an evening to remember

I've been to New Orleans many times but have only ever heard of Preservation Hall. Tonight, that all changes.

We arrived at 6:30 to stand in line for open seating (standing room only) tickets for the 8:00 show. We weren't the first in line, but we did get tickets. Tonight's show featured Shannon Powell, the jazz drummer extraordinaire. It was only a 45-minute show (for $15...not bad) but it was long enough to enjoy the music and get a feel for "real" jazz.

After the great show, we were starving. Our plans to have muffalettas at Central Grocery were thwarted when at 6:15pm we found out they closed at 5pm. So we found Cochon Butcher and had fabulous sandwiches (including pork muffalettas for some).

Le Pig Mac: Two all-pork patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles (sweet pickes), onion, on a sesame seed bun. Yummm!!!

Honey Island Swamp Tours

What's a trip to Louisiana without a swamp tour?? Honey Island Swamp Tours should do the trick. Yesterday we drove a little south and a lot west to get to Vacherie for a plantation, today we drove north and east to Slidell for the swamp tour. We are definitely seeing the New Orleans area.

All aboard!

Here's our boat captain showing us a crawfish trap (complete with live crawfish) and explaining how they work.

One of many turtle sightings.

Some cypress trees surrounded by "knees," which are part of the root system and allow air and nutrients to get to the tree.

There's a gator in there! She's only about 4 feet long and was the only one we sighted, but we did see a gator!

A shrimp boat and a "camp" ... interesting buildings with electricity but no running water are on the Pearl River. Then there are areas with really nice homes with both electricity and "city water." A majority of the area is  a protected wildlife area--The Nature Conservancy's First Louisiana Nature Preserve.

Dinner in the Garden District

Dinner tonight: Commander's Palace.

 Before dinner, we took a stroll through The Garden District: Beautiful homes and lovely gardens.

Another incredible meal in a beautiful setting.

 Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish: "A Commander's Palace classic with crushed sweet corn, spiced pecans, petite herbs and Prosecco poached crab meat."

Speaking of settings...the place settings were elegant but even better, this dinner was exquisite.

Dessert? Of course! We ordered 4 desserts and 7 spoons. This is the bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

Now that's a creme brulee!

Strawberry shortcake anyone?

James Beard Awards for the Commander's Palace.

an interesting elevator

This elevator in a three-story building was obviously designed for a four-story building. Do you get a discount on a generic elevator?

Around our hotel

Checking out the Quality Inn & Suites Maison St. Charles. Here's the entrance off the parking lot:

The lobby:

The hotel is a collection of small buildings with a great NOLA look. 

 

 This is our building. We had rooms on the first, second, and third floors.

 Our patio:

 

 The breakfast room:

 Our room:

Afternoon Group 2

The other group went to Acme Oyster House, took a carriage ride, went to a different restaurant for dessert, and had their own adventures before meeting up at Preservation Hall.

Thanks for the photos, Jane!

Afternoon Group 1

In the afternoon, we split into two groups. Our group went back to the hotel for a light lunch (finishing up some of the delicious snack foods left over from the first night), then to the New Orleans Glassworks and Printmaking Studio, then a stroll through the arts district, down to the river, a stop at Cafe du Monde, and then met back up with the other group at Preservation Hall.

We saw signs of filming in several locations around town. We're pretty sure no one was parked here because they didn't read this sign closely. All the better for us.

The Children's Museum has two sets of entrances. (We didn't go in, we just admired the doors from the outside.)

You HAVE to go to Cafe du Monde if you're in NOLA. So excited to share Jeanne's first beignets.

Plantation Afternoon

After Laura Plantation and B&C Seafood, we took the rambling way home instead of the Interstate. We drove by several more plantations and just enjoyed blue skies, warm weather, and good conversation.

This is Oak Alley Plantation. We didn't stop and take the tour, but did stop to enjoy the view. It was a beautiful building at the end of this allée of oak trees.

B&C Seafood

We had read about this place, plus our docent, Camille, at Laura Plantation had mentioned it. So after our tour of the plantation, we came here to B&C Seafood for lunch.

Jeanne with her lunch buddy (yes, she had the gator burger).

The ambiance at B&C is definitely unique. This is the back dining room. It's quite a large establishment and by noon was quite filled with locals....that's always a good sign.

 

This is one side of the interesting menu at B&C Seafood...

...and here's the other.

There just isn't a good way to capture the intriguing decor in the ladies' room.

Red beans and rice, shrimp po' boy, oyster po' boy, gator burger,... we tried it all.

Quite the assortment of "meats" available in the Riverside Market. There was more, including gar fish.

Laura Plantation

Today's first destination: Laura Plantation. About an hour outside of NOLA, it's a Creole Plantation...lots of fascinating history.
   

There are a lot of really big and beautiful trees on this plantation.

...a fascinating history...

This is part of the front porch. A Creole Plantation Home was painted beautiful colors (which helped hide the mildew) whereas "American" Plantation Homes were painted white.

Every door had beautiful art on it...each room was different.

This is the back of the plantation home. You'll have to go yourself to learn why the two back wings are missing.

 One of the slave quarters. At one time, when the plantation owners (after Laura) got into the slave trade business, there were 64 slave quarters on the grounds.

Too bad you can't smell how wonderful these orange blossoms smell.