After a couple of days with no rain, the rain arrived mid morning for a change. We had thunder and lighting too. That was all the incentive we needed to get out and do some tourist like things. The rain stopped quickly as it does and we drove to Maple Street and took the St Charles Streetcar towards town. As we waited for the tram we saw people queueing for lunch at Camellia's Diner. That's one to check out later.
We got out at the Garden District to see the Lafayette Cemetery, but it closes early on Saturday - so you could say it was dead quiet. We walked around the Garden District admiring the amazing houses there. As we headed back for the tram we found the Garden District Bookshop and had a browse there. It was in an old timber building with a couple of interesting shops and a lovely coffee shop together. I guess you could call it a turn of the century mall. We bought a few books and then sat and had coffee.
Outside Garden District Bookshop, Uploaded by M+MD.
Refreshed we headed back to St Charles Street and the Streetcar. Its such an old fashioned tram with high ceilings and timber seating. It looks like nothing has changed about these teams in nearly 100 years. Tennessee Williams had exactly these streetcars in mind in his play "A Streetcar Named Desire". As we approached downtown we saw a lot of men and women in red dresses. It turns that this is the annual New Orleans Hash House Harriers Red Dress Run . The club bills itself as "The Drinking Club with a Running Problem."
We got off the street car walked to the Riverwalk centre where we got food. I had a shrimp sandwich also known locally as a shrimp Po-Boy. It was another mall, Senan and I had been conned again. However Senan got a cool pair of Converse shoes so I guess he didn't do too bad. I consoled myself with Kermit Ruffins' new CD. As the name implies this Mall runs along the river and the views from the balcony are pretty interesting with every type of ship and boat travelling up and down the river. Shopped out, we headed back for the streetcar. The houses along St Charles are pretty spectacular too.
We got home, showered and changed because to-night we were going to the Rock N Bowl just about a mile away to see Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers as recommended by Gene and Tay. It was a very interesting venue. It was family friendly, the only rule was no alcohol under 21. There were about 10 bowling alleys as well as a bar a stage and a dance floor. We just managed to get a seat. There were a couple of different parties going on - a wedding party and a birthday party. The band were setting up as we arrived.
At about 9.45 Kermit and the band arrived and started playing. It was a Louis Armstrong type performance to start - the singing trumpeter playing jazz classics. As the night went on the style broadened out but it was really what you would expect Louis Armstrong to sing if he were around today. It was s pretty hard crowd at the start in that most people were continuing to do their own thing. However as the parties started to break up and more people arrived it livened up. Gr then got people up and dancing.
Then the hool-a-hoops arrived. There were some pretty impressive displays and some pretty hopeless cases too! All this was going on while the band played. At some point a group of students with Grease tee shirts arrived in. They certainly knew how to dance. Then we had a demonstration from a couple of professional looking Latin dancers. As midnight approached the whole dance floor was thronged as Kermit did his last number before the break and then he was going to come back and do some more. We thought we better quit a while we were ahead. It was a great night out and the place had a lovely local family feel while playing really good typical New Orleans jazz.
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