This morning was our last in NOLA. We packed up our belongings and said goodbye to our gracious host and hostess. We had found out the night before the our hostess, Joann, had actually designed several NOLA items likes shirts and dish towels, etc. Katrina realized afterward she had seen her t-shirts in the stores, I had not noticed them. She was very kind and gave us each a dish towel from her line. I have really enjoyed all the homes I have stayed in along my way.
We first returned to the Maple Street Patisserie since it was so good the previous morning. I did go to Starbucks next door for my coffee since they served iced coffee. It was already so warm that the thought of warm coffee was not appealing. I bought my sweet cheese puff and thoroughly enjoyed it once again. We drove down St. Charles a little ways until we saw a trolley and a parking spot and hopped out of the car to hop onto the streetcar (we had to get a streetcar ride in). There were very few people on the car, but it was early after all and the trolley tracks were torn up a few miles down so it wasn't the most convenient ride into the French Quarter either.
We watched out the windows at the homes and when it came time to get off the trolley and get onto the transport bus, we ended our trip and walked back up the street for over 1.5 miles to get back to our car. We continuously stopped along the way snapping pictures of the mansions we were passing. There were so many beautiful homes with details from the influences over the years. It was a lovely walk but so warm. It wasn't terribly sunny, but the moisture hung heavy in the air.
New Orleans also has these dog statues everywhere. I thought at first that they were balloon dogs. We learned they are fashioned after the dogs the kids make out of the Mardi Gras beads. There is a campaign to protect dogs in New Orleans, so these statues have popped up all over the cities as a piece of art reminding people of this issue. They really are very cute. We also saw Mardi Gras beads thrown up on the power lines, on the trees, and on the fences of homes. They are everywhere!
After our walk back up Charles Street, we reentered our car in front of the Audubon Park and Zoo and then drove to the Garden District where we were to meet a free walking tour. We went in to the "Still Perking" coffee shop and bought water (it was so hot), used the restrooms and then walked out to meet our tour guide. She was a nice lady, but certainly not the best tour guide. The free tour had been highly recommended on Trip Advisor, and they just asked that you tip the guide for pay, so I thought alright, this would be a good idea. She took us into Lafayette Cemetery (one of the many above ground cemeteries) and walked us around.
She did explain the some of the practices of the cemeteries and the different types of tombs or mausoleums around. We saw a few graves marked with death by cholera or yellow fever. I can easily see that with the type of climate the region holds. That, no doubt, was a very common killer of people in the 1800's.
The garden district originally was a part of a plantation and it wasn't until the later 1800's that the area was built up more. We walked by these large homes that many are multiple family homes (because not many really need that much room). The streets were still horrible and the bricks, we were told, were often the original and between that and the tree roots that pushed through the sidewalks, it was still easy to trip. There are large cement blocks still along the roadside, which were for the ladies to step up onto so they could get into their carriages.
We walked by a few different houses that had been owned by Nicolas Cage (one currently owned by Sandra Bullock of his). We walked by a few of Anne Rice's homes and also the parents of Payton Manning. We also saw a house that had belonged to the uncle of Edgar Degas. There was another cornstalk fence around a mansion that belonged to General Short, the same man who had the house in the French Quarter.
The homes were so large! The garden areas were very pretty, but I think I had expected a little more. The mansions along St. Charles Street were just as nice. The weather was bordering on miserable (to me), so I wasn't sad to finish about an forty-five minutes early. It was just Katrina and I on the tour, and she had made the comment when we started she thought she wasn't going to have anyone, and I thought it almost seemed like she would have been relieved with that. She seemed very unsure of herself at times and I wasn't always sure how accurate her information was. We may have been just about as well off with a tour book to read from.
We walked around "The Rink", an area built for the World's Fair in the late 1800's briefly and then headed to the car rental place to return our car. That went seamlessly, and they even were able to shuttle us a few blocks away to the train station where we ate Subway and waited for our train leaving for Memphis. A line gathered about a 1/2 hour early and we boarded in a slower manner than I had anywhere else. Still, the people are so nice and friendly again with that southern hospitality.
We found seats together in a not too crowded double decker car. Rain hit briefly but heavily on our way out. Katrina and I watched out the window at the swampy area we were traveling through. Water often covered with a layer of green algae or moss (not sure which). Trees grew up out of the water. We would see driftwood and wonder if we really were seeing an alligator. At one point, Katrina did see a tail sticking out of the growth alongside the water. We walked back to the lounge car which I was happy to see has the larger viewing windows and the windows that curved up over the top of the car.
Two park guides (I found out they are not actually park rangers, they are a volunteer corp that works with the national parks) were there pointing out places and giving facts about the area. We saw duck camps (that you usually get to by boat), and eagle's nest out in the middle of the water on a dead tree, the "Florida parishes" (the areas of Louisiana that had at one point belonged to Spanish controlled Florida). We road next to Lake Pontchartrain (and gratefully not across it), which has crept closer to the train tracks over time and in a few places there were cement guards put up to protect the tracks from the water. They also pointed out the hometown of Britney Spears when we went through.
