Southern Circle Tour

We enjoyed what I’m calling our “Southern Circle Tour” of Louisiana, Missisippi and Alabama. At church today, I commented to several people that I didn’t realize Alabama was such a pretty and fun place.

The trip was a nice mix of city/touristy stuff, historical sites, music, beach (the “vacation from the vacation” that we like so much) and just enough driving to see the countryside. Throw in some great food and some of the nicest, most hospitable people we’ve encountered and you’ve got a recipe for a great vacation. It seemed we were a bit of a curiosity with our northern accents so we had lots of fun talking to people.

The Mississippi River is as much a working river in New Orleans as it is in St. Paul. The boats are a little (a lot) bigger and the river is (a lot) wider.

We stayed at the nicest of our hotels in New Orleans. We got a really good deal on it and it lived up to its #4 ranking on Trip Advisor. The Hotel Le Marais is a small hotel – just 66 rooms, I think – but very nice and in a great location, just a block from the craziness of Bourbon Street. We walked everywhere in New Orleans and only truly got down-poured on once.

Doug wrote about walking around the Garden District on his most recent blog entry. It was really pretty and we enjoyed seeing the old, restored houses and the unique vegetation. The trees look very different than they do here. We enjoyed riding the streetcar and hopped off when we spotted a great BBQ place… you can’t do that on a subway!

There was music EVERYWHERE! I firmly believe anyone can set up a bucket and play in New Orleans. Most of what we heard on the street was excellent. It seemed like a lot of people in the clubs as well as on the street were just playing for tips so we wondered how they piece together enough to keep them going. Tipping is a part of the culture here. We watched a guy walk into the Spotted Cat carrying a trumpet, give a nod to the saxophone player, drop some money in the bucket by the stage and walk out. 

We went to a couple jazz clubs that we had researched and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Our first one was “The Spotted Cat Music Club”. For a $4 beer and some tip money, we could have stayed all afternoon and evening listening to great music. I realized “Berg Early” is not a musician’s trait as every performance began at least 15 minutes late.

I especially liked Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse. It was a very classy place (with classy drink prices to match) but the musicians and the whole atmosphere was fantastic. We went twice. The first night, we heard a more traditional group but the second night we heard the Adonis Rose Quintet. They were phenomenal and I’ve already found them on iTunes. Despite seeming like a very professional, well-rehearsed group, they started about 15 minutes late and the saxophone player actually arrived about 20 minutes late which was quite entertaining.

In the Old US Mint building, the National Park Service has dedicated a museum to preserving the history of Jazz. It looks like a Park Service museum but the ranger was also a fantastic jazz pianist. As part of their preservation efforts, they do free informative concerts throughout the day. It was a great experience.

And here is Louis Armstrong’s well-preserved cornet!