Be Cultural: Part 2: I left my heart in NEW ORLEANS. The City by Day

From top: river boat on the Mississippi, French Quarter, Cafe du Monde, French Quarter, Cafe Amelie courtyard, Clover Grill, Goorin Bros. Hat Store, Eat, Streetcar, Camelia Grill, Audobon Park.

The love affair with New Orleans continues.  Jazz Fest (weekend one) was fantastically fun and inspiring.  While we weren't at the Fairgrounds we explored the city-- mostly through food and drink!!  We wandered the French Quarter- after a heart stopping breakfast of eggs and grits at the Clover Grill diner on Bourbon Street renowned for their diner food and queeny wait staff, I brought Napper to Cafe du Monde for the best and most famous beignets and iced coffees maybe in the world.  We bought him a hat for Jazz Fest at the charming Goorin Bros. Hat Store that harkens back to another time.  Had a lunch of andouille sausage and shrimp pasta and chilled wine in one of the most delightful and charming courtyards in the Quarter at Cafe Amelie.  Fantasized about buying all the art by local artist Alex Beard in his gallery on Royal St.  and checked out the river boats.

A delicious spot for brunch in the Quarter is Eat New Orleans.  It looks the part completely and our breakfasts made up of fried green tomatoes, eggs, grits, bacon and biscuits were soul satisfying and perfectly Southern. On our last day, we rode the streetcar "Uptown" along St. Charles St. which is lined with majestic old mansions.  We hopped off at the last stop and wandered a few blocks past Tulane University and Loyola to the Camelia Grill.  We stood in the line that always exists and wound up on stools at the counter (the only real estate in this New Orleans classic haunt).  The waiters are just about the right amount of cheeky, break into song and make sure you get your burger and "C Freeze" -- the best chocolate milkshake ever made, just the way you like is.  "Dressed" means with sauce, tomato, lettuce on your burger....  After a light lunch (!!) we walked back towards the Quarter through Audobon Park, one of the most tranquil and magical parks with very old oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, lush lawns and baby ducklings resting waterside.  We continued to meander down Magazine Street and would have loved to have popped into a few shops but alas we ran out of time....