ccolor

I'm having a Bloody Mary (which anybody that's had one in N'Awlins knows is considered a "light breakfast").

We've been there probably a dozen times with various people. A friend and I started the trips, then neighbors came one year, our kids twice and my husband and myself for many wonderful vacations. Unfortunately we missed Kal and the Mrs. by only a few days a couple times. Out trip this year was in just 10 days and I am so missing it already. My heart was set for the Quarter - I'm just gonna save the money and wait for next year at this time. The city will be there and so will I.

OneWanderingJew

It's only a little after 8am so think you people would think I'm a lush if I was tipping back the bottle at this hour--my poison is a cup of English Breakfast tea...

I've been to NOLA bunches of times--the first time was in college w/2 girlfriends to visit one of the girl's HS friends. I was a nut back then and sick (taking antibiotics) but still drank myself silly in the FQ every night. We tried to scalp tickets to the Sugar Bowl that trip and managed to get in sometime before the first half...What a blast!

We--college friends and I--went back for Mardi Gras twice after graduating and all I can say about that is I'm too old for that craziness but am glad I had the opportunity to have so much fun. Gone are the days of all nighters--is it sad that I'm ok w/that??

In the last few of years, I've been there during Jazzfest and for 2 weddings. The last trip (and wedding) was less than 2yrs ago.

One friend whose wedding I attended grew up over on the Lakeside and the other in Metairie. The friend from over by the lake's parents relocated to Atlanta a year or so ago and her siblings have moved away too so they are all ok. The Metairie friend's family evacuated in time though I don't know how her parents or sister's homes are...

My last visits involved little drinking, more sightseeing and a great deal of fine dining. As I've grown up, my appreciation for NO has grown and matured. MHS, it's the kind of town that I think people of different ages can enjoy and I hope w/time, you will rethink your position. I don't think you can compare people's behavior during 9/11 and Katrina. In 9/11, people had power and food. An entire city wasn't blacked out, without food, water and flooded. What happened in NO is unbelievable but do you really think that lawlessness will resume when life is gets back to some semblance of normality? Please give the good people of LA more credit than that.

OWJ

maryanne1

Been to New Orleans several times and always stayed in the Monteleone Hotel on Royal St. The last trip was with my Mother and my 3 children which was very special. Just loved walking the streets and enjoying what entertainment was going on. My favorite was going to Preservation Hall to enjoy the music.
Was in the Superdome several time and cannot imagine all those people packed in there during those days after the hurricane.
Funny experience my adult daughter and I had was walking down the street and a guy came out of one of "those places" and offered us a job. My daughter was quick to reply,"We are gainfully employed."
Also was so happy to hear those animals in the zoo are okay as when my children were younger we enjoyed a visit there.
Such a fun trip and after my first trip a friend said to me ,"You have never been the same since!!"

seetheworld

Coffee, lots of coffee

When planning our summer '04 vacation, New Orleans was on the list, but in the end Chicago won out. Now I'm sorry we didn't at least plan a couple of days in New Orleans

ChristieP

DH and I spent our 10th wedding anniversary in NOLA last December. Of course, we had a wonderful time! We ate and drank our way through the French Quarter, and we were already looking forward to a return trip.

DH is currently working in NOLA with his job, and he managed to get a call home out on his cell phone last night. Yes, he confirmed the wonderful D-Day museum was heavily looted, and the looters went straight for the "good stuff." How unfortunate! (He is a history buff, and we spent several hours there and learned SO much!)

My prayers are with the people of the Crescent City...

Dreamer2

So grateful I got to visit a couple years ago. It was a wonderful trip, and we had plans to return with our teenagers this November. Although I'm sure they will eventually rebuild everything, I have a feeling it will be more of a "Disney" version that its old self. However, my real sympathies go to all the displaced people, the survivors, and all they have lost. The trauma must be unbearable.

BuffaloGirl

I quite drinking the red wine last night and now I'm into the coffee!

I only visited NO once, about four years ago with my husband. We walked every block of the FQ, bought beads, mardi gras dolls, and hot sauce at the market, walked the Garden District, rode the streetcar, ate muffaletta's, drank many hurricanes, had a po boy at Mother's, visited Oak Alley plantation, and listened to the music. There was music everywhere. I loved the music. I came home and bought a zydeco cd that I still listen to. I thought the people were wonderful too.

I've loved all the places I've visited, but New Orleans got into my blood and I had so much unfinished business there.

My heart just breaks for the people and the city!

Sunshinesue

To the poster who was worried about running out of Cafe du Monde coffee: I can buy it in the grocery store here so if you get desperate, let me know and I will send you some!

JJ5

Never got home last night until the wee hours, no poison. Still running supplies around etc. Today is my day "off" so I'm running for elderly parents in dense traffic all day. Eeeeek!

Our NO people are settling in and some are hitching up with other friends or family here or elsewhere. Most are more content than I would probably be.

I went to NO once in the 60's and once for a football game very briefly. I almost went South for an extended drive trip last year but my guy wouldn't do Louisana. He had such a horrendous time there in his youth (Army/drafted/VietNam & Korea both) that he never wanted to see the place again.

