Sales tax is one of those annoying adjustments you have to make when shopping in the US. The best trick is to include it in the currency rate rule of thumb when comparing prices to back home. So, with the exchange rate at 1.40 or to use the inverse which is .715 and then add 9% sales tax, that gives you an effective price tag conversion rate of .78 ie everything marked $100 is really €78. Well it works for me!
You know its a recession when the state give a 2 day sales tax holiday, not that you would ever see such a VAT holiday in Ireland! This week-end there is a state sales tax holiday in Louisiana. That means that there is a 5% reduction on everything. Local taxes of about 4% still apply. Of course this is of no interest to us because as visitors to Louisiana we are entitled to get all the sales tax back. But there are a lot of hoops and procedures.
We don't need much incentive to go shopping in our family - so we were back at Lakeside Mall today. It was a lot busier than earlier in the week - I suppose no sales tax is an incentive. The retailers were doing their bit with some great sales - another sign that there is a recession.
Lisa discovered how to get the sales tax back today - its not so easy unless you are organised. First you must carry you passport or at least know your passport number. Then you must ask the retailer for a Louisiana sales tax voucher. Then you must keep your receipt and go somewhere - we havn't figured that put yet. Lisa?
Senan and I were restrained. - we bought coffee, hot chocolate and beignets. Beignets are doughnuts without a hole and loads of icing sugar piled on top. Delicious.
Mags and Lisa did their bit for the US economy and shopped until they could carry no more. Its amazing what you can get for $200 when there is a sale on. It was getting dark by the time we got home and we caught the sunset just at the end of our street. We ate at the Mall so we had a quiet evening playing cards and nibbling whatever was to hand.
Louisiana is called after King Louis XIV of France back in 1682. What we don't remember is that for just under 40 years Louisiana was a Spanish Colony. Louis XV gave it to his cousin the King of Spain in 1763, much to the displeasure if the locals. In the French Quarter there are tiles on many of the streets indicating the old Spanish street names. I suspect that most of these are recent replicas rather than the original street signs. Napolean took it back in 1800. But he only used to to finance his wars in europe and he sold it on to the US for $15m in 1803. It became a state in 1812.
Today we lazed in the pool and headed out for some Mexican food in the evening. We were hoping for something light to eat - but that's not really possible in a Mexican Restaurant. The food was good but there was just so much!!
It was another lazy day by the pool. The sky was clearer and the sun was hotter. But there are lots of shady spots in the garden. When it gets too hot we can either go for a swim or go inside where the air conditioning is a cool 70 degrees.
We consulted Zagat again and decided to see if we could locate a good value point. We also thought we might explore the French Quarter again. We settled on Adolfos on Frenchmans Street. Frenchmans is also a good place to check out the music venues - d.b.l. and Snug Harbor being just 2 I have read about. We headed out around six and we found a parking lot at the Farmers Market just on the eastern edge of the Quarter.
We walked up Frenchmans and found Adolfos . We almost past it by. It is located above a bar in a run down looking timber building. Only for the name on the door; some reassurance that the address was correct and that we were using the current edition of Zagat we would have assumed it was closed down. We went up the dark stairs and found the restaurant on the second floor as Zagats had promised. It also promised southern Italian cuisine with a Louisiana touch. The room was dark but cool. We were a little early but there were some diners there before us. We were greeted by someone who looked like he might even be Adolfo and he showed us to a table by the window. Adolfo gave us the menus and asked us if it was our first time here. When we confirmed that it was, he then advised us that it was cash only if that was ok! No problem!
The menu was very interesting, seafood of course but also a range of veal and chicken dishes. Adolfo told us that the house speciality (not on the menu) was rack of lamb. Another speciality was the blue ocean sauce which was a seafood sauce with shrimp and crawfish. It all sounded delicious. I ordered the veal with ocean sauce; Lisa decided on the Cannelloni and Mags ordered spicy chicken. Senan went for the rack of lamb. Each main course came with a salad or pasta served Italian style, as a first plate. The meat dishes were each wonderfully tasty. Senan's rack of lamb was amazing as you can see! We couldn't even think about dessert so we paid up and headed out into the evening. We certainly are planning a return trip there.
