OK. So my original plan was to post something every day but I was just too darned exhausted at the end of each day to even think about blogging. What I will do is just post each day seperately so you don't have to read my entire "book".
New Orleans Day #1: The campground we stayed at was in the blazing heat, no shade. At 8:30 that morning, I was ready to leave for the city. I imagined the concrete city with random shade trees would be cooler than this muggy bayou camp site.
We planned to go to the zoo with Rhonda but unfortunately, the zoo is closed on Mondays. What we did instead is 1 day of New Orleans, which is really about 1/3 of a New Orleans day with 3 kids in tow. First off, I have to say that it's so funny to see kids go crazy with energy in confined spaces like doctor's offices, when it's not appropriate to actually "go crazy with energy. Once you hit the city streets, their energy quickly dwindles. We hadn't even left the parking lot and Athena was already hot and tired of walking. We walked around the French Quarter for a couple blocks before stopping in a cool music shop. David browsed while the girls relaxed with Skittles and A/C. Next, we walked to the House of Blues for lunch. These 2 separate events sound like nothing to the average adult but both were pure torture for 3 little girls. It took a hot minute to get around. After lunch they perked up. We went to Cafe Du Monde for biegnets, yummy. I know the coffee there must be great but I was not about to order coffee in that heat. After finishing our snack, the kids took turns rubbing as much sugar on their faces as possible. There was STILL sugar left in the dish. I swear, they must order a ton of sugar every day. Then we walked around the French Market for a bit. David had to stop at Fiorella's for a while. We tried to hop on a street car so we could take the kids to the Children's Museum. Alas, we had no idea what we were doing because we were always about 1 street away from a loading zone. Instead we poked around little shops and such. Our day ended with David running to get the car while the girls and I sat outside of a cafe. We got to see the "other side of Nawlins" when a super-drunk lady fell all over herself on the curb after twirling several sloppy times around a stop sign. It was pretty bad, she couldn't even get up with help. Aurora was fascinated with this event. She kept asking me questions about the lady, her medical problems, her personal choices, and her general welfare that I just couldn't answer.
That night when we went to the showers, some crazy, naked-in-the-bathroom, RV lady told the girls to watch out for the coyotes and wolves. Once Athena heard that, sleeping in the tent was out of the question. She was convinced that wolves and coyotes. Arianna and I slept together in the hot, still aired tent. I slept very little but I did get to snuggle with my baby, so it was worth it!
My favorite parts were riding around the city and looking at the beautiful old houses. Almost everyone has a great front porch! I also really liked how just about every shop or restaurant we went into played great music. People here have good taste in music. Another interesting thing is there were child street performers. They reminded me of the kids in Oliver Twist or Slumdog Millionare. Rhonda says the tap-dancing kids nail bottle caps to the bottoms of their shoes. That explains the Adidas sneakers.
Things I learned: In order to beef up original population, the French government sent thieves and prostitutes to live in New Orleans. It was founded bu Pierre and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne as Nouvelle Orleans, named after the Duc D'Orleans. The French Quarter is actually Spanish style. The reason for this has to do with 2 fires in the 1800s that wiped out everything. Voodoo thrives in the city today due to the lenient treatment of slaves. Slaves and free blacks in New Orleans were treated more fairly than other places within the south. The slaves from Africa and West India brought their culture with them and were able to pass traditions down throughout the generations. This is also how jazz was born. According to my sources, jazz originated from West Indian and African traditional beats. Although, all advances made by blacks were pretty much eroded after the legalization of segregation. The Brer Rabbit tales were recorded at the Laura Plantation and surrounding plantations in the New Orleans area. The Cajuns are Acadians exiled from Nova Scotia. They were sent to live in Louisiana and settled in the bayous, where their culture still thrives. There is debate about whether the Cajuns or the natives invented a roux of oil and flour, the base for any jambalaya. It is said that any true Cajun jambalaya must have a file, a pinch of crushed sassafras leaves. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Evangeline", was reportedly written as a love story about the disbursement of the French Acadian people.
No comments:
Post a Comment