LET'S ZYDECO WITH GENO!!!

C.J. & I planned to stay an extra day in New Orleans so that we could go see Geno Delafose. I've been waiting 7 years to see this band. They don't go much farther west than Beaumont...or to festivals in California etc.

Geno greetin' his fans. I went up and said "Hi"....he thanked me for coming. Rock-n-Bowl has live music, food, a big bar and duh...BOWLING.

These guys always look sharp...starched shirts and creased jeans etc. We liked Rock-n-Bowl cos it was BIG and local and an older crowd...it's a family place too...there were a few kids there. Our taxi driver was so nice. He gave us his cell number and said just call when we are ready to go back to the hotel. It was in a neighborhood where there aren't alot of cabs.

I like the wood on the bass player's guitar. They played for 3 hrs. w/ no break and were still goin' when we left.

A few hula hoops are always fun. It was also fun to watch the dancers. You could tell alot of them had been dancing together all their lives. The bar gives dance lessons too.

There weren't many folks bowling.

Real cowboys wear pink.

I made a request to the bassist and they played 'my song'!! I was so jazzed. This song has never been released on any of his CD's. I found it on Youtube. You can hear it here...looks like you'll have to hi-lite, copy and paste it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8NDTpy8Zfw Or you can just Google Youtube Geno Delafose at SP 2008 and it should pop up. It's called: "If you don't like my peaches-don't shake my tree".

Even Geno's boots are cool. He is credited with helping to create the sound called 'nouveau zydeco' which is rooted in Creole traditional music w/ influences of Cajun and Country & Western. His Dad (John Delafose) was a famous accordian player...and Geno started playing w/ him when he was 9 yrs. old. He debuted his first CD in 1994. He lives in Duralde, LA...near Eunice where he was born and raises cattle and horses on his ranch there. Every year he hosts a huge, free picnic w/ Bar-B-Q for all his fans.

C.J. is SUCH a HOOT!! The guy who was running the sound and mixing board (or whatever it's called) started chatting us up and found out we were Texans who had never seen the band live. He rushed up w/ a washboard and said "Would you like to jam a little?" I certainly am not musical at all...but C.J. is....and she was...and it was great fun!!!!! That guy told us that all the guys in  the band are just plain nice folks.

Back by the bathrooms I found this bottlecap art!! When I took a picture a guy came up and told me that he made that...we talked about bottlecaps for a few minutes.

Alot of my pictures are dark so I pulled this one off the internet. Our other night of live music was at this tiny place called The Bullet Sports Bar to hear a trumpet guy and his jazz band. It was in a crappy neighborhood and the cab driver didn't know where it was and didn't seem to want to let us out when got there. He asked us "Are you girls SURE?" We were sure. It wasn't a slum or anything...just a teensy seedy. Totally residential (in fact the bar was an old shotgun type house w/ houses all around it) so for noise reasons the band starts at 7 and stops at 10 p.m. We got there late and sat in the back and couldn't see anything very well. But everybody was so nice and thanked us for coming. Out front there was a Bar-B-Q pit going and CD's for sale etc. The bartender lady hadda call the cab company THREE times before we FINALLY got a taxi to come get us. We loved our trip to NOLA!!! We liked getting off the beaten touristy path and seeing local stuff. We had planned to take the streetcar thru the Garden District and also tour one of the cemeteries...but alas...the heat and our age got the best of us. That's all folks...I hope I get to go to New Orleans again someday.

LET'S GO TO LAURA PLANTATION!

We took a 5 hour tour along 'the river road' to visit a plantation and passed many interesting buildings. This is a really old church. It's amazing that some of these old buildings still survive. They are made of either hand made brick or Bald Cypress. Termites don't eat Bald Cypress....so everybody wanted to build w/ it and now there isn't any left except small trees that aren't useful for lumber. But folks recycle the old boards over and over...it brings high dollar.

We passed some houses/plantations where movies have been filmed. The people who farmed along River Road were THE richest folks in America. They planted sugarcane....that land is too wet for cotton.

