Day 2: Sunday 4/26/15
It’s Jazz Fest Day! This is really the reason that New Orleans won over other vacation destination choices (and by that I mean I STILL haven’t made it to Disneyland…) this year. It aligned with April vacation this year, so it just made sense to go to NOLA.
After a surprisingly good night’s sleep, we were up relatively early. Once we were ready we went downstairs for breakfast. Drury Inns have very consistent (and solid) breakfasts included in your stay. While New Orleans is known for its food scene, we had places to be, so this morning was not the time to check out the NOLA breakfast options.
Once we were done with breakfast, we went back up to the room to get organized for the day. Eventually it was time to head out to the bus stop. After yesterday’s difficulty with figuring out which way to turn to get started going somewhere, we ended up giving ourselves way too much time to find the bus stop, and we were there about 20 minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive. Cool thing I discovered on this trip (perhaps because I had a new, and therefore newly updated, phone)? The google maps app locates the closest public transit locations and tells you the time it will come. Great feature that we used a lot!
The time the bus was supposed to arrive passed with no sign of the bus, but by that time, there were a lot of us that were clearly going to the festival that had collected at the bus stop. About 5 minutes later, the bus we wanted arrived, but it was completely full and didn’t even stop. Crap. So, we decided to walk down to Canal Street, and take the street car. It would require more walking once we got to the “destination” of the street car, but it seemed like the next best option. So, we started walking, and just as we got close to Canal, we found the bus we wanted doing a pick up. So, we hopped on the bus, and settled in for the 20ish minute trip towards the Fair Grounds.
By the time we got to our destination, the bus was full of festival goers. This was really helpful, because it meant that we knew exactly where to get off the bus, without having to decipher that language commonly known as Southern. It also meant we had a good crowd to follow to get us to the festival itself, which was a couple blocks from the bus stop.
The walk to the festival was lively. There were people all over the place playing music, and everyone was in a great mood. Lots of school groups and other organizations had set up tables selling water bottles as fundraisers. I’d imagine they did a good business. Highs in the 90s were predicted (and reached!), and each person is allowed to bring in one sealed bottle of water to the festival. Once at the Fair Grounds, we went through security that was surprisingly low-key, given the long list of restrictions on the festival website, and then we entered.
We immediately knew that this was going to be like nothing we’d ever experienced before. This was HUGE! We decided that the best way to tackle this festival was to just dive in. Since we were close to the tents, we started at the Blues Tent, where an act was just starting. The act was Brian Lee, who turned out to be 68 and blind. His wife led him out onto the stage arm in arm. When he sat down...wow, could he belt out the music. This act alone was worth the ticket price. And there were MANY other stages and tents with music playing all around the festival. And by the way, I quickly became ok with the idea of several days of listening to blues and jazz music as I sat in this tent. It was good! And cool fact...no pun intended...it was HOT that day. The tent “ceiling” had rows and rows of little misters and there were fans blowing throughout the tent. We decided when we saw this set-up that we might indeed be able to survive our time at Jazz fest. Remember, it snowed at home just 3 days earlier!
Once Brian Lee finished their act, we decided to walk around the grounds a bit. There were MANY stages, and even more food booths. Over the course of our wanderings, we bought festival t-shirts, crawfish bread (which was kind of like a crawfish and cheese panini on spicy bread), an ice-cream-filled snow cone (not nearly as exciting as it sounded) and the best strawberry lemonade EVER. We also checked out a couple stages, and saw a couple “parades” go by.
And we got a first hand look at the mud situation, thanks to the previous day’s tropical downpours. We began to understand why so many people were wearing galoshes. But I was much happier in flip flops. It was just too hot for anything else on my feet. And I can’t even imagine the blisters from rubber galoshes in that heat. Mud will wash off!
We squished and squelched our way around the muddy fairgrounds, before eventually parking ourselves in the Jazz Tent, where Leah Chase’s act was in full swing.
This was excellent too, and apparently everyone was hot, because this tent was WAY more crowded than the blues tent had been a couple hours earlier. We stayed in this tent for awhile, and then eventually when I started falling asleep, decided it was probably time to get some food, so we headed just outside to one of the many rows of food choices.
I got a “turkey rib”, that included a huge plate of beans and other sides (cole slaw maybe?). Nick decided he wanted something more adventurous, so while I found a seat at a picnic table, he wandered deeper into the festival. I ended up chatting with 2 different (unrelated) former New Englanders, including one that had lived in Manchester, NH for a couple of years while I was eating. Interesting what a small world it is. It was also interesting how quick both were to give recommendations and suggestions for places to visit and eat throughout NOLA, and also how quick both were to thank me for visiting the city.
Nick returned eventually with some sort of spicy gumbo and some desserts. We polished all of that off, and then decided we were done with the festival. Looking back, it seems like we didn’t do much, but we felt like we did, and most importantly, we felt like our time was worth it. Great music, great food, and lots of fun. So we left and made the 15 minute walk past one of the (above ground) cemeteries to City Park. It was easy to find our way. Once again, we followed the crowd. One of those people heard us chatting while walking and immediately recognized us as tourists. Hey, we don’t speak Southern! He, too, thanked us for visiting the city, and proceeded to also give us many recommendations. If there’s one thing to be said about the people of NOLA, it’s that they’re a very friendly bunch.
The walk to City Park passed quickly, and we found a waiting street car to take down Canal Street to get back downtown.
Since it was the beginning of the route, it would be a few minutes before it would leave, but that was ok. Once it did leave, the ride downtown passed quickly, and before we knew it, we were back at the hotel scrubbing mud off our feet and trying to figure out what to do that evening.
After an extended period of time relaxing in the air conditioning, complete with a couple trips to the lobby for free soda and popcorn (yet another Drury perk), we were ready to head into the French Quarter for dinner. Nick had decided he wanted seafood, we off we went to the Oceana Grill. I realized while walking there, that even though we had been in the city for just over 24 hours, I could already navigate it quite well. I really like this whole “grid” design that planned cities have. So much easier than Boston, which had to have been “planned” by a drunk Irishman following his drunk cow.
Dinner was good. Nick had some sort of Cajun seafood pasta dish. I had fried catfish. Like at Johnny’s the day before, this was VERY light. Unlike at Johnny’s, this catfish had some sort of Cajun seasoning mixed into the breading. It was excellent. The drinks weren’t bad either.
After dinner, since it wasn’t raining, we decided to walk down to Jackson Square to see what it looked like in the rain. Beautiful was the answer.
After wandering Jackson Square for a bit, we crossed over Decatur to take some more pictures of Jackson Square from a different vantage point, and also to take a look at the mighty and muddy Mississippi.
As the sun started to go down, we headed for Cafe du Monde, where we got two orders of beignets to go. We walked back to the hotel, and promptly dug in. They were DELICIOUS! They also made a ridiculously huge mess! Each order of beignets is a paper bag with 3 beignets and about 10 pounds of powdered sugar. Let’s just say that at the end of our stay we left a larger than normal tip for the housekeeper at the hotel…
Once the beignets were polished off, we collapsed into bed. It had been another busy and fun day. And we needed to be up early the next day for a New Orleans jazz brunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment