by admin | Oct 13, 2011 | Greater New Orleans
Every Fall, I feel the urge to search the web for u-pick farms and local produce. I’m not much of a gardener myself, shying away from dirty fingernails and mosquito attacks, but the prospect of pumpkin patches and fairytale gourds draws me out to the country—normally. This time, though, we traveled less than a mile before pulling up at an urban farm.
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| Colorful, locally grown bell peppers at Hollygrove Market |
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| The gardens at Hollygrove Market |
Hollygrove Market & Farm on New Orleans’ Olive Street boasts rows of community gardens and a produce market with fresh fruits, vegetables, milk and even meats. We picked up our first satsumas of the season and inquired as to “What’s in the Box?”. For $25, every week you can get a box of seasonal produce all grown from the region. This week’s box included mustard greens, rice, sweet potatoes, squash, okra, green onions, arugula, satsumas, microgreens, corn, turnip greens and cornmeal—all from Louisiana and Mississippi communities. The only thing not at the market was a pumpkin patch, but we still managed to nab a couple for sale.
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| The Pitot House on Bayou St. John |
Following Carrollton Ave. toward Lake Pontchartrain, our next stop was a walk along Bayou St. John to the Pitot House. Thanks to a friend’s Groupon purchase, we were card-carrying members of the Creole country house built in 1799. Once home to notable residents such as Edgar Degas’ great-grandmother, New Orleans’ first American mayor and Mother Cabrini (America’s first named saint), the Pitot House is now owned by the Louisiana Landmark Society and open for tours and special events.
Three-year-old Charles picked most of the flowers in the front yard before we strapped both kids in strollers and took a quick tour of the house and its period furnishings. The home takes you back in time to when living on Bayou St. John meant living in the countryside. Two rooms that particularly stood out were the dining room, with its warm brick floor and modest, but elegant, dining table, and the upstairs parlor with doors opened wide to a veranda overlooking the bayou.
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| Ruins of Fort St. John |
By this point, the kids had become balls of energy, and we headed toward the lakefront and the ruins of Fort St. John where they could run—or crawl—until they passed out from exhaustion. The fort, built in the early 18th century, was the first erected in New Orleans, and it defended the city at the mouth of Bayou St. John. Today, all that is left are a few brick ramparts and some rock pillars, resting at the foot of a levee holding in the bayou.
Charles and I raced each other to the flood control structure dividing the bayou’s waters from those of Lake Pontchartrain. Younger brother August giggled with delight while he bounced on my hip with each step forward. We topped off the visit with a few pushes on the tree swing, and then made our way back home to renew our search for a pumpkin patch.
by admin | Sep 29, 2011 | Greater New Orleans
Boys will be boys. That’s the one thing I have discovered to be overwhelmingly true about our three-year-old son, whose favorite color is blue, is obsessed with dinosaurs and thinks the greatest achievement in life is to find every bug that exists on this planet. Put a net in his right hand and a broken telescope in his left, and an adventure is already in the making. Take him to a state park with alligators, snakes and turtles, and his weekend dreams have come true.
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| Cabins at Fontainebleau State Park |
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| Marsh trail at Fontainebleau |
Hugging Lake Pontchartrain’s northern shoreline, Fontainebleau State Park is ideal for its close proximity to New Orleans and the prospect of a breeze blowing off the lake. We arrived early, paid our $1 per person fee and drove a quick loop to get the park’s layout. The visitor’s center and sugar mill ruins immediately caught our attention, but after driving across the longest bridge in the world to get here, we needed a long path to stretch our legs.
Parking by the water park and watching a group head off toward the beach, we crossed the open field to the hiking trail. It was well-maintained, providing an easy push for our strollers. A family on bikes cycled past and then we were alone in the forest. Some of the largest dragonflies I’d ever seen were out in full force, seemingly guiding our way to the water ahead.
We had entered the nearly 5-mile trail on its last leg, and it wasn’t long before the trees opened up to a surprisingly tranquil marsh. A long boardwalk stretched out over the water, and the only sounds were jumping fish and the occasional splash of a bird diving for lunch. At the end of the pier, we relaxed on a bench for several minutes, enjoying the peaceful setting until Paul spotted an alligator eyeing us from the dark water below.
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| Fontainebleau State Park Visitor’s Center |
It was the heat, rather than the wildlife, that forced us to return the way we had come and take a break in the air conditioning while driving out to see the park’s cabin rentals. Perched on stilts over the water, the large cabins were secluded from the rest of the park and offered uninhibited views of Lake Pontchartrain. The ranger at the visitor center said they sometimes book a year in advance for peak seasons. We picked up a brochure and then explored the center, with its exposed beams, life-sized black bear and 600-year-old dugout canoe. The building offered a brief history of the area and fit in nicely with the sugar mill ruins crumbling outside its back doors.
