The Secret Is Out
The French Quarter Festival is no longer the best kept secret, not with over 80,000 people showing up on Sunday (and that’s with the better known Strawberry Festival going on at the same time nearby).
Greg and I drove to Danny’s condo (in the warehouse district of New Orleans). (Pictures inside Danny’s condo, I like the decorations)
The good thing is that we have a place to park Greg’s vehicle (Danny's condo allows one vehicle per unit in a gated parking lot). The bad news is that there’s an ever so slight walk from the warehouse district to the French Quarter Festival. Let’s just say I definitely got my exercise in today and was glad I had tennis shoes on! (Pictures taken along the walk)
Danny told us about the day before, when the festival started, how he met a group of church ladies, one was a female preacher. He met them at a restaurant where the ladies didn’t know what type of oysters to order (grilled or raw). They ordered grilled and he heard them asking about prices, so he treated them to the raw oysters as well. They appreciated his generosity and they asked about his bracelet (I’ll be blogging about that soon) and before he knew it, he was doing the balance test on all the ladies and the waiter staff too!
During the festival, Danny and the church ladies were outside walking around. Danny saw a girl crying and he left the group to find out if she was OK. She recently quit her job and was worried about everything. How nice that the church women and the preacher in particular took the girl under their wings to help her out.
Festival Schedule
Of course, time with Greg and Danny wouldn’t be time with Greg and Danny without some crazy conversations that went from Thongs to antique shopping to the thong being on backwards on him and “still covered everything” to us walking along and seeing a women walking these two itty bitty dogs and Danny describing the best way to punt a dog (from behind, not on the side, better sound affects).. (The guys were KIDDING.. so hold the hate mail!)
As we got closer to Jackson Square with the Saint Louis Cathedral, we saw the artists and palm readers. A couple of booths were set up to do body painting. Greg made a comment that he wanted something painted on his butt, best option he came up with was Elephant Ears. (I don’t know if he meant the plant called elephant ears or the actual animal!)
Pictures of Jackson Square and the artists
We walked around the Church to Pirate’s Alley, where Greg’s Mom had her paintings on display for sale. She won Honorable Award. Danny saw one painting by Mary Ann of a butterfly and purchased it. That made her 6th sale. I was tickled pink when she told me the painting of the rose sold! (I took the picture of the yellow rose one afternoon when we went to visit them. It was a rose in their front yard. Greg didn’t think the picture would come out because it was dark, but it did and Mary Ann did a painting based on the picture.) Makes me want to take more pictures in the hopes it will turn into future artwork for her to sell!
I really did enjoy looking at all the artwork and seeing everyone enjoying the beautiful weather and festival. We continued walking to the river, where the 4 band stages were set up. Greg and Danny got something to eat (drinks and food booths were dispersed between the various band stages).
The main band we stopped to listen to for over an hour was the Bucktown All Stars band. It’s a group of local musicians that play a variety of Rhythm & Blues. Greg really likes them because they have a great four-piece horn section. It just so happens that one of the guitarist went to high school with Greg too! (After listening to the band, Greg and Danny went to a taco stand and who is right in front of them? Bonnie, Greg's sister! In this sea of people and with 4 different band stages set up, what are the chances?)
I bought a shirt that has the French Quarter Festival poster on it. We saw the actual painting that won the honor of being the poster and WOW – it’s HUGE and just beautiful! It was on auction and currently at 1600. Danny said, “It probably has 1600 dollars worth of paint on it.” We met the Mother-in-Law of the artist and you could see she had a lot of pride for her daughter-in-law.
We really did have perfect weather for the festival weekend. Greg said the French Quarter Festival is much better than the Jazz Festival for these reasons:
1) The French Quarter Festival is FREE, the Jazz Festival isn’t.
2) The French Quarter Festival is spread out from the Jackson Square to along the river for the bands. There’s a constant nice breeze along the river to keep it cool.
3) Jazz Festival is wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder people. It includes the smell of people and the smell of horse manure (the jazz fest is at the horse track)
4) If it rains at the French Quarter Fest, you are on concrete and there are buildings you can go into. If it rains during the Jazz Fest, it’s nasty muddy.
5) French Quarter Festival is early April, when we still have good weather. Jazz Festival, it’s getting warmer and when you’re wall to wall people with no breeze, it’s not a good situation.
We had a wonderful time and I enjoyed taking pictures along the way. Greg snapped this picture of me with his Iphone. I was dancing to the music and looked at him over the sunglasses. He said, “That’s sexy” and took the picture. Lol.
Pictures taken while walking back to the condo. New Orleans is a charm.
I wanted to have my first snowball of the season with the French Quarter Festival, but the price for a small was 3.00!! And it was a long line, so instead we drove back home (right outside of New Orleans, lucky us to live so close) and I got a small nectar snowball for 1.00. It was a good way to cool the body after a fun day in the sun (and no sunburn – yeah for sun block lotion and a hubby that takes such good care of me!)
