We start this morning with a look at some of the artwork that has been gracing us this week:

This morning we hurried thru  breakfast this morning so we could bet to the World War II museum on time for our 9:00 showing of their excellent (produced and narrated by Tom Hanks) film about WW II.  It was excellent.  Following that we spent some time viewing well-curated exhibits about the war.  For some reason neither of us thought to take any pictures.

However, while crossing the sky-bridge between two of the museum buildings we got an excellent view of “Lee square”

You’ll notice that the column doesn’t have a statue on top.  It’s currently in a warehouse awaiting transfer to the Confederate History Museum – where it belongs.  One of our tour guides told us that there is quite a bit of conversation about what figure should be placed on the top of the column in Lee Square.  Candidates include Spike, Bruce, Stan and Sarah.

Following lunch in their cafeteria we were free to spend another couple of hours in the museum, or not, as the spirit moved us, before our bus took us back to the French quarter or our hotel.

We chose “not.”  We wandered down a couple of blocks to the New Orleans Glass studio and gallery.  It was great.  They are displaying many wonderful works behind their “no cameras allowed” sign and we almost watched an artist blowing.  We did buy a few wine glasses to add to our collection.

After that we circled the block to St. Patrick’s cathedral – the first Irish Catholic church in town.  Unfortunately there was mass going on at the time so we didn’t get a chance to see the inside.

Next we crossed the street and in half a block we were in Lafayette square.

Being on the west side of Canal Street we were in the “American Sector”  So Lafayette square serves as the counterpoint to the French/Spanish Jackson Square (see yesterday’s post).  Cheryl pointed out that only in New Orleans could the French square be named for an American and the American square be named for a Frenchman.  Welcome to New Orleans.  One other point.  The statue in the center of the square isn’t Lafayette.  It’s Henry Clay.

The square is surrounded by government buildings – the “American sector” city hall, the federal building, the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Appeals court.  It also borders St. Charles street, which is a main parade route during Carnival season.  They are just now dismantling the bleachers from in front of old City Hall

And they haven’t yet begun to take the beads down from the trees:

We then made our way back to the hotel.  Along the way we passed the lone remnant of the great Jazz history in our neighborhood.

The Eagle Saloon dates from 1851 and saw the very beginnings of Jazz, with notables like Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden and John Robichaux.  The building is currently being restored and is due to reopen later this year.  Behind the Eagle Saloon on the right in this picture is the new city hall.  It is built on top of a significant part of this area  that includes Louis Armstrong’s birthplace.

Arriving at the hotel we took a nap.

Refreshed we rejoined the group for the evening’s event – a cooking class at the New Orleans Cooking School.

Our instructor walked us thru the preparation of Gumbo, Shrimp Étouffée, Pralines, and

After enjoying the fruits of his creation (and some excellent beer) we wandered out in search of music.

We eventually found a good band performing at Cafe du Mode (the Bignet place) and discovered that they make an excellent gin and tonic (with more gin than tonic).  Next we walked (mostly upright) over to Bourbon Street. We had avoided Bourbon Street because of its reputation as the “party street” – which, it turns out, is an understatement.

That said, we had drink vouchers for Fritzel’s Jazz club (billing itself as the oldest Jazz Club still in operation).  So, ever in the search for good jazz (as opposed to the noise that passes for music spewing from every other place in town) we stopped by Fritzel’s for a drink.  The house band is led by Tom Fisher (remember him from last night?).

They were excellent.

We stayed for a second set.  During that set Tom actually gave a shout-out to Brad.

Then we wandered (weaving somewhat) thru the crowd of revelers back to our hotel where I poured Cheryl into bed (which, she tells me, is still spinning).

Tomorrow we wind up our New Orleans experience and head for Norman to dry out and play with grandsons.

till then,

R