We got out a little earlier today, about 10a or so, and headed to the food street fair. This time I headed straight for Miss Linda the Yakamein Lady (as featured on Food Network’s “Chopped” her business card proudly states). The broth was a little slow to heat today but the small wait was well worth it; the Yakamein was delicious! The salty broth and chunks of beef and onions worked great with the spaghetti noodles and the hard boiled egg at the end, by then completely saturated in the broth, was a real treat. I finally located the rest of the family also eating tasty treats — mom some roasted garlic, Genetta some brisket and thyme and cheese fries, Addison some spiral fries, Michelle an excellent brisket sandwich called the “Percival”, etc. I then went and bought myself a iced coffee snoball and Genetta a spearmint one. She really did not like the spearmint one and, after tasting my iced coffee one, promptly went and got one of those. It really was great.
Afterwards we walked down Decatur towards Jackson Square. Dad walked ahead and we promised to meet him. After a few minutes in a Christmas store with the rest, however, I was ready to head to the square myself. I didn’t immediately see dad so instead walked around and through the park taking pictures of the statue of Andrew Jackson, Saint Louis Cathedral, the gorgeous live oaks, and the art on display.
Classic picture of the statue of Andrew Jackson in front of Saint Louis Cathedral
Saint Louis Cathedral from within Jackson Square
Another shot of the statue and cathedral
I finally found dad and we watched a magician slowly try and build a crowd of onlookers. It took a while but to his credit he finally got one going. I don’t think his crowd was as big as the one gathered for the “human robot” (basically a guy dressed in silver spray-painted clothes and pads), though. Robots 1, Humans 0. I went to the Tabasco store and got information on tours in case we head that way later in the week. On the way back I saw the rest of the family walking up. We checked out a toy store which had a few interesting things like Batman figurines (on his 75th birthday, no less!) and some painted soldiers. A doll store that Michelle had liked had closed since 2012. We all sat on the steps of Saint Louis Cathedral for a bit and enjoyed people watching in the beautiful mid-70s partly cloudy day.
Saint Louis Cathedral beyond a dead tree covered in Mardi Gras beads
Massive live oak and art in Jackson Square
Addison, mom, and dad headed off to the unit while Michelle, Genetta, and I continued our walk down Decatur all the way to Iberville. After stopping by a Walgreens for aloe we turned right on Royal and soon came upon Cafe Beignet. As we were tired and thirsty we took a break and had some beignets, strawberries, and sweet tea (water for me) for a bit. Excellent, though I prefer Cafe du Monde’s less doughy beignets truth be told. While there we saw a few birds flitting about and resting on the metal chairs in the courtyard adjacent to the cafe where we sat.
Beignets at Cafe Beignet -- yummy!
Awesome interior of Cafe Beignet
Taking off again we visited several clothing stores (Genetta was looking for a dress or skirt and would eventually find one) and the site of the store I used to love to visit, the Sword and Pen, that had apparently gone out of business. It is a real shame as I had visited this store each time we visited the French Quarter since I was a very young boy and I’d always buy a painted soldier to take home with me. An employee at the new store, a shoe store, had no idea what happened but said that they got lots of questions about what happened to the old store.
We then went to the store where Michelle found a lamp in 2012. We saw another one we liked, this one with a fleur-de-lis motif. It was half-off (likely bringing it in line with what it should have been to begin with) and we agreed this could be our 20th wedding anniversary gift (April 16th). I talked with one of the shopkeepers who had been there since 1983 and remembered an awesome restaurant that the French Quarter had way back when called “Anything Goes.” It had all sorts of crazy booths made up for different themes and costumed waiters and waitresses. They also had either an animatronic or human dressed up as ape in a cage in the entrance way. Great fun. She also told us that the owner of the Sword and Pen (or Le Petit Soldat as it was known before that), a man named Dave, was still alive but had sold the business due to his age and that that business had eventually failed. Shame.
We headed down Royal a distance further seeing many interesting things like a real estate sign proudly proclaiming “Haunted” as a selling point, lamp posts covered in beads, and the angel dispensing bubbles again — I got a better picture this time! I also got a couple of better pictures of the Cornstalk Hotel’s fence and fountain. We took a right and headed back to the food fair for one last iced coffee snoball for me and a cherry one for Michelle. Headed back to the unit for a few minutes to rest around 5p.
Only in New Orleans is "Haunted" a selling point...
Corner of Royal and St. Ann, some colorful fleur-de-lis flags
Mardi Gras beads adorn a Royal Street lamp
Cornstalk Hotel fountain viewed through the famous cast iron fence
Gate of the Cornstalk Hotel
Got a better picture of the Angel of Bubbles today than yesterday
Metal signs in the French Quarter
About 5:30p we left for dinner at Praline Connection a short distance from the unit. The road near the unit was blocked off by a fire truck and a sheriff’s van and there were cameras and such set up as well as a large wood cutout that was several stories high. We didn’t know what was happening and after a while headed to the restaurant. I had red beans and rice with Andouille sausage — very tasty! Michelle and Addison had fried chicken, Genetta fried shrimp, dad and mom had po boys I think. Great food!
Red beans and rice and Andouille sausage
After dinner dad headed back to the unit while the rest of us went to a art flea market type of thing less than a block away. They had a number of interesting things there like wire art, bottle cap jewelry, paintings, metal yard art (though a bit pricey), spoon art, these melted / flattened bottles that acted as wind chimes, you name it. They even had light up furniture and a girl scout trying to sell cookies. That was really odd — a bit of normalcy among all the other stuff. Addison got a utensil-art scorpion that was really cool while Genetta got a really neat art print that was music-themed. Michelle and I liked that so much that we each got small prints as well (they were only $10 each) and talked with the vendor a while. He had gone to school as an audio engineer and played bass and apparently spent about 20 hours on each piece of original art (that sells for hundreds each). Really nice guy.
Marigny cafe and tattoo parlor
Marigny art show / flea market
Headed back to the unit. Along the way discovered that the thing near the unit looked to be some sort of party for the gallery and there was an artist on a cherry picker using two blowtorches to burn a design into the large wooden cutout — looks like it was to be an angel or something. Really neat, hopefully I’ll get a nice picture of it tomorrow. Went upstairs to blog, rest, and eat a praline or two before bed.
Marigny art gallery party
Artist at work on the giant wooden cutout