My youngest son has been about 5 times and loves NO. He has done all the same things most of you have done. One of my
friends who is the biggest FOODIE in the world and can afford it, went often too and loves many of the restaurants there.

In my work I have seen the other side of NO several times more than I have wanted to, even as far away as I am- so I guess you can say I am probably in the group that just doesn't "get" it. And I do like most of the jazz.

Personally I stayed in touch with several people in Biloxi and LOVED Mary Mahoney's and the cook/server/owners so I do have a connection. It was SO old and it will be rebuilt- BUT!!! The loss of life is so terrible in all Katrina destruction areas. But I have hope now that the number will not go over the number that were killed in the New Orleans hurricane of 1900. There were 8000 killed in that one- you think that would have stymied where they built a bit- but it didn't.

emd

Yes, I've been there. I lived in Houston for first 30 yrs of my life and went to NO many times in my 20s for weekends and for the jazz festival. I have the 1989 Jazz and Heritage Festival 20th anniversary lithograph of Fats Domino here in my home office, signed by Fats and Richard Thomas, the artist. I am looking at it now, as I do every day sine I work from this office. It has a Peter Max or Warhol feel to it, very bright and alive. It reminds me so much of the good times I had in that city. Also have a French Qurater festival poster by Richard Thomas in our bedroom. And I still wear jewelry that I got at the market down by the water, down from the Cafe du Monde. I took my Connecticut born husband to NO in 1989 and it just blew him away- eating crawfish, which he had never seen before, and drinking local beer on the wrought iron balcony of our hotel, talking to the shuckers at the bar at Acme, strolling the garden district, the street car, Magazine St., etc. Simple pleasures. Such a unique city...there is just nothing like it architecturally in the U.S. And the people, friendly as can be, even in August when the heat and humidity can make even the most cheerful person grumpy. They loved having us there and made us feel welcome. I've gone back alone for work stays, but my husband and I have had NO on our list to return to together ever since then. Hope to go back to the jazz festival- I heard today on the radio that the festival organizers are vowing to bring back the festival in 2006, as close to NO as possible.

kureiff

Last night: Spaleto Chianti

This morning: Earl Gray tea.

I've never been to NO. It's on the list for a spring vacation. Your stories are wonderful!

OldSouthernBelle

Been there, done that.

Born there, actually, and family lived in the area for awhile.

While I feel terribly for the people there, I don't miss it. Not my kind of place.

Took some French friends there a few years ago, (their request) which confirmed my opinions of the area.

Belle

Kal

MELISSAAAAA!!!!!


BTW...thanks for scrambling my eggs just right.
Did you like the way I did my sausage?

ccolor

Kalbita -

Are you still parading the virtues of cocktail sausages?!?

Check out the story by oldest daughter who when asked after returing from Lousisana emphatically stated, "Oh yeah, New Orleans will be back!"

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/09/kat...ors/index.html

ellen_griswold

Great thread trish, thanks for starting it.
Getting here late and just sipping coffee as i recuperate from a wonderful weekend and anticipate a great day of sports!

We spent a couple of fun nights in New Orleans in 1999 as part of an outwest trip that also included Texas and the southern coastal areas.

Our hotel was then called Hotel de la Poste, which later became the Hotel W. It was such a great location, at the edge of the quarter, beautiful pool and hot tub in the courtyard, and private balcony from which to people watch.

What fun we had just strolling the Quarter, taking it all in while trying to shield our kids' young eyes from the areas they most wanted to see! Loved Pat O'Briens for lunch in their courtyard, Preservation Hall and the best jazz EVER, french market shopping, sitting on the patio sipping coffee and then stocking up on the great coffee from Cafe DuMonde...DS rusty uses two of the bright yellowish cans for some of his matchbooks collection. Our basement rec room has several prints from our travels, including a lovely shot of Jackson Square...

My heart continues to break for these people, may God bless them. Each year we consider going back during mardi gras and hopefully, one day we will do just that! Maybe we can have a Fodorite G2G there?!!

Postal

Today my husband and I are brunch at "Po'Boys Creole Cafe" in Gainesville, FL, and missed NOLA more than before. I was stationed there in the Navy in 1991, and although Bourbon Street actually became tedious after awhile (too many drunks, includng myself), I loved the zoo and other parks, the ferry to Algiers, and just strolling thru the Quarter. I gladly put on 20 pounds, no doubt from all those beignets! I know it will never be the same, but hopefully it will be very close!

viamar

Ellen-we stayed at the Hotel de la Poste too. I loved the location. It was close to everythinging , yet in a nice quiet area of the Quarter. Did your bellman tell you the story about the ghost? I guess every hotel in New Orleans is required to have a ghost or two.
I was disapointed when I found out that the hotel became a W Hotel. Too modern for the French Quarter if you ask me.

TravelerGina

My husband was from NO, so we spent a lot of time there when the kids were small.

