Crescent City Love

Another twenty years passed before my next visit to New Orleans. A business trip this time.

Although blogging was beginning to explode and online travel sites were becoming a thing in the early 2000s, the best way to research a trip was to grab a Fodor’s Guide and a highlighter. I’m nostalgic just thinking about those books. I may have placed a quick impulse order just now …

The timing was a bit rough, though. My feisty little mama was in the hospital following a significant fall and bump to the head. The prognosis was not good and in fact, she informed me that I needed to get into the kitchen and start cooking if we were going to feed all these people. 

There was no kitchen. The room was empty except for the two of us, at least as far as I could see. I was sitting vigil and did not expect her to recover (spoiler: she did!). I needed a distraction and my travel guide provided just that.

I spent several days curled up in a chair beside her hospital bed, lost in descriptions of New Orleans. Its history, music, food, neighborhoods, my imagination transported me right out of my reality. I was swaying down St. Charles Boulevard on the greenline streetcar. Reveling in the music, food, and humanity of Jazz Fest. Watching the sun come up over Jackson Square while I sipped strong hot coffee in utter silence. For those scary, unsure days “de Nile” was the Mississippi and I gratefully floated all the way down.

I plotted a detailed itinerary that had nothing to do with the convention I was ostensibly attending. Strangely, I don’t remember much of the time I spent there, apart from a great meal at Herbsaint, the Mardi Gras museum upstairs in Arnaud’s, and spending our last afternoon at a tapas restaurant that is sadly no longer around. “Ain’t dere no more” in the vernacular.

What has always stuck with me about that deep dive was the joy and fascination of learning about New Orleans. I wanted to experience allll of it. I still travel to the Crescent City in my mind, probably every week or two. It’s not the same as being there in person, but it’s the next best thing.