Two for the Road

We spent our final afternoon in Austin going for a long walk on a footpath next to the city’s Colorado River and Lady Bird Lake. It was a lovely walking path and we got to enjoy the warm weather and scenery including the Austin skyline. We popped to another branch of Texas institution Terry Black’s Barbeque for our final dinner in Texas and enjoyed some brisket, an enormous beef rib, some potato salad, and green beans.

As we headed back to our flat, walking off the meat sweats, we crossed the Congress bridge. We’d heard about 30 minutes after sunset, a couple of million bats would emerge in clouds to feed for the evening. It was a very difficult thing to photograph but it was an amazing sight to see us off.

We left bright and early the next morning to hit the road for our long commute to New Orleans. We stopped once at legendary service station Buc-ees and once to eat our packed lunch just over the Louisiana border.

We made it to the Big Easy¹ in record time, but quickly sought out a delightful Thai dinner and hit the hay as we had big plans for our first full day.

We emerged from our cave on Easter Sunday, well rested and ready to enjoy the festivities. We headed out to see the first of three parades in the city, which get progressively more well attended, and debauched as the day goes on:

1. This parade starting at 9.30am is very family friendly, carriages pulled by mules carry ladies bound for St Louis Cathedral. They are dressed in their Sunday best and hand out sweets, soft toys and other easter paraphernalia. It was a wholesome start to the day, and I scored some bunny ears!
2. This parade was very much what I expected from a New Orleans parade, floats with jazz players on board, groups of people dressed up as Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley, plastic beaded necklaces being thrown out to onlookers.
3. The Gay Easter Parade. An amped-up version of parade two with – clue’s in the name – lots of LGBT/Pride theming. It features loud music, fabulous, scant costuming and a tenuous ink to easter. It was also incredibly busy due to its reputation. We aimed to see the start of this one, but as it was getting going we had to head to our next activity of the day.

In between parades one and two we went to the famous Napolean House restaurant, where we tried some iconic foods, including a crawfish flatbread, a muffaletta sandwich², and some gumbo. Shout out to the Louisiana style hot sauce – Crystal – which we added liberally to the fare. The courtyard we sat in at the restaurant was lovely, the building dates back to the 18^th Century and was famously offered as a refuge for a fleeing Napoleon in 1811 – hence its name. To drink, Matt tried a Sazerac cocktail³ and I had what is a staple of the restaurant – a Pimms Cup! It was a surprise to see this very British drink on the list, and it was very different to the way we make it in the UK, but refreshing nonetheless!

In between parades two and three we spent a couple of hours in Fritzel’s Jazz bar on Bourbon street, seeing some live jazz – another quintessential New Orleans experience. We know some of our readers are dubious about the merits of jazz music, but being cool cats, we thought it was swinging.

As if our Easter Sunday hadn’t been bust enough we departed the French Quarter in the late afternoon to head to Smoothie King Centre, home of the New Orleans Pelicans basketball team. Here we saw a nail-biting game between the local team and favourites Orlando Magic. Magic ultimately won, but the bout was much closer than pundits predicted which made it a great one to watch as pretty impartial audience members. Also in classic American Sporting Style there was so much going on outside of the sport, from food and drink, to cheerleaders, live bands, mascots and t-shirt cannons, you can’t avoid being entertained!

On Easter Monday, we had a relatively quiet day, venturing out for a long walk along Lafitte greenway, and topping up on groceries before another activity filled day to come the next day.

We booked onto a ‘Gators and Ghosts’ combo tour to see the famous bayou and haunted history of the area. Starting around midday, we were picked up and driven to a swampy harbour where we and around 10 others climbed abord an air boat equipped with ear defenders. We zipped around the waterways, getting up close and personal with some gators, which are apparently considered quite tame despite appearances. We were told there have only been two fatal interactions between humans and the animals in all of state history, but nonetheless, we decided to keep our arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, unlike the guides, who fed and patted the creatures, to whom they had bestowed nicknames like Scarface and Ray Charles⁴

After a brief interlude, we headed out again for our ghost and vampire themed walking tour where we visited the sites of murders, deadly fires and other spooky goings on. I took a few photos, and have been encouraged to look carefully at those in low light, as spirits may be visible – do you think I’ve captured anything?

Our last stop of the day involved some late night, classic bar food – the Po Boy. Basically a chunky baguette filled with your filling of choice – most famously deep fried shrimp. As you might have expected it was delicious, but even better than the classic shrimp was the ‘swamp monster’ which had sliced turkey ham and slow cooked beef with gravy.

As I write, we’re having a relaxed start to our second to last day here day before heading out to see a museum or two to learn more about this vibrant city. We’re loving it so far, it has a real energy and personality and has definitely lived up to its place on our bucket list!

Iris

1. There’s mixed provenance as to why New Orleans is known as this, perhaps named after a Jazz Dance Hall popular in the 1910s, possibly from a 1930s sandwich shop, possibly a slightly derogatory comparison with the Big Apple (NYC) by a travel writer. ↩︎
2. Italian deli meats and an olive salad on a sesame bun ↩︎
3. A bourbon whiskey and herbal bitters combination ↩︎
4. Named, of course, for his amazing piano skills ↩︎