Serafin and I visited New Orleans during the first week of January, 2011. (We arrived and left by Amtrak.) We stayed at a B&B just outside the French Quarter, the Banana Courtyard, that claims to have once been an upscale brothel. We heard some excellent music, including Jazz (at Preservation Hall and the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro) as well as Blues and Zydico, and we (over-)indulged in some extremely good food. We can also recommend the Louisiana State Museum at the Cabildo and the Presbytère, with excellent exhibits dealing with the extraordinary and surprising history of New Orleans and a stunning exhibit about hurricane Katriina. We also found the Museum of Pharmacy fascinating. Our visit happened to coincide with the Sugar Bowl (or whatever it’s called nowadays), and the streets of the French Quarter were filled with a lot of folks wearing red shirts and claiming to be Razorbacks or Buckeyes….
We also had a chance to hang out with an old friend friend from Wilton, J.W. Tatum, whose daughter was in our sons’ classes at Pine Hill Waldorf School and at High Mowing School years ago.
