OH BOY. This might be long. Sorry in advance and happy reading.
So we've learned that waking up late is just a part of how we vacay. So, from now on, just assume we didn't get out of the hotel until mid to late morning. We hit the street with in intention of food and the garden district. We knew we had to walk to Canal Street and, according to google maps and other internet sources, hop on a street car that would take us to a quiet district filled with picturesque mansions and unattainable dreams.
Getting to Canal Street was easy. It was finding the correct stop that proved difficult. We stopped in a Starbucks for a quick breakfast and (second) cup of coffee while we tried to figure out where to buy tickets. Once we figured out we could buy single day passes directly from the streetcar conductor, we headed to our stop.
It was the wrong stop. So we headed to our correct stop. That was the wrong stop. We walked two blocks down Bourbon street, and there was no stop. Back to our second original stop. Still the wrong stop, but the driver of the street car informed us that our desired line, 12, was detoured due to construction and we'd need to hop the bus that was across the street and about to leave. As soon as the cross walk sign turned white, we booked it. We made it just in time. The bus took us around multiple closed off streets before dropping us and our fellow passengers off closer to the garden district. We were instructed to get off and make our way to the trolley that was waiting across the intersection. That streetcar was the one we'd been trying to get to.
The car only took us down three more stops before we had to get off. The Garden District was gorgeous and smelled so much better than the Quarter. Big plantation homes with ornate details and pastel paints. Tall columns and lush, green yards. It seemed that every block had a house being repainted or renovated. We stopped in a little mall where Aaron bought a book. The mall wasn't much so we kept on walking. We walked passed Commander's Palace, a famous restaurant with a dress code we didn't adhere to. We also passed Lafayette Cemetery #1, but kept walking. Kaylea had read something about a mansion tour and wanted to find it. Google informed us that the Buckner Mansion was less than a mile away, so again we started walking. The mansion was humongous, but it wasn't the mansion that gave tours. We turned back up the street, and walked back to the little mall to grab a snack.
After cooling off in the cafe, we decided to check out the nearby cemetery. It was more kept than St. Louis #1, with less crumbling tombs and more flowers left at their entrances.
It was getting pretty muggy and we had a scheduled engagement at 3:30, so we began to make our way back to the hotel. On the streetcar ride back, we passed the mansion tour that Kaylea had been searching for, but we decided it didn't look interesting. Back on the bus to canal street. This time around, the bus was packed. Luckily, we had been some of the first ones on, so we didn't have to stand/spoon with other passengers.
We rested in the hotel for a bit before making our way to Glass Magik. Kaylea had booked us both psychic readings with Miss Patty at a random spiritual shop just down the street from our hotel. We had joked about seeing a psychic just for fun, but this wasn't just a palm reader with crystals at a table in Jackson Square. This shop had a following. It also had a bunch of reviews saying how great Miss Patty is. Real. Deal.
Aaron had done some research the night before to figure out what to expect and make a list of "good" questions to ask. (Apparently closed-ended questions are a no-no.) Kaylea hadn't really come up with a list of questions, and just planned to wing it. Kaylea was oddly nervous for her first psychic reading. What if it was mind blowing? What if we learned something we didn't want to know? What if it was all a hoax and "bye money" for a kooky old woman to tell us our auras were sparkly and our childhood pet says hi?
Kaylea went first, and then Aaron. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Miss Patty seamed to ramble on for both of us. She used tarot cards and tiles a little, but mostly closed her eyes and said "we see", referring to the spirits that guided her. A lot of what she said could just be general advice you'd give to most young people. Some of it seemed to be more specific to our lives, but she could have just been going off minor cues we were subconsciously giving. There were a couple of random definitives though. For example, she described a transition that matched Kaylea's new hire training schedule, said children would be in the picture by the time Kaylea turns 27, the first would be a boy and the second try would most likely be twins (cross your fingers Jodi). She also gave Aaron some definitives, but told him to keep them between us for now. :)
We tried to keep a healthy balance of open-mindedness and skepticism, but it was a fun experience. We both also talked to the shop owner, who told us both the same stories and kept forgetting the answers to the same questions she kept asking us. She suggested that Kaylea has Empathetic powers.
After all that hoopla, we exchanged our psychic reading results and headed to Touch Point, which is a massage spa Kaylea's mother suggested for out-of-this-world foot rubs. We picked our massages from a menu and sat down in comfy recliners surrounded by pepto-colored walls and dipped our feet in buckets of warm water with tea bags. A woman prepped the station and brought over another masseuse to begin. Kaylea's masseuse sat down as the woman continued to prep. Another woman came over and shoved the first before sitting down in front of Aaron. A full-blown shoving fight between the women ensued. They pushed each other, yanked towels from each others hands, and even a small bout of hand slapping. All to get to massage Aaron's hairy hobbit feet. We were both so confused. Kaylea's male masseuse just laughed. It didn't look like a joke, neither women were smiling or laughing. The women who originally prepped us won out and the challenger sulked off.
