Day Two - Louis Armstrong - What a wonderful world

After a long day's travelling yesterday I was able to overcome any traces of jet lag and sleep solidly through the night.  In fact the sleep I was enjoying was of such high quality I was more than a little annoyed when Emma selfishly rang my room to say that she and mum were ready for breakfast at 8:30 (IN THE MORNING.)  I am now writing this blog whilst they enjoy an afternoon nap, necessary because they got up so early.

We started the day with a walk to New Orleans' famous French quarter for breakfast, I was rather annoyed because the cafe that Emma had chosen was not Denny's.  In her defence there is not a Denny's anywhere near our hotel.  On the other hand I was quite prepared to drive to one.  For as long as it took.  All that said it was a pretty good breakfast, offering almost Denny's quality for only four times the cost.

A breakfast menu - yesterday

As we finished our meal the weather took something of a turn for the worse, given we were in the French quarter the word 'deluge' seems appropriate.  In addition to torrential rainfall lightning hit the building opposite causing a roof tile to narrowly miss a lucky / unlucky pedestrian.  The weather dictated we needed an indoor plan for the morning.

As soon as things had eased off to a mere downpour (weather description copyright my dad on every family camping holiday ever) we took an Uber to 'Mardi Gras World.'  Mardi Gras is an annual series of parades in New Orleans which the locals take rather seriously.  The parades and celebrations lead up to Shrove Tuesday where instead of pancakes they have a parade.  Mardi Gras World is a museum owned by a company that manufacture and store carnival floats for various organisations, it was quite an amazing set up including a massive CNC machine that could make useful items such as a life size polystyrene dinosaur.

Some friends of mine once planned to attend Mardi Gras as a way to celebrate a successful cocaine smuggling run, they got into all kinds of scrapes on the way including sharing a prison cell with Jack Nicholson.  Sadly they didn't make it after being shot at by red-necks.  I think it was my friends or a film I saw, I forget.

some carnival floats

some papier mache heads

Carnival float figures are mainly made by cutting a styrofoam base then covering it with papier mache prior to painting and varnishing.  I now know a lot more about this process than I did when I woke up this morning.  In particular I know a lot about papier mache process thanks to a lady who was part of our tour group who asked the poor guide the same question about 370 times during the one hour tour.  Utterly cretinous.

Following Mardi Gras world we returned to the hotel in time for mum and I to enjoy some lunch wine.  During the wine break I read an interesting article in the New York times about Axminster carpets and Wetherspoons, I was heartened to see even the NYT journalist used the abbreviated 'Spoons.

lunch wine with mother

Following this well earned rest Emma suggested we visit the Lafayette cemetery and the city's garden district, famous for its well preserved plantation style homes.   As a reward for this the weather changed and the rain abated to merely a drizzle.  As New Orleans is located below sea level it is not possible to bury the dead in the conventional way, this means the grave sites are based on above ground storage.  This makes them much more interesting than normal graveyards with far more places for zombies and draculas to hide.

a cemetery

As advertised the garden district did contain some amazing houses, famous residents include Sandra Bullock (actress), the quarterback from the New Orleans saints (quarterback) and John Goodman (actor.)   In the hierarchy of New Orleans based celebrity house sizes John Goodman wins, confirming my suspicion that King Ralph is a better film than Speed.

me outside King Ralph's house

Following the previously mentioned nap we headed back to the French quarter for dinner then to Frenchie street to take in some live music.  But first we had to visit a carousel themed bar that Emma had read about, which sounded amazing.  The premise was you could have a drink whilst the bar rotated, carousel style.  The actuality was not so good, the bar technically did rotate but at a snail pace, it was no match for the rotating dance floor at Newcastle's Tuxedo Royal nightclub (for instance) or in fact any other rotating thing.  So instead we pressed on to the party capital of New Orleans, Bourbon Street.

As we planned the family trip to the US South I said the following words to my closest family "New Orleans is tacky as hell, we don't really need to go there."  Which was perhaps a slightly extreme view, but still a conversation I did refer to a few times during the evening.  On Bourbon street we started the evening with Hurricanes, the local cocktail.  This was a good start to the evening which was only made better by the bar playing the Vengaboys as BGM.

hurricanes

Hurricanes are a delicious rum based cocktail, the only downside is they can get mums quite drunk quite early.  Following our drink stop we headed for Frenchie street which is the live music area of the city.  On the way Mum and Emma wanted to stop at Jackson Square which is a top New Orleans tourist site.

As we talk about tourist sites I will digress to talk about the scourge of tourist areas in the USA, that is to say upturned bucket drummers.  In the UK we have had a pan pipe busker problem, which was OK because pan pipes are not so loud so can be ignored.  In the USA some 'enterprising' folks have realised that an upturned empty bucket can be used as an impromptu drum, which sounds quite good for a minute or so then intensely annoying.  The annoyance one feels in a normal situation is survivable, in a tourist hot-spot like Jackson Square there were multiple bin drummers drowning out the general ambience, conversation and all other buskers who had bothered to learn a proper instrument.

All of the above said I was still upset to see a grown man physically threatening a bin lid drummer who can't have been more than 11 years old.  Therefore I intervened and told said grown man he was out of line.  There followed a conversation where he explained he had a Glock so was not sure what sort of disagreement we would have.  I have read quite a few Jack Reacher books so felt well equipped to tackle someone who was packing heat and the discussion ended with him leaving the child alone.

Following the armed struggle we found a restaurant for dinner which included an alligator based starter.  It tasted a bit like a chicken that had eaten a lot of chicken.   Following this we headed for Frenchie Street to listen to Jazz and drink alcohol.  Luckily we were able to find many venues that served both purposes, on place even had a beer that was named after my niece / Emma's daughter / Mum's granddaughter / Granny Duncan.....

some namesake beer

Despite not having much to drink mum managed to get slightly drunk

drunk mum

The remainder of the evening was mainly spend listening to different bands in different bars, including a duelling piano bar.  Another potential highlight was a return to the scene of my karaoke debut.  On my previous return I was in poor condition due to alcohol poisoning and tiredness, this time I was raring to go.  Sadly so was everyone else in New Orleans and there was no time to hang around so karaoke has been delayed to later in the week.

The evening concluded with a walk home via the South's biggest hat store.  It is not clear to me if they are claiming to be the biggest store or that they provide storage to the biggest hat.  Looking at the size of the place the latter seems most likely, but if that were the case surely they would display said hat.  On balance I don't know what to think.

With all the excitement of the day I had forgotten to post details of the other conflict I was involved in today, specifically I had strong words with the Cat in a Hat.  On this occasion I got smacked upside the head.

cat in the hat

Tomorrow we don't really have a plan beyond moving on from NoLa.  I have also discussed made it very clear to the others that no matter what happens they are not to wake me up........