Day 55 – Up early, it’s Quarterfest day. The shuttle departs at 10 a.m. We decided to go to the Hurricane Katrina movie at 9:00 and after that, hop on the shuttle. The movie was “Hurricane on the Bayou”, narrated by Meryl Streep, and it was shown in the special events room across from the restaurant. The movie was created for showing in IMAX theatres and was the winner of 4 Giant Screen Cinema Association Achievement Awards. It was very good, informative, and told from the standpoint of regular people who were there. It also emphasized the impact that climate change and Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands have had on natural hurricane protection.
We took a shuttle bus to the French Quarter. We left the good camera in the RV, having been warned about carrying valuable items in sight; Rob had to take pictures with the phone which wasn’t as good. Two shuttles were running this morning and both were full. Normally the shuttle lets off down at the waterfront where most activities are, but due to Quarterfest the waterfront streets were closed to vehicles. The shuttle let us off a couple of blocks above Bourbon Street with instructions that they would be picking people up to go back to Pontchartrain Landing from the same location at 4 and 8 p.m. The revised drop off location gave us a good opportunity to walk more of the inland streets. Very colorful everywhere you looked with street artists, musicians, cobblestone streets, crowds, buildings with wrought-iron balconies with ferns hanging from them, all restaurants open with menus posted out front, bars, performance artists, music everywhere, some people in costume, people partying on second and third floor balconies and porches, horse-drawn carriages, dancing in the streets, you name it – it was there.
We made our way to Jackson Square which was surrounded by more of the same – the center Square itself was not open yet and people were lining up to get in. (Inside the Square gates were many food & beverage booths plus one of the better music venues.) While waiting for the Square to open we checked out the St. Louis Cathedral, looked at the people selling their wares, checked out the menu at Muriel’s on Jackson Square (where several people have said we should eat), and walked around the perimeter of the Square. Once it opened, we went inside and proceeded to check out the food offerings (first things first, y’all). We started with the Crawfish & Goat Cheese Crepes from Muriel’s, and then we moved on to a booth from The Court of Two Sisters, a creole/cajun restaurant, and had the Crawfish Louise. Both were fantastic! We decided to meander over to the site of the music, since we could hear some wonderful New Orleans Blues playing. On the way, passed a booth serving a dish which looked similar to Bang Bang Shrimp; we tried some, it was okay. We watched John Boutte’ (featured on “Treme’”, the great HBO series) and his band play, they were SO good, and people of all ages were dancing. It was wonderful, but this was only one of many music and food sites, so we moved on.
Jackson Square during FQFI, New Orleans, LA
Headed for the waterfront and caught part of The Pentones act playing at the Tropical Isle Stage. Continued on to the Abita Beer Stage and saw The Bucktown All-Stars, right by the Mississippi River. We thought about getting a drink and kept hearing that the beverages at the Pat O’Brien’s booth were fabulous, but it was hot and very sunny and we still had lots to see; decided to save the alcohol for closer to our departure. We sat on a wall by the River for awhile, then headed out to try to find a restroom – not an easy task. Then over to the Jack Daniel’s Stage for some NOLA Funk with the Funk Monkey’s. The group playing before the Funk Monkey’s was Ovi-G and the Froggies “Los Ranas” and they were good. Got a seat under an umbrella out of the sun and sat there watching the people. The music was great and the crowd was up dancing for the entire show. There are some old people who can really dance! Alas, almost time for the shuttle and Funk Monkey was ending their set, so I sent Rob to Pat O’Brien’s booth for a couple of Bloody Mary’s. There, he was served by an absolutely gorgeous woman who had a VERY deep voice, but hey, the drinks were wonderful, LOL. We walked away from the waterfront and caught the shuttle; the Festival was so crowded but so much fun.
Security on the Mississippi waterfront during FQFI, New Orleans, LA
We were exhausted when we got back to the RV and almost fell asleep in our chairs by the canal. Walked over to the Lighthouse Bar & Grill because we were craving some more of the wonderful BBQ Shrimp. Sat on the patio with a wonderful, cool breeze blowing, having drinks while waiting for our Shrimp. When our food arrived, it was not what we’d ordered at all. The problem was that Carolyn wasn’t there (we saw her at the Festival) and Darren, the Chef, was off on Sunday. We had received the regular BBQ Shrimp and it was just boiled, smoked shrimp on a plate with a side dish. Something we never do, but we sent it back. Went back to the RV without dinner, but we did have a drink, and we were too tired to care. We vowed to try again for the special New Orleans Shrimp when Carolyn and Darren were both working.
You two are having way too much fun when you KNOW we are still working!! Please take at least one day and sit at your table for 8 hours;)
Ha ha! We’ve had it way too good! Since the last post, we locked our keys in the RV and had to break a window to get in and then had our credit card hacked and finally on the way to Montauk State Park in Missouri the GPS routed us onto an extremely narrow, steep dirt road that I would have thought twice about driving on in our car. We even had to drive through a stream! So even paradise has its problems 🙂