Jazz And Beads On Bourbon Street

Still exhausted from our endless bender through the Southeast, we arrived in the quiet town of New Orleans. Once again, Peter and the Wolf had to pull their strength together to see the sights in one of the countries most iconic cities. We received dozens of recommendations of places to visit, but we had our own agenda. We wanted to see Jackson Square, hear live jazz, and experience Bourbon Street. 

When we entered New Orleans, we were expecting beautiful French architecture and crowded streets. We took a wrong turn and wound up on a street with abandoned buildings and cops roaming the area. We locked the doors and avoided any eye contact.

Geckos were incredibly common here, but we were fascinated by every one we spotted. 

We settled in to our hotel just on the outskirts of town. The second cab service we called arrived at our room ten minutes after the call ended. The first service quoted us 45 minutes... No way, we wanted to get out there. This picture was taken inside our cab to Bourbon St. We didn't understand why, but every cab has a driver and a passenger. These guys may have been in the mafia.

We knew Jackson Square was in the French Quarter and we didn't mind walking around while making our way to Bourbon St., so we told the cab to drop us off here. This is a picture of the north side of Jackson Square and the adjacent restaurants and condominiums.

Our early introduction to New Orleans music. We would hear plenty more. Most better than this. These guys played standards like "When The Saints Go Marching In," etc.

Jackson Square.

After a quick tour of our surroundings, we had a hankering for some cajun cuisine. We went to Cafe Pontalba across the street from Jackson Square. 

Thanks to KMac from Nashville for the Bloody Mary suggestion.

 Thought about the jumbo and jambalaya, but we've enjoyed those before. Fried oyster po-boys had quite the reputation and were a must-have. You don't see po-boys on many menus in the Northwest. 

Toulouse Street. Any Doobie Brothers fans out there? We advise all to listen to the song at the bottom of this post.

We were greeted by an energetic marching band on Bourbon Street. The party was just getting started.

It wasn't Mardi Gras, but it was Saturday. The beads flew like a Tim Tebow pass. 

Cheersing for our newly acquired beads. After five failed attempts of trying to throw them to us, they finally tried to throw some beads to a girl about six feet away. Went right to us.

Electric Wolfy Land.

Wolf now holding a "to-go cup." We couldn't believe that we could walk freely with beer on the streets. NO GLASS!

Before tourism took over New Orleans, it was a hub for jazz music. Countless legends are walked the streets here and played in the many venues. 

We knew of one of those venues (thanks to Jerry Jazz Musician). Touted as being the birthplace of jazz, we had to see a show at Preservation Hall. The feeling of Louis Armstrong playing here gave us goosebumps. 

We purchased tickets to the 10pm show. The concert room seats 35 people, so we got in line at 9:25 to ensure a seat. We abided by the no pictures rule during the concert. We were pretty much in awe of the music the whole time so we didn't bother to snap a pic anyway.

Tuba Player (center): "My name's Louis Armstrong Jr."

Wolf: "My name's Ken Griffey Jr."

We took a picture with the tuba player. We heard the Preservation Hall Band. They had recently returned from a Northeastern tour which included New York. They were an energetic six piece that traded solos in classic New Orleans Jazz fashion. They would begin their songs together, then split off to solos with the drummer keeping the beat. We could have listened to them for hours in that intimate setting. 

We took our market purchased Tecate's up to the balcony of a bar in the heart of Bourbon Street.

Every bar on Bourbon Street has two stories with access to their balcony from the second. At first, we thought we had to be VIP in order to be on the balconies. False.

We passed this club on our walk up. Peter rocking out to some hip hop.

A New Orleans balcony on Bourbon Street just seemed like the perfect place for cigars. We found a hint of solace away from the masses and had some great conversations over our stogies. 

We left to get some late night grub at a pizza shop. We're both on diets so we got a couple slices of pepperoni. Bourbon Street was fun and we'll definitely be planning trips back in the future. 

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The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed from some breakfast. The breakfast buffet, which included fried chicken, waffles, gritz, bacon, eggs, mac and cheese, biscuits, and everything you would ever want, was a little out of our price range. We settled for the ham and eggs. It was a hearty breakfast before our swamp tour.

The Doobie Brothers - "Toulouse Street"