NOLA

NOLA. New Orleans, LA.  The Crescent City. The Big Easy.  Call it whatever you want, just don’t call it “New OrLEENS”!  

I told you in another post that New Orleans is just about my favorite place.  It’s tied for first place with the Great Smoky Mountains.  Why do I love New Orleans so?  I’ve been going there since I was a child.  I learned city driving there.  My father told me that if I could drive there, I could drive anywhere!  Once again, he was right! 

When my father first got into the truck business, he would go there to look for trucks to sell. He made connections with several dealers and companies that had trucks for sale and he went often.  I used to love to go with him because just up the street from one of the truck dealers was a fruit stand.  They had bananas that were too ripe to ship.  Daddy would buy me a sackful of bananas for less than a dollar and I’d eat bananas all the way home!  I love bananas to this day!  We’d also go down once or twice a year for a  couple of days as a mini vacation.  He would shop for trucks and Mama would take us shopping and sightseeing.  

He loved to stay at the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street.  He always wore a coat and tie when he checked in because, as he put it, “There are some places a man just needs to dress well.”  Mama would wear a nice dress and Laurin and I would have to put on nice clothes too.  Remember, this was the 1960s and early 1970s.  People dressed up to travel.

Daddy also had an aunt who lived in the French Quarter.  I loved to go visit them. Aunt Dorothy was a little, shall we say, cosmopolitan for her time.  At least to us she was.  She lived with a guy for about 10 years in the 1940s and 1950s, and didn’t marry him until her mother, my great grandmother, begged on her deathbed for Dorothy to marry Frank before she died!  Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Frank would keep Laurin and me sometimes so Mama and Daddy could go out for a nice evening. They lived in an apartment in one of those old French Quarter houses with a courtyard. At the time, I thought it was the coolest place to live in the world! Looking back, it was a tiny little dump!  I still remember the address, 730 Dumaine Street, between Bourbon and Royal.  The last time I was in the city, I drove by there to see if it had changed.  It looked the same as I remember.

Right after I started seeing Susan, we decided we wanted a little getaway so we went to New Orleans for a few days.  She had only been there once and I hadn’t been in several years, and we both really enjoyed it. Since then, we’ve been back three times and it’s become one of her favorite places too.  

We try not to spend all our time in the French Quarter. We enjoy exploring other neighborhoods in the city, such as the Garden District, Irish Channel, Bywater, Marigny, and her favorite, Magazine Street with its quirky shops and antique galleries.  We love trying the great restaurants there, old classics such as Pascal’s Manale, and The Rib Room at the Royal Orleans hotel, as well as newer ones such as Desi Vega’s steakhouse and Redfish Grill.  We’ve even had breakfast at Mother’s. I loved it but Susan wasn’t impressed!  My favorite is still Johnny’s PoBoys on St. Louis Street!  

I’m about ready for another NOLA trip soon. There are a couple of restaurants I want to try! If you get the chance, you should go too. There’s so much to do and see. The WWII museum is a must see.  Audubon Zoo and the Aquarium are great. Of course there’s always the French Quarter, with Bourbon Street, and Jackson Square.  Give me a shout and I’ll meet you there! I’m only 3 hours away and I’m always looking for an excuse to go!