As I'm sure you've deduced, that's what Shelby and I did Saturday. We parked near The Avenue just off of St. Charles and walked to the nearest car stop. We waited around for about 10 minutes, a small crowd gathering, before a man walking by, in attire not befitting someone walking any measurable distance, informed us that the coming Streetcar had hit a car. Bemoaning of the stupidity of tourists commenced as we started an exodus of would-be passengers-turned-pedestrians towards the Quarter. Shelby and I walked to the Lee Circle stop and waited a bit, to rest and to see if a car would come by. One finally did, and much to my surprise, opened his doors to us despite the obvious over crowding. There was just enough room in front for Shelby and I to put our money in the recepticle and turn around, doors almost closing on our noses. The driver took the Circle so fast I really thought I'd fly out and hit someone on the sidewalk. Our ride came to an end not far away, just far enough to have a conversation about jewelry with the well dressed man nearest me, small talk seeming called for as we were close enough to smell each other's deodorant. We continued our walk down Canal before coming to Decatur and crossing the street, which was blocked at one side of the intersection by police for whatever reason.
Passing a window full of gas lanterns, we stopped in to have a look around. Jack's Metal Arts makes their own custom style of the old fashioned gas lanterns adorning so many New Orleans homes. They also do other custom work, sell hardware and lighting accessories and the odd antique that finds it's way to them. The owner, whom I assume is Jack, and I had a lengthy conversation about the quality of their work and the pros and cons of different parts of the city.
After resuming our journey across the Quarter, our destination being Dustin on duty at the corner of Barracks and Decatur, we saw all manner of craziness. The city is always full of pleasant oddity, but festivals and tourists bring the characters out in droves. We counted no less than three fully painted people, more crazy hair than I can list and two people walking around with costumes and enormous paper mache heads. Those were actually really cool. When we passed the Convent of the Ursulines, I told Shelby about the vampire(s) that lives in the attic, sealed in with special nails from the Vatican holding down the shutters (hey, that's what I heard!). She responded with that mix of skepticism and curiosity she has when we talk about how the fences around the above ground cemetaries are to keep the zombies from getting out.
Finally, almost three hours after telling Dustin we were getting ready to leave the house, we made it to the old US Mint. We hung out in front of Envie for a while with Dustin, talking and listening to the live band that had set up a stage within the gates of the Mint, and enjoying the rare chance to spend time with him while he was at work. We also got to see the cute little Gator-like ambulance they use for special French Quarter events. After swaying to the beat for a while, Shelby and I went in search of street food. Having been in operation since that morning, the booths were running low on provisions. I was sad to find there was no longer any crawfish bread or shrimp and grits, so we got two shrimp & pork spring rolls and a crawfish eggroll from Amy's Vietnamese. For $3, I'm really glad that eggroll was awesome. We shared our fare with Dustin, and it didn't go quite far enough. So We decided to go to The Italian Barrel right across the street. The place looks like a good spot to sit outside and enjoy some wine and cheese on a slow week day. They have a case in front that they keep their delicious looking fromage selection in. The prices are high, though. We got the two cheapest things on the menu (which also seemed the easiest to eat standing up outside)- bruschetta and grissini wraps (thin breadsticks wrapped in prusciutto). It took over an hour to get our two appetizers to go, neither of which had to be cooked, BTW. When one of the waitresses offered to bring us some bread, another told her not to because we were a to-go order. I understand, but come on! Over an hour! A long enough time for Dustin to get a call and have to leave, which meant that we might as well have ordered eat-in. So we sat there and ate our (delicious, really) food out of the styrofoam, with no free bread. It was $14 for three thick slices of bread with tomatoes, oil and cheese and three bread sticks wrapped in ham. And I know it's just bread in a bowl, but free restaurant bread is special, and I was hungry. Thumb down for you, Italian Barrel.
While we were waiting, though, we spied Treme's Steve Zahn as he walked by (rather in a huff, it seemed), which was cool. I took a picture of the back of his head, to be posted to the Facebook page soon.
The remaining stick and tomato bread in tow, we watched the people dancing merrily in the street, including an old man no younger than 78 years old cutting one heck of a rug. When he sat down to rest, he offered us the free chair beside him. We declined, but he offered to watch our stuff for us if we cared to dance. Seeing as how he was quite aged and probably couldn't run very fast, thus making him not much of a purse snatching threat, I left my bag and leftovers under his watchful eye and Shelby and I did our own rug cutting. I love to dance, but to see me dance is like watching someone have a seizure, so I don't do it often. When you're dancing with a kid, however, you can dance like an epileptic lunatic and no one cares, so I did. I also truly love Zydeco music. It reminds me of my PawPaw, and makes me feel warm and fuzzy, even though I have no idea what's being sung when Creole or French is used. We danced for a good four or five songs and mama was done. So we bade farewell to the sweet old gentleman and browsed a shop across the corner. Outside, Defend New Orleans had a booth set up, I bought a DNO pin for my messenger bag and Shelby got a free Defend Who Dat sticker, maintaing her record of having never been to the Quarter without someone giving her something for free.
I noticed it was starting to get a bit dim, so we began our return trip. We bought a bottle of water at one of the convenience/trinket stores and sat on a bench beside the gold statue (I think it's Joan of Arc), beneath a tree that had small fragrant flowers all over. We also noticed that there was a dog leash and a broom in it. Once we resumed our walk, we came upon an interesting shop. I can't for the life of me remember the name. It's filled with traditional Asian puppets, wooden figures of every sort, jewelry and ceremonial masks of varied origin. The owner, a man who DJ's in is off hours under the name Sight, was quite friendly and more than willing to answer our questions about his unique wares. Shelby even felt comfortable enough to ask questions of her own. He explained the usage of the Tibetan children's masks, which he let her try on, and the concept of abstract art, which probably went about two inches over her head. He also told us of his contempt for digital music in the club scene and the superiority of vinyl.
Once we left Sight's company, we walked to Canal. Well, I walked, Shelby bummed a ride in my arms. Great way to work off a crawfish eggroll! We were able to catch the Streetcar just off of Canal, only slightly further from the door this time, and rode it almost all the way to The Avenue. We probably could have ridden it all the way, but I was afraid we'd miss our stop in the dark.
I'm confident in believing all the walking of the day burned off not only our street food, but our homemade buffalo tacos that night, and probably my egg the next morning. Calorie burning aside, it was a Saturday truly well spent.
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