Jeremy's Cool Travel Blog: Louisiana, Part 3: Where y'at? Back in New Orleans.

We were back in New Orleans on Tuesday, April 15. The drive back from Arnaudville was uneventful and we arrived at our Airbnb accomodations just after lunch. For the next two nights we rented a groovy shotgun house in the Marigny district, an up-and-coming neighbourhood about 15 minutes walk northeast of the French Quarter.

Once we dropped off our stuff at the house, we returned our car and walked around parts of the French Quarter we'd not previously explored. We also checked out Frenchmen Street, which is known for its live music venues. After walking around that neighbourhood a bit, we stopped for a mid-afternoon beer at a sunny restaurant / bar called Dat Dog. There we started chatting with Dan the bartender, who had a good sense of humour and who clued us in to a few local attractions that we could check out, including a well-known brass band playing that night. We ended up having a second beer and Dan bought us shots of bourbon, so we left in - and filled with - good spirits.

Rebirth Brass Band

That night we took Dan's advice and went uptown to The Maple Leaf bar to see the Grammy-winning Rebirth Brass Band. These guys combine traditional New Orleans brass band music with funk, jazz and hip-hop. The band has been around since the early 80's and has since evolved into a New Orleans institution, playing at the Maple Leaf Bar most Tuesdays when not touring the world. When we got the bar it was still pretty empty (though we met a girl who lives at Harbord and Shaw), but when the band started the place soon became packed. From what we saw (we only stayed for an hour or so) it was a lot of fun, but I will say that all of those horns make for a loud show. Afterwards we scarfed down some street-side hotdogs and jerk chicken and headed home.

Dat Dog!

We weren't exactly in top shape the next morning, but we took advantage of the sunny day to stroll down to and along the Mississippi. Afterwards we enjoyed some delicious jambalaya and a po'boy at the local hang-out Coop's Place in the French Quarter. On our way home we stopped in at Dat Dog for a beer and to say hi to our friend Dan. That night we met up with Ayesha and her boyfriend Nate who happened to be in town as well. It turned out that they were staying just a block north of us in Marigny. We met at our place at 6:30 pm and walked about 40 minutes southeast to a popular wine bar-restaurant recommended by Dan. We sat outside and had a nice time catching up with Ayesha and getting to know Nate over dinner and a couple bottles of wine. Unlike the previous evening, we called it an early night as we were all leaving town the next day.

On Thursday morning, Jérôme and I got a cab to the airport (our cabbie was a very lively lady named Pamela) and went our separate ways: me to Boston for Easter and Jérôme to Toronto. Both of us left very happy with our ten days of 'buddy time' and tourism in Chicago-Louisiana. We both agreed that it would definitely be worth returning to both places.