The park guides also had some small replicas of a water moccasin (or cotton mouth) and some alligator heads and skins. We took pictures with them (although even the snake replica grosses me out). The guide teased Katrina a bit and startled her putting the alligator head up next to her that she didn't notice at first. It was pretty funny.
We sat in the lounge car most of the rest of the trip. We were able to see out over first all the swampy forests, then once northern in Mississippi, over all the fields. We noticed that every house and town we saw, it seemed to be run down. It made us both think of the typical movie setting for Mississippi. I thought I'd look up poverty statistics and statewide, it is incredibly high with a low income. We compared to other states, and so far hadn't found one lower overall. I just looked up more information and Mississippi is ranked as the poorest state and we saw why.
We made it into Memphis on time and we looked for a taxi. We followed a sign that said yellow cab and it took us down a small flight of stairs. We could smell food and hear music and then we realized that there was a wedding reception going on in a big hall at the train station. We didn't find the taxis and walked down another flight, no luck, took the elevator up and went out the front where we had come in and discovered that was where the taxis should be. We waited briefly and one came that we asked to take us to the Downtown Marriott (Priceline is great for deals sometimes). We knew the hotel was very close by and we began to wonder what he was doing since he was taking us off Main St. and it was not a quick trip. Finally, I pulled out my phone and say that it did say 4/5 of a mile, but that it was going to take us 14 minutes. That made me feel a little better because I wasn't sure if he was trying to rip us off or not.
From the taxi, we were looking around and saw that Memphis was really cute. It looked like the charm of the 1950's had been preserved but mixed in was modernization. We saw a few horse-drawn carriages but that were shaped was shaped like Cinderella's carriage but the shape was created by lights. People were riding in the carriages. The bridge in the distance was also lit up for orangish gold lights but it also made sort of two arcs, kind of like the letter "m" - it was different than a shape of lights on a bridge I've seen and so pretty. We saw down Beale Street with all it neon signs and activity. We liked Memphis already!
Once we arrived at the Marriott and checked in, there were a few other groups as well. One was a college group doing a fundraiser for St. Jude - they were nice. Then there were a bunch of drunk boys dressed up fairly nice with some pretty little, very made-up girls. I thought maybe a prom, but wrong time of the year. The Marriott gave us an upgrade to a private floor, which we gladly took. We dropped our bags, and headed downstairs to inquire about dinner. We were told to go to the Blues City Cafe, and we could take the trolley. We walked out for the trolley, the stop was right at our hotel, and there were many many many boys dressed up nicely and only a few girls. Not sure what this was, we went around to the other trolley we had been told would take us the direction we wanted to go and ended up packed, completely stuffed, onto this trolley with all these boys and a few girls. Some were drunk, but most were not too drunk yet. A few nice ones stood up to offer us seats, but having sat all day in the train, we refused.
I asked where they were all from and found out that this was a fraternity (they did not look old enough...but I guess that's showing my age...) doing their rush from Arkansas State. They were noisy and joking around and actually singing some of their songs. One song had some kind of words about pigs and calling "soo-ey". I knew these boys were not from the west coast after hearing that. Not to mention that all the ones we saw were white, which seemed a bit strange since traveling in the east, I have hardly been anywhere I've seen only white people. There is usually a mix of ethnicities.
Some of the younger ones, who must not even be 18 yet, were wide-eyed and even looking a bit scared. We did ask a few who were from Memphis to give some food recommendations, which they did, but not to places in downtown that we could get to, so we didn't use it. We joked with them a bit saying that since we were teachers we felt the urge to "regulate" or ask their age, but we wouldn't. They said if we were still on Beale street later, they'd see us and I let them know, that no, we are old teachers, so we won't still be there! They laughed.
It turns out that our trolley, though it was supposed to be going down Main toward Beale had pulled the other direction due to the large group of fraternity waiting on the trollies, so both of the trollies were headed to the riverfront to get on riverboats. After the boys got off, we continued on, just the two of us with our trolley driver, a women who we laughed with over the antics of those boys. We took a tour of the trolley line and then parted with our trolley on Beale Street. I had been concerned and asked about our safety of walking to the cafe from the trolley at the hotel and she had said it was pretty safe and there would be people out. Wow, were there people out!
The carriages were giving rides, the police had a barricade at 2nd and Beale, right where our cafe was. People, dressed in party clothing, were waiting in long lines to be, what we found out later, was to be searched to get into the Friday/Saturday night block parties. Between the throngs of people and the neon lights, I felt like I had walked into Vegas fifty years earlier. It was quite exciting, but I was certainly glad I didn't have to wait in a line and there was no line for our restaurant.
We walked into the restaurant, greeted by the friendly host, and shown to a table in the back. This also had that great old feel to it, with a cute little southern waitress who said we would be happy with our order of chicken tenders and steak fries, which we were. They were very good.
When we finished our meals, we headed back up Beale Street, caught the trolley back to the hotel. For it being after midnight, there were a lot of people out, which we were told happens every weekend. Memphis is the place to be! We briefly enjoyed our view from 17 stories up looking out over the river and a little Olympics before hitting the hay.
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