This is Laura Plantation and I picked this tour because it is a real Creole place. They always painted their houses in bright colors. So when you see a white house w/ big pillars you know "Americans" lived there. This house was built in 1805 and is about 40 miles from New Orleans. The plantation was originally 12,000 acres. It sits only 600 ft. from the Mississippi River and had a levee of 4 to 5 ft. The levee is now 15 feet.

AMAZING! The black type that you see is the name of each plantation all along the river in 1858.

The place had a sugarmill and this is one of the huge sugar pots used for processing the sugarcane. There was sugarcane planted all around the place...I'd never seen a field of sugarcane. (This is not planted w/ sugarcane...it's an ornamental plant.)

A door inside the house. It looks like they used some kind of comb to make this pattern. Some of the investors that helped to restore the house are descendants of slaves. Fats Domino's parents and other family members lived on Laura Plantation. It's said that what eventually became the stories of B'rer Rabbit came from slaves on this plantation.

The end of a fireplace...it's wood painted to look like marble. Interesting.

I like the blue ceiling. The 'farm' continued to function as a plantation into the 20th century.

A colorful door. Laura Lacoul Gore was the 4th mistress of this plantation...she was born there in 1861 and inherited it and ran it until 1891. I found it pleasing and so interesting that this palantation was run mostly by women...and successfully too! Laura wrote a book in 1936

called "Memories of the Old Plantation" and I ordered it from Amazon. In the above picture Laura is dressed for a Mardi Gras celebration.

One thing we DIDN'T like about our tour was that our group had 29 people and by the time everybody crowded into the small rooms...we couldn't see the furniture. When I'd hang back to get a picture...I'd miss what the tour guide was saying in the next room.

The nursery and that's the office in the next room. Laura Plantation was sold to a German family named Waguespach in 1891. We didn't go out to the slave quarters etc...it was just too damn HOT!! And it was a pretty far walk.

This is a glimpse of Oak Alley Plantation. Our tour bus headed over there after we left 'Laura' to pick up another tour group. The lady who owned this place had all the Spanish Moss removed from the trees. She hated it and thought it was creepy. I think it's pretty.

12 Oak trees on each side of Oak Alley and of course that's how it got it's name. These trees are over 200 years old. It sure is picturesque! Our tour guide was excellent and a wealth of info all about the history of this whole area...plus New Orleans. (An example is that antebellum women never, ever drank alcohol in front of the men....so how'd they catch a buzz? They ate fermented fruit that had a higher alcohol content than wine or brandy!) Man, that guy could TALK...on the trip back we were tired of hearing him.

Another 'big house'. We went over Lake Pontchartrain (it's the 3rd biggest lake in the U.S.) on the way back into New Orleans and the guide pointed out a Bald Eagle's nest, houseboats on the bayous where folks live etc.

LET'S GO TO NOLA! Part 3.

One evening we walked a long way to Canal St. and got on the streetcar down to the Mississippi River and then got on another streetcar that traveled along the water and past the Quarter down to Frenchman St. It's the newer hip place to go instead of the FQ. We caught the end of "Satchmo-fest". It's a yearly celebration on Satchmo's birthday. Then we walked down Frenchman past dozens of bars and restaurants that had live music...we were looking for this "artist's alley"...finally found it. This picture is in the back of the outdoor space. The local artist's sell their stuff until 1a.m.! They don't like you to take pictures of their stuff.....

But I did get a shot of this tub-couch. Nice bead tree....They weren't for sale...just decoration.

Walking back we saw a fire station and C.J. hadda stop and buy her husband a t-shirt. The 2 firemen there were real fun to talk to.

I went to the Civil War Museum one day when C.J. was working. It was AMAZING! It's been there since 1891! It used to be called the Confederate Museum. No photos allowed so you should google it and check out their great website....for SURE check it out. They had a good movie there to watch all about the history of the museum. Of course the uniforms are tiny....but I was surprised how big and heavy the epaulettes are. Cool flags. And a few tree/logs from Chickamauga full of schrapnel and mini balls. Lots of other good stuff.

It's not a real big place but I was impressed and enjoyed it very much.