In April I went back with my two kids and their spouses, and am so glad that they got to see that wonderful city as adults before the destruction. Beignets, coffee with chickory, muffalattas at Central Grocery, debris sandwiches at Mother's, pralines, cemetery tour, the aquarium, Riverwalk, Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, seafood at Yeagers (sp?) on the lake - they loved it all!

We also spent time with a cousin who lives in Jefferson Parish, and who left the morning before the hurricane, first going to Tennessee, then on to Houston because her company immediately relocated their staff to offices in various cities in the south. She's one of the lucky ones who at least was able to go back to work the day after Labor Day, even if it was in another state. By the way, she have since found out that she only suffered minor damage - lost shingles and siding. If only everyone else had been so lucky.

MelissaHI

Kal, I have never had sausage like that before!

OO

I'm not drinkin' yet as it's only 3:30 but when I start, it'll be Murphy Goode most likely.

We've been saying for the past few years...we really need to get back for a visit...but didn't and now will it ever be the same? I don't think so.

We lived there the first 7 years of our marriage, from '69 to '76, so Scarlett I was probably there in the era of your Grandfather and to me, as a 20 something, the Court of Two Sisters (never heard it referred to as just "the court" LOL) was tres romantique and food fabulous. We always ate out in the courtyard, never inside. I'm sure plenty of tourists were enjoying it still until Katrina.

Our apartment was so small that when we bought a king bed, courtesy of the insurance company I worked for ('69 was the year of Hurricane Camille) we had to move the nightstand into the hall--it wouldn't fit in the room with the mattress! It was in Metairie on Lake Ave and backed up to the infamous 17th Street Canal.

My husband started his hotel career there, first at the Royal Orleans, then the Royal Sonesta (where his astt controller was married to Pete Fountain's daughter). Both were Sonesta hotels as the time, but the RO is now an Omni. His GM at the Royal Orleans, Archie Casbarian, now owns and runs (I hope still ) Arnaud's Restaurant. My insurance job was downtown too, and we had only my little un-airconditioned 1968 MGB, so I'd walk down to his hotel after I finished work and with his fellow employees, would head over to Moses' Place, the bar behind the Royal Orleans before heading home. Ah that laissez les bon temps roulet attitude!! The walk from my office near Lee Circle to the Quarter would have been quickest via Magazine or Tchoupitoulas St...but no way would I have dreamed of walking that by myself in those days!! I'd loved to have seen the changes! Oh yes...work lunches at Mothers, even then.

Our kids were born in Touro Infirmary in the Garden District. My OB/GYN was on Prytannia and even then the area could be dicey. You had to be buzzed into their offices! That was the sad part of New Orleans. One good block among 3 bad, all through the Garden District and much of the Quarter.

We bought our first house in Terrytown, a suburb on the west bank. They avoided the flooding, but I saw a blog describing door to door looting there. Many of our neighbors are still there and in one case, the kids now own the house they grew up in. I wonder about them all!

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival was small beans compared to today, but still drew some big names and fabulous fabulous food! My husband was really into that sort of music...me...a girl from New England, was certainly on the outer fringe but learning. It didn't take me long at all to learn to love the food. I still recall his extreme excitement at the 76 Jazz and Heritage Festival when a limo pulled up and out stepped a very very large African American. Awed, DH whispered to me, "That's BB King!!". I had no idea who BB King was. LOL One of our favorite possession today, something that has hung every place we've lived, is a framed, numbered 1st edition silkscreen print from the 1976 festival. It portrays the lead figure from a jazz funeral, on a red background. It cost us $3 unframed and last we heard, years and years ago, it was worth about $700. Better return than any stock we've ever owned!! LOL

Mardi Gras 1969, 6 of his Navy friends came to stay with us in our Lake Ave apartment. You drank hard and partied late, they slept on our living room floor, then we'd all start our day with Bloody Marys to take the edge off "the night before" and off we'd go for more.

First wedding anniversary--Elmwood Plantation, a terrific restaurant on fabulous grounds. We were 26, awed by it all and still touched today remembering our beyond ancient waiter bringing our dessert with a candle in the middle and singing "Happy Anniversary to you", with trembly old voice and shakey hands.

My Mom came down to help when our first child was born. It was February 4 and beautiful, spring flowers blooming. She came from snow and teens in the Berkshires where they would not see grass and spring flowers until late April at best. That clinched it for her. That was the last winter they spent in the Berkshires...they became snow birds in Bonita Beach.

Other fun memories...watching the sailboats come into the marina weekends on Pontchartrain, never in the wide world dreaming that 30 years later we'd have our own and be coming into a marina in St Pete every weekend.

As happy as we were there, when it came time for our daughter to start school, it was time to clear out. DH had already worked in Sonesta's two best hotels (a that time), both in New Orleans, so it was time to jump ship so we could send her to decent schools. Thus began his career with Hyatt, in Boston!

Great years. Great time in our lives. Great way to begin a marriage in a fun, exciting city for a couple of 20 year olds. Great memories and nice to be able to relive them here! Thanks you all!!