The foot massages were pretty good, but Kaylea was so ticklish and jumpy that the guy had to keep reminding her to relax.
Next on the list was Frenchmen Street. We wanted to get some dinner and see the Frenchmen Art Market. Again, we tried to get on a streetcar, but it was running pretty late according to google maps. Just as we were about to start walking, the car came around the bend. We made it to our destination pretty quickly and found a nice restaurant across from the market. Kaylea immediately ordered a mimosa with cranberry juice instead of orange juice (Kaylea has developed this weird thing for champagne and assorted juices) and Aaron ordered a "Muscato" from Africa. The food was phenomenal, which seems to be the norm here in nola. However, there was the most dramatic scene that built for most of the dinner, and came to fruition right as the dining room's attendance had peaked. A young woman was trash talking her horrible father to her grandmother, and the grandmother was in complete denial and didn't want to hear anymore. It seemed as though she was trapped (we all were) and both women were emotional and crying. At one point the room was so hushed that people started talking again just to drown out the awkwardness.
After dinner we went over to the market. The highlight was the adorable pet rat that one of the vendor's let Kaylea hold. Aaron had to remind her to "give the nice lady her rat back." The market was pretty small and we went through it pretty quickly. As we made our way back to the trolley stop, we noticed a street car was already there, so we ran like weirdos down the street to catch it.
Back in the quarter, Aaron wanted to try absinthe, because having sickening shots of it it Prague wasn't enough of a lesson. We made our way to an absinthe house near Jackson Square that we had noticed earlier, but the most basic glass was $12, cash only. We had $11. Aaron still wanted to try some New Orleans absinthe, so we went to another absinthe house, this time on Bourbon street. The bar wasn't cash only, but the cheapest glass was $18! Aaron sprung for a $20 glass where the sugar cube was doused in liquor and then set of fire. Neither of us enjoy licorice, so you can probably imagine how the experience went. We had to ask for a glass of water to help chase the drink, cringing after every sip. We drank maybe half of the glass before sheepishly bailing out of the bar.
After that, we were done for the night. Aaron had taken a big gulp of the green stuff to get us halfway to finished, and it wasn't sitting well.
Still, it had been a great day.
So we've learned that waking up late is just a part of how we vacay. So, from now on, just assume we didn't get out of the hotel until mid to late morning. We hit the street with in intention of food and the garden district. We knew we had to walk to Canal Street and, according to google maps and other internet sources, hop on a street car that would take us to a quiet district filled with picturesque mansions and unattainable dreams.
Getting to Canal Street was easy. It was finding the correct stop that proved difficult. We stopped in a Starbucks for a quick breakfast and (second) cup of coffee while we tried to figure out where to buy tickets. Once we figured out we could buy single day passes directly from the streetcar conductor, we headed to our stop.
It was the wrong stop. So we headed to our correct stop. That was the wrong stop. We walked two blocks down Bourbon street, and there was no stop. Back to our second original stop. Still the wrong stop, but the driver of the street car informed us that our desired line, 12, was detoured due to construction and we'd need to hop the bus that was across the street and about to leave. As soon as the cross walk sign turned white, we booked it. We made it just in time. The bus took us around multiple closed off streets before dropping us and our fellow passengers off closer to the garden district. We were instructed to get off and make our way to the trolley that was waiting across the intersection. That streetcar was the one we'd been trying to get to.
The car only took us down three more stops before we had to get off. The Garden District was gorgeous and smelled so much better than the Quarter. Big plantation homes with ornate details and pastel paints. Tall columns and lush, green yards. It seemed that every block had a house being repainted or renovated. We stopped in a little mall where Aaron bought a book. The mall wasn't much so we kept on walking. We walked passed Commander's Palace, a famous restaurant with a dress code we didn't adhere to. We also passed Lafayette Cemetery #1, but kept walking. Kaylea had read something about a mansion tour and wanted to find it. Google informed us that the Buckner Mansion was less than a mile away, so again we started walking. The mansion was humongous, but it wasn't the mansion that gave tours. We turned back up the street, and walked back to the little mall to grab a snack.
After cooling off in the cafe, we decided to check out the nearby cemetery. It was more kept than St. Louis #1, with less crumbling tombs and more flowers left at their entrances.
It was getting pretty muggy and we had a scheduled engagement at 3:30, so we began to make our way back to the hotel. On the streetcar ride back, we passed the mansion tour that Kaylea had been searching for, but we decided it didn't look interesting. Back on the bus to canal street. This time around, the bus was packed. Luckily, we had been some of the first ones on, so we didn't have to stand/spoon with other passengers.
