|
Breakfast at
Tally Ho
("The Best Breakfast in Town") on Chartres and Conti. Very friendly waitress. I almost got the
alligator sausage, but went with the perfectly awesome jambalaya omelette, while Bink had a huge
pancake with banana. I have to say that this joint, believe it or not, actually beats Louisa's
Place in San Luis Obispo.
Walked into Librairie Books. Expansive selection. Inexpensive. Awesome. Picked up a battered 1941
volume of Bartlett's Quotations and The Fredoniad, or Independence Preserved, an Epic Poem on
The Late War of 1812 (dated 1827 - possibly the oldest book we now own).
We then found Trashy Diva. NOTICE TO
ROSINA: WE HAVE LOCATED YOUR STORE. This place has vintage clothing, corsets, and jewelry, and
handmade lamp covers. Expensive but absolutely yummy and delicious.
We wandered into Saint Louis Cathedral, which was founded in 1718. It is nicely impressive and
somber despite the heavy tourist population. I wish I could have properly captured how truly
beautiful the stained glass windows were; the photos lack of the detail. Also, unfortunately,
the ceiling is too distant over one's head to get a good shot.
| Photos of St. Louis Cathedral and
Surroundings - Click a Thumbnail to Enlarge |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum
hosts a Voodoo/Cemetery tour, and has quite a cache of nifty voodoo paraphernalia and a bit of
cheesy merchandise. They also do Tarot and palm readings and cleansings, and sell gris-gris bags.
The tour was led by Bloody Mary, who was theatrical but very knowledgeable. We learned a bit
more about voodoo (which is a more positive belief than one might think), the actual slave
situation in New Orleans (people of color had it a bit better than the other states, since the
French had a more liberal view than the barbaric Americans), and visited the St. Louis Cemetery
#1 (the oldest cemetery in New Orleans).
|
| Photos of St. Louis Cemetery #1 and
Surroundings - Click a Thumbnail to Enlarge |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
A bit of fact: New Orleans cemeteries have above-ground mausoleums instead of graves, because
of the water table. What with yellow fever and cholera, the area had the highest mortality rate
of the country, and when one tries to bury Uncle John properly, when the rain comes and the water
table rises, so does Uncle John. It was even made illegal to bury someone at one point.
So, they made tombs from the soft Louisiana brick, covering them with plaster and eventually
stucco, with a marble or granite faceplate in the front. The rule was to never open a tomb (for
another dead family member) for a year and a day, because of this: when a body was shut inside
a tomb, the hot weather made the brick enclosure pretty much an oven. So when a year passed,
there was very little left of the body except bones; the tomb could then be opened, the coffin
dismantled and removed, and the body basically shoved back to drop into the opening beneath.
Entire families were deposited in these tombs in this way.
If more than one family member happened to die within the year and a day (which was quite
possible), his/her body would be placed in a rental tomb in the walls surrounding the cemetery
(grimly enough, the walls were originally built to keep all the floating bodies inside the
cemetery during the rainy season, instead of ending up on people's doorsteps!).
|
|
Visited James H. Cohen & Sons, Inc., which is a coin and weapon museum. Very nice Civil War
coinage, guns and swords, but frightfully expensive (figure about $1500 or so for a Springfield
rifle).
We then cooled off at the Pirate's Alley Cafe ("In the Broken Heart of the French Quarter"), a
tiny little cafe tucked away next to the St. Louis Cathedral and operated by goth-friendly types.
They have all sorts of wines, imported ales, ciders, and chartreuses, and I tried my first Sazerac,
which is pink and smells of black licorice. Bianca chatted with a girl who works there who had a
stack of Harry Potter books, and who told us of another author we must check out:
Lemony Snicket.
|
|
Recipe for a Sazerac:
- 1 shot Absinthe
- 3/4 shot rye whiskey
- dash Peychaud's bitters
- splash simple syrup
- splash soda
- garnish with lemon zest and a maraschino cherry; serve over ice.
|
|
|
We found a favorite tobacconist in New Orleans:
Epitome Cigars. We sat and chatted with
(and made a good friend of) Richard, enjoyed a pair of 1492 Yumuri robustos, and thoroughly
enjoyed ourselves. Richard and Rob say that Bianca has a job if ever we move to New Orleans.
Walked to Esplanade Ave, found that the Siam Cafe/Dragon's Den was not open, so went into Coop's
Place, a local fave, to eat. Bink had the tasty Cajun pasta while Dave chowed down on fried chicken
and red beans and rice. Barq's root beer comes in longneck bottles here, and tastes better.
Finished off the evening back at the hotel with some late-night room service, ordering some
mediocre chalky cheesecake and a Croque Monsieur. Know what a croque monsieur is? It's a ham
and cheese sandwich.
DAMAGE REPORT: Dave's sunburned his neck and raked the closet
door over his right foot, Bianca got a bad insect bite.
|
