. We call it wandering aimlessly. 

Walking along Chartres Street.

Dr. Bob's art is found all over this city...

...and it is created here. Let's take a look around.

We had a wonderful conversation with Cricket. She works here and was a joy to talk to about this neighborhood and the art work here. She also said it was okay to take pictures.

This is a warehouse on Chartres Street. There is no sign that a business is still operating here.

But these beautiful glass pieces of art are incredible.

Crossing Elysian Fields Avenue on our way to Frenchmen Street.

Such a colorful city.

Relaxing on the Canal streetcar near the French Market.

After walking around the French quarter we stopped in Jackson Square...

....and the St. Louis Cathedral. We walked toward Canal Street to find a place to eat lunch but didn't settle on anything. So we took the Canal Streetcar to Mid City and had lunch at the Parkway Bakery & Tavern.

This place is famous for their Po'Boys for over 100 years.

Someone started making Dixie Beer again in 2017.

I had a very tasty oyster po'boy (only available on Mondays & Wednesdays) with a Barq's Root beer...doing my best to seem like a local.

Back to the Canal Streetcar to "The Cemeteries" which are at the end of the line for the 47 Line of the Canal Streetcar.

The Greenwood Cemetery.

I love spending time in cemeteries. They have so many stories to tell and are so peaceful and relaxing. New Orleans has the coolest cemeteries because you can't be buried underground here due to being below sea level and a very high water table. These unique graveyards are a photographer's dream. We spent a couple of hours in two of the five cemeteries here. I hope you enjoy "walking with us" through these photographs.

I guess you can be buried underground if you really want it bad enough.

A great song about graveyards by Will T. Massey

A Summertime Graveyard

by Will T. Massey

"In the summertime the graveyard

Is the coolest place to be

I know the names on every stone

By the widest wide oak tree"

"Mr. Ferguson's lady

She left town with April in the air

The last of her roses have blown away now

And the weeds look lonely there"

"Mr. and Mrs. Martinez

They have crosses side by side

In the shadow of the Smith monument

Pink granite, tall and wide"

"Thompson is the youngest here

Last autumn brought her name

And beneath it reads the passage

"The seasons pass, the love remains"

"Time will take the golden leaves

Before the fall is through

I'd love to make some memories with you"

"I fell asleep out here last Saturday

I woke up with the sun going down

I climbed up in the wide oak

And looked out at the lights of town"

"And the hospital windows

Were the color of a harvest moon

As the darkness closed around them

I watched the delivery room"

"And I pictured some young Romeo

As a nurse stood in the frame

She held a newborn baby

And I wondered about his name"

"And I wondered when the seasons

Would carve his name in stone

And I wondered if he'd spend

His summertimes alone"

I thought this was funny...nothing wrong with some graveyard humor.

The Odd Fellows Rest sounds like a place for me.

We crossed City Park Avenue to check out the Cypress Grove cemetery.

"Time will take the golden leaves

Before the fall is through

I'd love to make some memories with you"

"I guess my favorite conversations

Are with those who are asleep

They take me in their dreams

And I listen to them weep"

I loved all the colors here and one of these people share a name with my mom.

A fellow Sicilian who was a fireman and died at 35 years old in 1865. I wondered why he came to America and decided on New Orleans, if he died battling a fire or fighting in the Civil War or passed away due to natural causes. Cemeteries are a great way to spend a day with loved ones and strangers.

"And when the morning is a painter

With a lighter shade of blue

They turn their eyes to me

And then they fade from view"

Family history on this tombstone.

Tragedy on this one.

There were several impressive monuments in this cemetery.

I am pretty sure I saw this Voodoo Queen rise out of one of these monuments and start sticking pins into a doll that looked a lot like me.

Some of the monuments do not fair as well over time. 

"Time will take the golden leaves

Before the fall is through

I'd love to make some memories with you" 

- A Summertime Graveyard by Will T. Massey

We ended our time here pausing for a moment at a monument for firemen. A beautiful day spent with interesting strangers makes for a wonderful time. 

We took the Canal Streetcar to the Rampart/St. Claude Streetcar. 

Then we walked back to the Bywater neighborhood. We stopped at the New Orleans Food Co-Op and the Mardi Gras Food Zone to pick up some groceries along the way. I also found time to take pictures.

After dropping off the groceries, we headed to d.b.a. on Frenchmen Street to see John Boutte.

Somewhere between Bywater and Frenchmen Street. I forgot which street we took.

After seeing a simply amazing performance by John Boutte and his incredible band, we walked to Coop's Place for a fantastic late night dinner and drinks. The  Cajun fried chicken is the best fried chicken I've ever had. Of course my first blog post in New Orleans ends with food.