Greg and I drove to Danny’s condo (in the warehouse district of New Orleans). (Pictures inside Danny’s condo, I like the decorations)
The good thing is that we have a place to park Greg’s vehicle (Danny's condo allows one vehicle per unit in a gated parking lot). The bad news is that there’s an ever so slight walk from the warehouse district to the French Quarter Festival. Let’s just say I definitely got my exercise in today and was glad I had tennis shoes on! (Pictures taken along the walk)
Danny told us about the day before, when the festival started, how he met a group of church ladies, one was a female preacher. He met them at a restaurant where the ladies didn’t know what type of oysters to order (grilled or raw). They ordered grilled and he heard them asking about prices, so he treated them to the raw oysters as well. They appreciated his generosity and they asked about his bracelet (I’ll be blogging about that soon) and before he knew it, he was doing the balance test on all the ladies and the waiter staff too!
During the festival, Danny and the church ladies were outside walking around. Danny saw a girl crying and he left the group to find out if she was OK. She recently quit her job and was worried about everything. How nice that the church women and the preacher in particular took the girl under their wings to help her out.
Festival Schedule
Of course, time with Greg and Danny wouldn’t be time with Greg and Danny without some crazy conversations that went from Thongs to antique shopping to the thong being on backwards on him and “still covered everything” to us walking along and seeing a women walking these two itty bitty dogs and Danny describing the best way to punt a dog (from behind, not on the side, better sound affects).. (The guys were KIDDING.. so hold the hate mail!)
As we got closer to Jackson Square with the Saint Louis Cathedral, we saw the artists and palm readers. A couple of booths were set up to do body painting. Greg made a comment that he wanted something painted on his butt, best option he came up with was Elephant Ears. (I don’t know if he meant the plant called elephant ears or the actual animal!)
Pictures of Jackson Square and the artists
We walked around the Church to Pirate’s Alley, where Greg’s Mom had her paintings on display for sale. She won Honorable Award. Danny saw one painting by Mary Ann of a butterfly and purchased it. That made her 6th sale. I was tickled pink when she told me the painting of the rose sold! (I took the picture of the yellow rose one afternoon when we went to visit them. It was a rose in their front yard. Greg didn’t think the picture would come out because it was dark, but it did and Mary Ann did a painting based on the picture.) Makes me want to take more pictures in the hopes it will turn into future artwork for her to sell!
I really did enjoy looking at all the artwork and seeing everyone enjoying the beautiful weather and festival. We continued walking to the river, where the 4 band stages were set up. Greg and Danny got something to eat (drinks and food booths were dispersed between the various band stages).
The main band we stopped to listen to for over an hour was the Bucktown All Stars band. It’s a group of local musicians that play a variety of Rhythm & Blues. Greg really likes them because they have a great four-piece horn section. It just so happens that one of the guitarist went to high school with Greg too! (After listening to the band, Greg and Danny went to a taco stand and who is right in front of them? Bonnie, Greg's sister! In this sea of people and with 4 different band stages set up, what are the chances?)
I bought a shirt that has the French Quarter Festival poster on it. We saw the actual painting that won the honor of being the poster and WOW – it’s HUGE and just beautiful! It was on auction and currently at 1600. Danny said, “It probably has 1600 dollars worth of paint on it.” We met the Mother-in-Law of the artist and you could see she had a lot of pride for her daughter-in-law.
We really did have perfect weather for the festival weekend. Greg said the French Quarter Festival is much better than the Jazz Festival for these reasons:
1) The French Quarter Festival is FREE, the Jazz Festival isn’t.
2) The French Quarter Festival is spread out from the Jackson Square to along the river for the bands. There’s a constant nice breeze along the river to keep it cool.
3) Jazz Festival is wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder people. It includes the smell of people and the smell of horse manure (the jazz fest is at the horse track)
4) If it rains at the French Quarter Fest, you are on concrete and there are buildings you can go into. If it rains during the Jazz Fest, it’s nasty muddy.
5) French Quarter Festival is early April, when we still have good weather. Jazz Festival, it’s getting warmer and when you’re wall to wall people with no breeze, it’s not a good situation.
We had a wonderful time and I enjoyed taking pictures along the way. Greg snapped this picture of me with his Iphone. I was dancing to the music and looked at him over the sunglasses. He said, “That’s sexy” and took the picture. Lol.
Pictures taken while walking back to the condo. New Orleans is a charm.
I wanted to have my first snowball of the season with the French Quarter Festival, but the price for a small was 3.00!! And it was a long line, so instead we drove back home (right outside of New Orleans, lucky us to live so close) and I got a small nectar snowball for 1.00. It was a good way to cool the body after a fun day in the sun (and no sunburn – yeah for sun block lotion and a hubby that takes such good care of me!)
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