Day 14 – April  19

Don’t remember much about my baby days,
But I been told
We used to live on Willow near the Garden District
Next to the Sugar Bowl
Momma used to wheel me past an ice cream wagon
One side for White and one side for Colored
I remember trash cans floatin’ down Canal Street
It rained every day one summer
Momma used to take me to Audubon Park
Show me the ways of the world
She said, “here comes a white boy, there goes a black one,
that one’s an octoroon
This little cookie here’s a macaroon, that big round thing’s
a red balloon
And the paper down here’s called the Picayune
And here’s a New Orleans tune – New Orleans wins the War – Randy Newman

Shop ‘til ya’ll drop

We meet William out front at 9 for the drive over to Metairie and more particularly the shopping mall. We got there around 9:30 but as most of the shops don’t open until 10 we sat down and had a coffee. The girls went off to do girlie shopping and William and I wandered around. Seen one mall seen them all I guess but never the less this one is impressive. Not as big as say Highpoint but vey clean and tastefully set out. William and I only ventured into one shop that being the Microsoft outlet. I have a Samsung Tablet which I am very happy with but I most confess that I would love to be able to afford one of the top notch Microsoft Tablets. Oh well, dream away.

After meeting up with the girls we then drove a short distance to Barnes and Noble’s. A very large bookshop of the highest quality and the section of Louisianan and New Orleans books is first class. I now have even more books to add to my library. I have an insatiable thirst for learning as much as I can about this unique city. The more I learn confirms my love of this place. Although as always it can be bad assed. There have been a number of armed robberies in recent days in the Marigney, not far from where we stayed for the first four days of our trip. You just need to be vigilant. As a tourist walking at night you gotta stay on the main streets. Don’t go walking in dark neighbourhood areas as you are courting danger. The perpetrators will get caught shortly and be locked away. Justice is swift here.

Williams needed to make groceries so we drove down to the Win Dixie (think Coles Supermarket). In fact there was very similar signage to Coles plus the staff were dressed in similar colours. It was shortly after that I noticed advertising with Curtis Stone’s face ‘meals under $10’. Even had notices saying ‘prices are down’. Even giving that our dollar is well short of the US$ the price of food and groceries is a lot less than we pay back at home.

We got back home after 2 and are very thankful to William for taking us out to see a different part of New Orleans.
Tonight we are staying in as Mickey should be on the NCIS N.O. episode. It is cool being able to recognise so many of the locations in the show. We didn’t see Mickey but we tried real hard. It was weird trying to look at characters in the background and not concentrate on the main actors.

I went down to the local Verti Mart and got me a Creole Chicken and Cheesy Chilli Fries. Another great day in New Orleans.

I have said it before and I will say it again. When you make friends with locals they absolutely go out of their way to make you feel welcome and are proud to show off their city. We have some real good friends here. Pat and Gentilly Jnr., Stew and Carol, William and Mickey and the crew at Iggy’s, Big Dave, Little Dave, Ed, Mike and many more whose names I can’t remember. All the unknown people that just greet you with a good morning, a how ya’ll doing or a simple nod of the head.

Thanks to you all for making us feel so welcome.