Not far away in Old Mandeville, we grabbed lunch at The Broken Egg, the birth place of the breakfast and lunch chain called Another Broken Egg. In between playing dinosaurs, the kids managed to find time to devour a stack of pancakes while Paul and I opted for the lunch menu. Afterward, we took a quick look at the lake before heading back for round two of hiking.
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| Northlake Nature Center |
The Northlake Nature Center lies across the street from Fontainebleau and offers a bit more of a rustic hiking experience. The strollers jolted over the tree roots as we made our way through the trail. A beaver pond was overrun by the same giant dragonflies we’d seen earlier, and Charles was ecstatic as he chased them down with his bug net. We scared away at least two snakes on our journey and became masters at scaling falling trees blocking the way ahead.
By the end of the day, we left with two sufficiently exhausted kids and a day’s worth of exercise in a natural setting. Of course, we also came away with countless bug bites…
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| Budding entomologist |
by admin | Aug 30, 2011 | Greater New Orleans
Today we hopped in the car and started driving with no destination in mind. Heading toward downtown New Orleans, we made a split second decision to cross the Crescent City Connection when the bridge appeared in the distance. The first exit on the Westbank may not stand out as a tourist destination, but veer off General DeGaulle, follow the road past Federal City to the river and you arrive at Algiers Point.
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| Tout de Suite Cafe |
Touted as the second oldest neighborhood in New Orleans, Algiers Point sits directly across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter. Originally the site of a slaughterhouse used by French settlers in the 1700s, today the area, with its tree-lined streets leading past homes and stores as old as the 1840s, reminded us of a smaller version of Uptown New Orleans.
We dropped in Tout de Suite Cafe for a quick iced coffee, but their appetizing muffins and croissants convinced us to stay for a second breakfast. While we ate, three-year-old Charles entertained other patrons by dancing a little jig to the live guitar music. When he decided the show was over, he darted out the door with us tailing behind.
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| Confetti Park |
A few blocks down Verret Street, and we hit the jackpot with a small playground. Confetti Park, with its whimsical fence and mosaic walkway, is complete with slides, swings and ride-on toys. Here, Baby August bounced around on a bug car, while Charles blackened his fingernails by filling a dump truck with dirt.
Strapping them in their strollers, we walked past colorful plantations, shotguns and creole cottages. We had stopped to comment on the architecture when we heard a child’s squeal of delight. On the tree next to us was the empty shell of a cicada, which is now crouched on my coffee table staring at me with its sightless round eyes. A bug catcher on our bookshelf houses a dozen of his friends, the fruits of our walk turned scavenger hunt.
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| Old Masonic Hall on Olivier Street |
As we wove up and down streets looking for the critters, we caught the attention of one gentleman who, noticing our random path through town, asked if we were visiting and offered us a brochure. In this community where everyone knows each other, a family of new faces stood out immediately. We chatted a while and found out his house on Olivier Street was once a former Masonic Temple later used as a dance hall where early Jazz musician Buddy Bolden played.
Our walk ended by a focal point of the neighborhood–Holy Name of Mary Church, an imposing Gothic church with 75 stained glass windows crafted in Germany. We drove out of town along the river, viewing New Orleans’ skyline from across the water. As we headed back to the bridge, a line of people waited to board the free passenger ferry ($1 roundtrip for vehicles), which would carry them from “The Point” to the foot of Canal Street.
by admin | Aug 3, 2011 | Greater New Orleans
One of several Walter Anderson paintings on display at the OgdenThe air conditioning is running nonstop these days. I find as I get older, I have less tolerance for the heat, while the kiddos seem to be oblivious to it. In a desperate effort to keep them inside, I was allowing them to empty my tupperware drawer into a chaotic pile across my kitchen floor. By the time they were pretending to “swim” in it, I felt an urge to visit someone else’s indoor playground. The museums in New Orleans’ warehouse district were beckoning us, and we answered the call.
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| Airplanes inside the World War II Museum |
We wheeled the strollers into the National World War II Museum first. While I wouldn’t consider the museum’s solemn hallways as suitable for two small children, the airplane-filled lobby is eye candy to them. It’s free to step inside and stroll around the planes, tanks and Higgins boat displayed in the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion. For those without small kids – and with several hours to spare – it’s worth the admission to take a complete tour of the museum, including the 4-D movie, Beyond All Boundaries, showing in the Solomon Victory Theater.
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| Confederate Museum and Ogden Museum of Southern Art |
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Across the street, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s modern building is home to a wide variety of paintings, sculptures, photographs and everything in between – all created by Southern artists. Charles particularly loves coming here on Thursday evenings, when he can dance to live music and try his hand at his own art project. It was much quieter during our visit today, however, and we took our time wandering through the galleries. A must-see is the colorful watercolors, oil paintings and drawings of two Gulf Coast artists, John Alexander and Walter Anderson, on exhibit now. Our visits here always end with a stop on the roof, where you can see expansive views of the city.
For lunch, we crossed back to the World War II Museum’s American Sector restaurant, where Chef John Besh whips up tongue sandwiches alongside hearty American dishes. Kid’s meals are served in old school lunch boxes, complete with a toy surprise.
