Louisiana – Baton Rouge and New Orleans – May 2012
We were supposed to be going to New Orleans with our friends Dick and Dorothy, but Dorothy had ankle surgery and was not mobile, so we overnighted at their beach house in Alabama for a visit, and as always enjoyed the food, libations and company !! We then headed on to Baton Rouge where we enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Nola family. Austin Nola was our 2011 Harwich Mariner, and we hope to have his younger brother, Aaron, this summer. Stacie cooked the most wonderful shrimp we have ever eaten one evening, we also feasted on a Crawfish Boil, Beignets and lots of spicy foods ! We toured around Baton Rouge, and ventured out and loved the towns of St. Francisville and Dedham Springs were we scored a great oil painting at an antique shop. We watched the LSU – Vanderbilt series, and enjoyed Austin’s senior night. We then headed to New Orleans. We took the Plantation route to NOLA and toured the Houmas Plantation which had amazing gradens and a rich history. We stayed at a B and B on Frenchman St. The Frenchman St. area is a real up and coming area where locals hang out. The street is lined with little jazz joints, street cafes and great intimate restaurants. They were filming the HBO series Tremme while we there. We would have been happy to stay there – but we did do “New Orleans” which included – eating oysters, oysters and more oysters prepared every way imaginable, Bourbon Street, the French Market, Harrahs casino, the St. Charles Streetcar, sampled the “hand grenade” cocktails, had my fortune told, took a paddle boat cruise, took a city tour, saw the area destroyed by Katrina, and all of the new homes being built my Brad Pitt and Harry Conick Jr., listened to fabulous music by a variety of musicians, enjoyed the street acts, loved the architecture, shopped, browsed in art galleries and antique shops, ate at too many restaurants to remember ( and I have the 5 pound weight gain to prove it !) I really liked getting up early and hitting the town while it was just waking up, and my favorite part was listening to all of the music – I don’t think I would ever tire of it !!
We were supposed to be going to New Orleans with our friends Dick and Dorothy, but Dorothy had ankle surgery and was not mobile, so we overnighted at their beach house in Alabama for a visit, and as always enjoyed the food, libations and company !! We then headed on to Baton Rouge where we enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Nola family. Austin Nola was our 2011 Harwich Mariner, and we hope to have his younger brother, Aaron, this summer. Stacie cooked the most wonderful shrimp we have ever eaten one evening, we also feasted on a Crawfish Boil, Beignets and lots of spicy foods ! We toured around Baton Rouge, and ventured out and loved the towns of St. Francisville and Dedham Springs were we scored a great oil painting at an antique shop. We watched the LSU – Vanderbilt series, and enjoyed Austin’s senior night. We then headed to New Orleans. We took the Plantation route to NOLA and toured the Houmas Plantation which had amazing gradens and a rich history. We stayed at a B and B on Frenchman St. The Frenchman St. area is a real up and coming area where locals hang out. The street is lined with little jazz joints, street cafes and great intimate restaurants. They were filming the HBO series Tremme while we there. We would have been happy to stay there – but we did do “New Orleans” which included – eating oysters, oysters and more oysters prepared every way imaginable, Bourbon Street, the French Market, Harrahs casino, the St. Charles Streetcar, sampled the “hand grenade” cocktails, had my fortune told, took a paddle boat cruise, took a city tour, saw the area destroyed by Katrina, and all of the new homes being built my Brad Pitt and Harry Conick Jr., listened to fabulous music by a variety of musicians, enjoyed the street acts, loved the architecture, shopped, browsed in art galleries and antique shops, ate at too many restaurants to remember ( and I have the 5 pound weight gain to prove it !) I really liked getting up early and hitting the town while it was just waking up, and my favorite part was listening to all of the music – I don’t think I would ever tire of it !!
At Dick and Dorothy's house in Santa Rosa
Poor Dorothy - reason she is not going to New Orleans -
Aaron, Susan and Austin
Susan and Aaron
Austin and Susan - now that is a crawfish boil !
Jon and his crawfish
LSU - pre game
Aaron
Austin on field with just a few of his family members for Senior night !
Pic from the scoreboard
Susan riding Mike the tiger by the tail - seemed like a good idea at the time !
House outside of Baton Rouge
Dedham Springs - great antiquing !
Houmas Plantation
Grand old oaks
I love dragon flys !
Inside the house
A new cannon for our 4th of July cannon shoot ?
Adolfos turned out to be our favorite restaurant
Typical balconies
Lots of outdoor sidewalk cafes
Had an Oyster Po Boy at Johnny's
We ate oysters fried, steamed, raw, broiled stuffed, baked - anyway we could ! Felix's was our favorite !
Carousel Bar at the Montileon Hotel
Lots of movies and TV shows being filmed - here is crew for Tremme - an HBO series
Jackson Square
Jon watches the guy who drew a carachterature of us...
Jackson Square
Susan getting cards read by Dino
Jon and Susan "window shopping"
Lots of music flyers
Great music club
This pole was covered with staples from old flyers
One of the rescue boats from Katrina
Numbering system used on homes after Katrina to account for occupants/deaths in homes
Fats Domino's house
Brad Pitt helped rebuild some homes - did not like these - very modern architecture, big solar panels lots of sculptures
Loved homes rebuilst by Harry Conick Jr. - were traditional in keeping with the original style of homes
Susan patiently sits and waits for trolley driver
Jon decided to drive trolley
All the trees on the parade route were covered with beads from mardi gras
New Orleans cemetary - all graves above land due to New Orleans being below sea level
Where there is water - we find a way to get on it - took a River boat cruise on the Mississippi - I thought it would help entice Jon to do the great loop
Susan and Jon
Alot of industry on the river -
Downtown NOLA
We did not realize that Sugar Cane is a big crop in LA
Love this !