We rested in the hotel for a bit before making our way to Glass Magik. Kaylea had booked us both psychic readings with Miss Patty at a random spiritual shop just down the street from our hotel. We had joked about seeing a psychic just for fun, but this wasn't just a palm reader with crystals at a table in Jackson Square. This shop had a following. It also had a bunch of reviews saying how great Miss Patty is. Real. Deal.
Aaron had done some research the night before to figure out what to expect and make a list of "good" questions to ask. (Apparently closed-ended questions are a no-no.) Kaylea hadn't really come up with a list of questions, and just planned to wing it. Kaylea was oddly nervous for her first psychic reading. What if it was mind blowing? What if we learned something we didn't want to know? What if it was all a hoax and "bye money" for a kooky old woman to tell us our auras were sparkly and our childhood pet says hi?
Kaylea went first, and then Aaron. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Miss Patty seamed to ramble on for both of us. She used tarot cards and tiles a little, but mostly closed her eyes and said "we see", referring to the spirits that guided her. A lot of what she said could just be general advice you'd give to most young people. Some of it seemed to be more specific to our lives, but she could have just been going off minor cues we were subconsciously giving. There were a couple of random definitives though. For example, she described a transition that matched Kaylea's new hire training schedule, said children would be in the picture by the time Kaylea turns 27, the first would be a boy and the second try would most likely be twins (cross your fingers Jodi). She also gave Aaron some definitives, but told him to keep them between us for now. :)
We tried to keep a healthy balance of open-mindedness and skepticism, but it was a fun experience. We both also talked to the shop owner, who told us both the same stories and kept forgetting the answers to the same questions she kept asking us. She suggested that Kaylea has Empathetic powers.
After all that hoopla, we exchanged our psychic reading results and headed to Touch Point, which is a massage spa Kaylea's mother suggested for out-of-this-world foot rubs. We picked our massages from a menu and sat down in comfy recliners surrounded by pepto-colored walls and dipped our feet in buckets of warm water with tea bags. A woman prepped the station and brought over another masseuse to begin. Kaylea's masseuse sat down as the woman continued to prep. Another woman came over and shoved the first before sitting down in front of Aaron. A full-blown shoving fight between the women ensued. They pushed each other, yanked towels from each others hands, and even a small bout of hand slapping. All to get to massage Aaron's hairy hobbit feet. We were both so confused. Kaylea's male masseuse just laughed. It didn't look like a joke, neither women were smiling or laughing. The women who originally prepped us won out and the challenger sulked off.
The foot massages were pretty good, but Kaylea was so ticklish and jumpy that the guy had to keep reminding her to relax.
Next on the list was Frenchmen Street. We wanted to get some dinner and see the Frenchmen Art Market. Again, we tried to get on a streetcar, but it was running pretty late according to google maps. Just as we were about to start walking, the car came around the bend. We made it to our destination pretty quickly and found a nice restaurant across from the market. Kaylea immediately ordered a mimosa with cranberry juice instead of orange juice (Kaylea has developed this weird thing for champagne and assorted juices) and Aaron ordered a "Muscato" from Africa. The food was phenomenal, which seems to be the norm here in nola. However, there was the most dramatic scene that built for most of the dinner, and came to fruition right as the dining room's attendance had peaked. A young woman was trash talking her horrible father to her grandmother, and the grandmother was in complete denial and didn't want to hear anymore. It seemed as though she was trapped (we all were) and both women were emotional and crying. At one point the room was so hushed that people started talking again just to drown out the awkwardness.
After dinner we went over to the market. The highlight was the adorable pet rat that one of the vendor's let Kaylea hold. Aaron had to remind her to "give the nice lady her rat back." The market was pretty small and we went through it pretty quickly. As we made our way back to the trolley stop, we noticed a street car was already there, so we ran like weirdos down the street to catch it.
Back in the quarter, Aaron wanted to try absinthe, because having sickening shots of it it Prague wasn't enough of a lesson. We made our way to an absinthe house near Jackson Square that we had noticed earlier, but the most basic glass was $12, cash only. We had $11. Aaron still wanted to try some New Orleans absinthe, so we went to another absinthe house, this time on Bourbon street. The bar wasn't cash only, but the cheapest glass was $18! Aaron sprung for a $20 glass where the sugar cube was doused in liquor and then set of fire. Neither of us enjoy licorice, so you can probably imagine how the experience went. We had to ask for a glass of water to help chase the drink, cringing after every sip. We drank maybe half of the glass before sheepishly bailing out of the bar.
After that, we were done for the night. Aaron had taken a big gulp of the green stuff to get us halfway to finished, and it wasn't sitting well.
Still, it had been a great day.
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