Upon leaving, we debated whether to head to one of the other museums in walking distance. The Confederate Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center are both fascinating in their own way, while the kids would have been thrilled to go to the Louisiana Children’s Museum. But a meltdown from one kid and a yawn from the other made our decision to save those for next time.
by admin | Jul 20, 2011 | Greater New Orleans
Back from a two week vacation along the coast of California, it was rough stepping off the plane in a fleece jacket into a wall of hot, sticky air. Everything instantly slowed to a crawl — breathing got harder, walking became an enormous task and carrying luggage farther than the luggage cart was out of the question. But inside the refrigerated car, I felt my senses slowly return. I found myself admiring the lush, green surroundings and, by the time the live oak alley along Carrollton greeted our return, I was happy to be back home.
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| Louis Armstrong Park |
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| Lights in Louis Armstrong Park |
Summers in the South are best spent in wide, open spaces (where your chances of a breeze increase slightly), in a pool (where the water is nearly as hot as the air) or inside a wonderfully air-conditioned home. I usually wouldn’t count the Quarter as a top summer destination, but our family braved the heat in our excitement to see the partially reopened Louis Armstrong Park.
Technically on the outskirts of the Quarter in the Tremé, Louis Armstrong Park lies on the backside of Rampart Street. The park’s winding lake snakes beneath graceful bridges, leading us along tree-lined paths past buildings, statues and an open space marking the site of Congo Square, where slaves were once allowed to meet, sing and dance.
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| Croissant D’or Patisserie |
Home to the Mahalia Jackson Theatre, the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park’s Perseverance Hall (reopened June 18th) and the still shuttered, Katrina-damaged New Orleans Municipal Auditorium, the park and its buildings have had a somewhat unstable history since the 2005 hurricane. Today, however, it was putting on a show for us, delighting Charles and August with its colorful dragonflies and offering Paul and me a nearly secluded, peaceful walk through crepe myrtles, cypress trees and antique roses.
Unfortunately, no amount of shade could protect us completely from the sun’s intense heat, and we soon set off for Croissant D’or Patisserie on Ursulines Avenue. Minutes later we were sipping iced coffees and eating French pastries on the outdoor patio, while three-year-old Charles was chasing birds and playing in the fountain.
Rejuvenated, we stepped back on the street and paused to smile at baby August staring in wide-eyed wonder at a horse and its carriage steps in front of us. A short walk farther, and we decided to make one last stop inside the walled gardens of Old Ursuline Convent, touted as the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley.
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| St. Mary’s Church at Old Ursuline Convent |
Since 1752, the building has served many functions — from convent to school to showcase for the Archdiocese’s archives. After a brief tour of the beautiful church and historical rooms, we allowed Charles a few more minutes of running through the formal gardens before conceding that our drenched clothes were a sign to turn in the day and relax in the coolness of our house. There was much more to see in the Quarter, but it would have to wait until another blog.
by admin | Jun 30, 2011 | Greater New Orleans
Main streets across the country have designed themselves into one-stop destinations, luring us in with fancy sidewalks and nice landscaping and then keeping us there with an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants and coffee shops. Uptown New Orleans has several of these main streets–Magazine, Maple, Freret and the newly overhauled Oak Street (home to the New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival).
Feeling a burst of energy Friday evening, we picked the kids up from daycare and took them out on the town to Oak Street. First stop was Rue de la Course coffee shop, which looking back was probably the source of our energy burst. Housed in an old bank building with ultra high ceilings, the shop offers interesting views of gargoyles and owls, which always manage to catch Charles’ attention while we enjoy the first few sips of coffee.
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| Hard decisions at Blue Cypress Books |
Then we were off to stroll the street, peaking in a few used clothing stores before visiting Blue Cypress Books. The kids and I sat on the floor by the children’s section, rummaging through the second-hand books. The resident cat decided to join us for a while until August, crawling and dragging along a jack-in-the-box, chased him across the store. We bought an interesting paperback and sat on the nearby corner bench, listening to the streetcar rattle by while we read about a frog and his adventures in the city.
Across the street, Skip N’ Whistle displayed an array of New Orleans’ themed t-shirts. Before we could shop around, though, Charles had escaped up the roped-off stairs and we had to drag him off to our next destination–recently opened Tru Burger. The burgers, hot dogs and fries were perfect for an evening meal with the kiddos, but anyone out for an adult meal might want to venture farther down the road to Jacques-Imo’s or Cowbell.
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| So many choices at Adventure Ice Cream |
As if we hadn’t eaten enough for one night, we crossed the street once again to Adventure Ice Cream. Made with milk from Kleinpeter Farms Dairy, the creamy ice cream was a big hit with both kids and Paul and I snuck a few bites as well. The perfect ending might have been a walk along the Mississippi River levee just up the street, but relaxing on our couch before an early bedtime was divine as well.
