Day one walkabout:Rocky and Carlos,Cafe Du monde,mask shopping, and night time

What an amazing day. I am physically wiped. We started with some meanderings in the local area. We walked until we got hungry finding local gems for food and shopping.

Churches, some fully restored and attended while some were not. Libraries and gyms abanodoned.

There was a fantastic place called
"Buttermilk drop Bakery and Cafe" that boasted incredible amounts of food donuts and breakfast.

At about 11 we grabbed a cab and 25$ later we were in Chalmette, (ward of New Orleans, similar to a suburb) and hut Rocky and Carlos for some famous macaroni and cheese.

We were pretty far from our neighborhood so we hit the local walmart in search of a card reader, and some groceries. Rumor has it a storm will come in tomorrow.

We struggled to get a cab out there and Uber wasn't working, and offered us only a box of kittens for 15 minutes, which wouldn't help with getting us and our groceries home.

We finally got a cab, and came home to rest for about an hour.

From there we walked to the French quarter. A local art shop "Tresor" caught our eye and we went in. The attendant, Paige, with violet hair and a huge black stone ring talked about the art and invited us to a huge, free party somewhere on Royal street. I thought I had written.it down, but when I went to look it was nowhere to be found. *Boo*

I was a little disappointed, but, maybe it wasn't meant to be.

We also found "Papier Plume" which had incredible fountain pens, inks, papers and wax seals.

From there we went to "Maskerade" and got our maks..
Www.themaskstore.com

I love this store. We spend hours here really picking our favorites.

Picking a mask is hard work.

We then journeyed next door to a place that had costume wear that really caught our eye, but was ridiculously overpriced for the quality. We found some pieces we liked and decided to do some Internet searching instead for it.

We then walked toward Cafe du Monde, and got some beignets. Walking to the cafe we went through a group of Palm readers, tarot card readers and musicians.

I could feel the energy of the people around me, and it was incredible. People are soo fascinating.

At the cafe I got cafe au lait and beignets. Josh got some milk and beignets. Our server was an woman who looked as though she had seen a hard life. Thin with long dark hair, piercing eyes and a thick creole accent, but eager to chat. I think she needed a listening ear.

When she wasn't busy, she would have a look of intense worry on her face, pull out her money and count it. Repeatedly she stated she was so thankful for her "busy section" , and made comments about the musician right outside the cafe (which has no full walls only banisters) and that halloween had been cancelled in her town (somewhere outside of New Orleans). My heart went out to her and we tipped well, bussing our own table to help save her time.

Evening was settling in and it brought an energy of excitement, mystery, and beautiful lights. We walked next to the river and it had a cotton candy tinge of color painted lightly on the top of it. Dots of yellow light reflected on it giving it a celebratory feeling, or maybe it was just my mood.

We continued to search for a shop that had a card reader for Josh's camera, taking pictures and just taking in the incredible city. About 730 pm we decided to head back. We walked to our house which was about 30 minutes. I can't explain how amazing the city felt. Some parts of it have beautiful old architecture, some of it has dilapidated rows of houses. We raced cockroaches and whispered to feral cats. We smelled fresh laundry, dinner being made, and urine. We passed locked cemeteries that had noises coming from them. We saw cars that were trashed beyond repair parked next to high end Mercedes.

That is the dichotomy that is New Orleans.

As we got home, we recuperated for a bit, and decided to hit a local club. After about an hour of prep, we called Uber and had our first Uber experience, which was awesome. I do recommend it.

The club was beautiful, and swanky. The staff friendly. The bartender was an eye catching red head with a business degree and similar viewpoints as myself regarding the economy, the laziness of some of the younger generation and feminism. ( which was quite surprising) . At about 1 am we headed home, and hit walgreens in search of that damn card reader, with no success. We grabbed a cab to Rallys (www.rallys.com) next to where we are staying ( See previous blog post about tweaker) and we walked home the rest of the way, falling hard into our food,books and bed.