This is the Napoleon House in the FQ. It's a 200 year old bar/cafe where the Mayor of N.O. (Nicholas Girod) lived. He offered it to Napoleon in 1821 during his exile. He didn't come but the name stuck. C.J. and I found it particularly intriguing because it's SO old and SO dirty! We were on the hunt for a cocktail called a Pimm's Cup but were denied because Napoleon House was closed on Monday.

We got our Pimm's at Herme's Bar which is part of the famous restaurant Antoine's.

BEST sign ever! The OTHER side says "haunted"...hahaaaaa.

We went shopping and eating at the French Market which is pretty full of souvenirs made in China but we did find a guy who sold sterling silver jewelry that we had heard about. Ate some fried oysters and then went to Molly's at the Market for a famous Frozen Irish Coffee. It was dessert in a glass.

So back to the State Museum next door to the cathedral. Downstairs is a good exhibit all about Hurricane Katrina. Nice movie to go with it. This is Fats Domino's piano after the storm. It's the only picture I took at the Katrina part of the museum.

Upstairs is dedicated to Mardi Gras...all kinds of cool stuff! Costumes, parts of floats etc.

Vintage jewels...sorry for the glare. I forgot how to turn off my flash.

I like the way this display is accented by the background photo.

Sorry again for the glare but try to read this as the next picture is connected to this info.

These are the style of masks used in country type courir. They're made from SCREEN...like you'd find in a window or door. They are very simple and not like the sequined and feathered city ones that you're familiar with.

Wouldn't it be very hard to move around much in this costume?

Same with this huge monster. I think you'd just sit or stand on a float...and that's it. These were all presented very nicely with videos and/or text to go with each costume.

LET'S GO TO NOLA! Part 2.

Of course there were a ton of gorgeous plant filled balconies. Folks just create their own lovely oasis-in-the-air. The bottom floor is a restaurant called Herb Saint. It's right across from our hotel and we ate there twice. Excellent the 1st time and merely good the 2nd time.

This is also right across from Hotel Lafayette. The buildings are so old and pretty and rather European...no?

The St. Charles streetcar runs right out in front of our hotel and goes all thru the Garden District. Unfortunately...no A/C. Some streetcars had A/C but not the St. Charles. You can ride for $1.25 or buy a day pass with unlimited rides for $3. We rode it alot one or two days and took cabs the rest of the time. The taxis were pretty cheap.

I wonder how high dollar these apartments are? I loved them all!

Folks who live in New Orleans are proud of their city. They recycle everything...even turning alot of crap into ART. I like murals AND signs.

C.J. contemplates her Bloody Mary at Commander's Palace. The okra and pepper are skewered on a hunk of sugarcane. We went there for Sunday Brunch and it's a package deal: buy an entree and then pick out your appetizer and dessert which is included in the price. We ate so much and couldn't finish it and felt uncomfortably stuffed afterwards. This restaurant has been there since the 1880's and by 1900 gourmets from all over the world were going there. CP is in the Garden District and was started by "Americans" because the Creoles didn't want the new riff-raff in the French Quarter. What is Creole? You had to be: born there, French speaking and Catholic. The service at CP was off the charts! They did everything except feed it to us.

Isn't this absolutely wonderful? Look at the detail....love it!

This looks new but I'm sure it's probably restored. It's on the Whitney Bank.

Another cool sign. We didn't go there...I was just randomly takin' picture of buildings, murals and signs.

P.J.'s Coffee is based in New Orleans...good coffee....and this building is gorgeous.

St. Louis Cathedral overlooking Jackson Square. Folks have worshipped at churches on this property since 1727. This church has been there since 1794! It's survived lots of hurricanes etc. We toured inside but my pictures are dark. It has beautiful paintings on the high, high ceiling. This is supposed to be truly the heart of Old New Orleans.

It's good Ol' Andy Jackson. This was sculpted in 1856. The park and plaza are Parisian style. It's kinda cheesy/touristy around there but we enjoyed it anyways. We toured the Louisiana State Museum which is right next to the church...more on that later.