Food Orleans

One of the things Jessie was most looking forward to enjoying in New Orleans was the food. Friends gave us great suggestions and we also sought out restaurants owned by some of our favorite chefs we've seen on TV. Here are three of the celebrity restaurants we enjoyed.

Emeril's

Sarah Michael was especially excited about this one. We all love when Emeril Lagasse appears on Top Chef. It was the fanciest restaurant we attended. We were helped by a team of three waiters and afterwards the girls gave one of them a big hug to say thank you. We were treated very well.

Atchafalaya

It is a fun coincidence that the name of this restaurant is the same as the area we enjoyed the boat tour with Roy Blanchard. We chose this because the executive chef Christopher Lynch was one of the chefs we really liked on this season's Food Network Star. We went there for brunch and loved the atmosphere of the small place.

La Petite Grocery

The last of the TV-chef inspired restaurants we selected because the owner was on the New Orleans season of Top Chef. We liked him on the show and were excited to try his food. It was amazing.

Tonight we lamented that in three days we barely scratched the surface of the culinary options New Orleans offers. We didn't even get to all that we would have liked to have tried this trip. We had good experiences, though, and know we can come back again to explore more.

To Love is something your Heart feels

Today we took in a tour of one of the historical plantations in the area. There are many to choose from, we went to one of the less-traveled: the Evergreen Plantation.

Another of the tour guests ended up talking with Jessie and Tessa about her life growing up in the 1950s in Mississippi. She was an amazing woman and I am grateful she tolerated my camera. Please read Tessa's telling, it was special to see so much love and teaching pour from this kind soul. 

Afterward we had a delicious lunch. Hush puppies, crab, aligator burgers, Muffuletta burger, were all somewhere on the table. If you end up visiting one of the plantations in this part of Louisiana we can recommend you enjoy lunch at B&C Seafood Market & Cajun Deli.

Then we looked briefly at one of the popular plantations, Oak Alley. We weren't up for another full tour, and we weren't up for paying $20+$20+$6+$6 just to enter and walk around, so instead we took our pictures of the "alley" from the road. That was all we really wanted to see anyway.

It ended up being a much more special day than we expected. There are amazing people in this world. This trip has been such a blessing to allow us to meet some of them.

Evergreen Plantation

Today we toured a big, beautiful plantation. It was amazing conjuring up stories about every inch of the place. It was big and beautiful and strong with such a big history. But, as we know, not all stories of life in plantations are as wonderful as they externally seem.

I had the good fortune of talking with a really wonderful woman. She took me back to when she was born into a cotton producing plantation in Mississippi. Every day, she would work from 5:00 in the morning until 6:00 or even 7:00 in the evening. She started working the land when she was just eight years old. 

Every day, she and her father would race to see who could pick the most cotton. It was great fun, until she realized, "Wait a minute..." 

She told me a few stories as well. 

When she would go off to be educated, her mother would give her lunch and tell her to eat by the back door of the main house. She said no. Her mother asked her again, and she said no. Finally her mother gave up and begged her, "Please? For me?" That is when she went off with her lunch and plopped herself down and ate her lunch on the front porch of the main house. 

She told me that there was a little girl there, about her age, who was the daughter of the plantation owner, that lived there. One day, she said hello to the little girl. The plantain owner said, "When you speak to my daughter, you will address her as ma'am. And that was when she dropped her tools and walked back to the quarters she was living at. 

At the age of fifteen, she and her mother were driven out of Mississippi to California by the KKK. There she had a better life. She got herself educated, and adopted two wonderful daughters. She now has a delightful five-year-old grandson and an incredibly intelligent ten-year-old grandson who has published two books! 

But what was really incredible about her was her strength. She went through what she did, and hated it, but she does not hate people of a different color, she does not hate people who discriminate, she even does not hate the people who tried to make her their slave. She genuinely loves people. And I love her for that. 

She said to me that she was afraid to go to the plantation. She was afraid it would bring back hateful memories. But she said that I had helped her. That I was the one who made her day better, and she thanked God for me. She said, "You are a beautiful child of God, and don't let nobody tell you any different. Don't let anybody tell you my story, and say that it's true, because you heard it from me. Don't let nobody lie about something they didn't go through themselves." 

The plantation really was big and beautiful and strong with a big history. 

Just like her. 

French Quarter

We are in New Orleans!

We brought the dogs to a boarding service today so they wouldn't be alone all day in the RV. Good thing we did, a large rainstorm with big thunder hit just as we were dropping off the dogs. Lily hates storms and would have been terrified if left alone at the campsite. Thankfully the storm got the rain out of its system by the time we had arrived to the old part of town.

Our first stop in the French Quarter was Cafe Du Monde to try their famous beignets. I learned this morning that a beignet is a French doughnut. They are covered in powdered sugar that we ended up wearing.

Then we walked around and checked out the area. Had a delicious lunch and then took in a carriage tour. While we generally had a nice time I felt on edge. I don't like tourist hotspots, they make me nervous. There are lots of visitors with money to spend and everyone here-- from waiters and vendors to homeless beggars with a dressed up dog-- wants it. I worry about how they will take mine and I feel like everyone is out to trick me. It isn't a good feeling I need to learn to work on.

Jackson Square

We walked through the "nice part" of Bourbon Street on our own as well as part of our carriage tour. So on our way back to find our car we walked though the not nice part. I didn't know there were so many strip clubs down there. Now we all do.

Right right for goodness and light.

Further down Bourbon Street the house where the cast of Top Chef New Orleans stayed. SM very excited.

Yummy Snoball for a snack

After our day in the French Quarter we retrieved Riley and Lily and went for a drive to the Lower 9th Ward. We wanted the girls to try to understand what happened after Katrina. Most of the destroyed homes have been removed but many many empty lots remain, many overgrown with vegetation. Quite a number of homes near the levee have been replaced, however, and the rebuilding looks innovative. Beautiful homes with solar panels and interesting architectural designs.

Plenty of reminders of Katrina remain. We saw many abandoned buildings in various states of decay. Graffiti and rock-smashed windows add another layer of sadness to the reminders of better times. An old elementary school has even left their reader board with the 2005 registration and back to school dates.

The Big Easy

I have been having so much fun since we got to Louisiana. It started with Ray and Annie, a wonderful couple with such happiness, and continued onto New Orleans.

The dat started with a huge rainstorm. I mean huge! The raindrops were as big as marbles! It was truly incredible. After that cleared up, it was adventure after adventure in the French Quarter.

We had incredible beniegts....bengais.....begnats? French donuts at a lovely coffee shop by the name of Café De Monde. They we miraculous!

After walking and looking and buying a little, we stopped for gumbo for lunch. It was so thick, there was no way I could fit it into my stomach! 

Quick word of advice......no upper blocks of Boubon St! It is sketchy without six gentleman's clubs in a row! Why are they even called "Gentlemen's Clubs?" The men going there are obviously far from gentlemen. Why not in blazing, neon letters, the words, "Come In To Cheat On Your Wives!" or "Do Your Wives Know You're Here?" or even, "Calling All D-bags Desperate For Human Interaction!" 

But the most fun was not the mule-drawn carriage tour, not the Hurricane Catrina wreckage, but back at the campsite, at the restaurant, laughing with my family, watching fish jump and an amazing sunset.