We wandered over towards Bourbon Street. We were at the far end of the quarter but we could see the bright lights of the Bourbon Street bars in the distance. By now it was dark and it was also warm and humid. There were some interesting houses at this end of Bourbon Street. Most buildings had what looked like a 2 seater sofa out front - they were steps up to the door with a little low wall built up each side.
As we walked along we wondered if Senan would get into any of the bars or venues. One of the first bars we passed offered European Jazz and we noticed a family with some young kids sitting inside the door. We marked that down for later, in any event the music wasn't due to start for another 30 minutes. We wandered into a Voodoo Shop selling all sorts of things including dolls - very strange. There was an interesting poster and photo shop - Senan got some postcards of Jimmi Hendrix and Bob Marley. As we moved down Bourbon the bars got louder and although it was mid-week and not too busy it was still starting to rock and you could see how it might be at the week-end or during Mardi Gras, or even at 2 in the morning!. Most bars had live bands. There was probably more rock than jazz being played in the bars we passed. We didn't go the full length of the street it was just getting brighter and louder!
Somewhere past Pat O'Briens we headed back to the first pub we had seen. The music had started and as we stood looking in we were ushered to seats just in front of the band - we ordered beers and sat in and enjoyed the music. It turns out that this was Fritzels, one of the better known spots. The band played old fashioned jazz. The trumpeter played and sang in the Louis Armstrong style. Senan was pretty impressed with the banjo player. The place was pretty small but they packed them in and sold them drink. We were on a narrow bench with a table behind our backs - not the most comfortable but we had a good view of the action. We stayed about 40 minutes. The music was very good - but we were getting past our bed-time! We headed home exhausted. Another good day.
It was a lovely lazy day today. The sun shone brightly from early morning. We lay out in the sun, read our books, and swam in the pool. We had a lovely lunch at home and then did more of the same in the afternoon. A shower of rain scattered us around 4.30 but it didn't last long and by then we were ready for our showers and the cool of the air conditioning.
We found the excellent Zagat guide to restaurants and nightspots in New Orleans. Zagat served us well in New York in the past so we made our restaurant choice based on one of its "most popular" list. We choose an interesting restaurant called Dick and Jenny's at the river end of our street. When I say that its about 4 miles away and you probably can't drive all the way down our street because its one way sometimes and anyway as a little narrow street with houses its never going to be the fastest route. The restaurant was described as Creole/Eclectic style of food. It majored in seafood though Senan and Mags had duck and beef while Lisa had Salmon and I had scallops.
The food and the ambiance was very good. It is an old clapperboard building and the inside walls are painted over the original timber. Senan had a monster ice cream and chocolate chip sandwich with cream and chocolate sauce for desert. I had to steal a bit! It was a little expensive - but a good eating experience and worth it. After eating we found and explored a large supermarket called Rouses. Every night we are managing to stay awake 30 minutes longer - by the time we get fully into the local time zone it will be time to go home.
The climate in New Orleans is a touch tropical and when it rains, it pours. Sunday afternoon we had our first example of this. It's hard to do it justice on camera.
It lasted about 20 minutes and while it was dull and overcast for about another hour or so, the sun made it out again. Of course the humidity was sky high afterwards.
From the seven day weather forecast in the newspapers it looks like this is the pattern, nice sunshine in the morning; interrupted, sometimes very briefly, by rain in the early afternoon and followed by sunshine again. So far that has been our experience
We found the serious Lakeside shopping mall this afternoon. While we are trying to save our shopping until we hit New York, I'm afraid we couldn't resist some of the bargains today. They had a Hollister store here, which they don't have in Manhattan! that's our excuse anyway. Macy's have recently opened a store in the mall. You can certainly see from the sales and the prices that there is a recession on. Some of the bargains were just too hard to resist!
