New Orleans

Just returned from what is probably my only visit to N'awlins.  As everyone does, I will note that it is hot.  Way too hot for the likes of me, a born northerner who is more comfortable in blizzard than in humidity.

Secondly, of course, the food is generally spectacular.  See the photo of the crawfish etoufee that I had on my first night there.  It was the first of a few really great meals and a couple of pretty indifferent ones.  Much depended upon whether one got out of the hotel and into the local restaurants.  This one was from the Oceana Grill, on the corner of Bourbon and Conti Streets in the French Quarter.

My impressions of the city, pre-arrival, were based upon the novels of Anne Rice as well as a travel memoir by Robert Heinlein which included a description by him (in the 1950s) of a visit there.  Not much to base expectations upon, but it was a buzzy layer in the back of my mind regardless.  Needless to say, many things were much different there than I had expected.

I didn't get to the Garden District, nor were we able to ride the streetcars (unfortunately they were off line for repairs), so I think I missed a lot of the "old South" of the city, with manor houses and such like, which I did really expect.  On the other hand, the French Quarter had tiny narrow streets, a lot of iron railings on the upper stories of the buildings, and the open doors of the shops poured their air conditioning into the streets.  (My grandmother would have had a stroke about the waste.)

I did see, on the way to and from the airport, a huge old cemetery with all the above-ground tombs.  It is very unusual, one could say, from a midwesterner where a half-dozen tombs are the maximum in our cemeteries, where people are otherwise put in the ground.

Other than that, our time in NOLA was spent walking (slowly!) and eating.  Here I am with colleagues at the Cafe Du Mond, very sweaty but ready to sit down for coffee and beignets.

I did not know that beignets were the shape of pillows (for some reason I imagined donut holes).  They are covered with powdered sugar and since they are deep fried and served while still hot, quite tasty.  Also, probably, they are something I don't need to eat more of.  Once was definitely enough!

All in all, a worthwhile trip but if I ever go again, it will not be in July!