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| Coffee and Beignets |
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| Cafe du Monde |
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| Nasty table at Cafe du Monde and trust me, there were tons of dirty tables just like this one. Most of the birds looked sick or sticky, we couldn't decide on which..... Plenty of "staff" just no one wanted to work! |
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| Key Lime Pie at the Rip Van Winkle Garden restaurant |
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| Avery Island |
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| WW2 Museum |
It all started because I kept thinking about the Cafe du Monde in Jackson Square and how I wished I had one of their coffees and a beignet (french donut). SO, I made reservations at the Embassy Hotel, by the river, and off we went. On our Southern route we had a chance to stop in New Iberia, LA. and visit with an old friend (Debra Aucoin, in photo with my hubby, Larry) we hadn't seen in 25 or 30 years. Fun visit...then off we went to continue our journey to New Orleans and all our fond memories of the first time we visited....We got to go to Avery Island where they make the world famous Tabasco Sauce...We got to see the Rip Van Winkle Gardens(New Iberia)...We toured the WorldWar2 Museum which we enjoyed...and yes, we finally got to the Cafe du Monde (New Orleans) to try and repeat our first visit....waiters with the white towel over their forearms, a hint of a french accent to their voices...a Cajun world of sounds and aromas. Disappointment...to the extreme. Chinese waiters or Vietnamese...kids actually. See the photo with the green chalkboard? See the floor? See the white stuff on the floor? Powdered sugar...everything is covered in it! The kid took our order for coffees and beignets...when it arrived at our table, he slammed it down and left to go sit down, reach in his pocket and pull out a huge wad of money, and started counting it. There were about six or seven "waiters" sitting down...laughing, one girl laying her head in another waiter's lap making a few inappropriate movements in his lap...I'm not a prude but REALLY??? Larry and I were just stunned at the place...Powdered sugar was so thick on the floor that we began looking around for water hoses on the walls...we found none! Pigeons were Everywhere on the uncleaned tables. Jackson Square wasn't any better. Just Nasty, nasty, nasty. We were just, sick! I had reservations to stay in town for two days....When we got back to the hotel, we cancelled the second night, got up the next morning and made it home in about eight hours. Larry said, and I believe him now, some memories are best left in the past...you can rarely go back.
Our beautiful "old South" is dissolving into something we just don't recognize. Since Katrina, nothing is the same...Some may argue with me but I'm old enough to remember the days when people gave a "hoot". Nowadays, the spoiled kids seem to care less...just show them the money....ok, I'm done.
Well, guess I'll quit boring you...Hope you all managed to survive without me. I'll be popping over to visit soon so don't think I've dropped off the face of the Earth...See you in a bit!