Sunday just after noon we ventured out downtown. Its only 20 minutes drive. We parked at Canal Place an up market shopping mall. We were just at the edge of the French Quarter. We started to wander down Chartres Street and gradually zig-zagged our way to Bourbon Street arriving just at the famous Pat O'Briens bar - home of the Hurricane - a drink not a tropical storm!
That part of Bourbon Street has lots of bars - some with music some with food. All seemed to require you to be over 21 to get in the door. Food was now becoming an urgent requirement as it was a long time since breakfast at 7.30 this morning.
We found a nice looking Bistro near the river. Mags and Lisa ordered burgers while Senan ordered the southern fried chicken and I decided to go local and ordered Jambalaya. We got some drinks and waited for food - we were now ravenous and dangerous! We finished our first beer and still no food.
Then our waiter arrived with three appetizer-sized bowls and an apology - the chefs had decided to hold a meeting and our order was delayed - the appetizers, of course, were on the house. The appetizers included a bowl of Gumbo which is a spicy soup this one has shrimp and fish stock. I loved it the others were less enthusiastic! There was also a red bean stew which was ok, but not as good as Tays! Our food arrived the Jambalaya was delicious as were the burgers and chicken.
Well fed we wandered out to inspect the river close at hand - it is about 2500 feet or half a mile wide as it runs through New Orleans. We found an interesting group of craft and tourist shops with lots of New Orleans themed stuff. We also ran into some pretty good street musicians.
It was a typical first look around - we sort of knew where we were, and generally got a good feel for the place. All in all a very good taster for New Orleans - though, through it all, it was very very hot - the shops provided welcomed air conditioned respite.
On the way home, we paid another visit to Roberts, the local high quality supermarket, on the way home. Back in the house we just lazed around and soon enough it was approaching 9 pm and we were all knackered and we headed for bed. We are still on an inbetween time zone - rising early at 7.00 am and ready for bed by 9 - just about 2 hours off a sensible holiday schedule.
Finally we were on our way to New Orleans whee we were doing a house swop with Gene and Tay D'Amour. As we were flying out they had just landed. It was a long journey, 8 hours to Chicago and just over 2 hours to New Orleans with an hour and thirty minutes to transfer and clear immigration in Chicago. It was a pretty tight transfer - fortunately our flight was delayed by 20 minutes or they would have had to pages is at the airport:
"would the last remaining Paddys flying to Nu'Or-lans get their asses in gear or we'll be flying without y'all!"
Anyway we made it ok. In New Orleans we had a little trouble locating the house - I had transposed two of the house numbers and so we were looking for 3420 Cadiz (which doesn't exist! Ooops!) instead of 4320 Cadiz! So we had just a few anxious minutes and a very bemused taxi driver!
The house is wonderful and exceeded our expectations. It has been renovated in the last 2 years. It has a lovely kitchen, lovely wooden floors. There are two lovely bedrooms and a pull out bed in the TV room. Senan has installed hmself down there for the first week - there is talk of a swop in the second week!
Tay had left us good instructions and a most welcome traditional Red Bean stew with the following note:
"In old New Orleans Monday was spent by the ladies washing clothes. As this was an all day chore, scrubbing, hanging and folding, the evening meal had to be something that could practically cook itself. The traditional Red Beans and Rice, cooked slowly for most of the day, is still eaten in homes and in restaurants all over the city on Monday. In the refrig you will find a pot of this yummy New Orleans dish. The rice is also ready, the beans are served over the rice. When you warm the beans you may have to add a little water. Hope you will enjoy it on the day you arrive or on another busy day.... it doesn't have to be a Monday!!!!"
The Red Bean stew was indeed tummy and just what we needed after a long tiring day. We managed to unpack most thing and stayed up as long as we could - but by 8.30 we had to hit the sack- it was now 2.30 Irish time!
