Lafayette Cemetery No 1 - and my Birthday!

*backblip* yet again.....

My birthday rocked.

We took a walk to the Garden District which was so beautiful - massive big gorgeous houses and big trees growing out of the sidewalks.  We walked for about 40 mins until we reached the Lafayette Cemetery which was on my "must visit" list when in New Orleans.  

Before we wandered around there, we decided to have brunch in the Commander's Palace.  As we walked in 2 things kinda struck me:

1 - this pace was pretty upmarket - not a sweater and jeans with cons place (which was my dress for the day)
2 - This place was incredibly incredibly busy

We did manage to get a table and surprisingly, not turned away (see current dress above).  We were taken through to this room with a massive real tree growing out of the middle of it, beads and crowns on our dinner plates and a live jazz band going from table to table.  The next surprise was that breakfast on this day was going to be a 3 course meal - yikes!

It was delicious food and fantastic service and a nice surprising start to my birthday.

Then we wandered around Lafayette for a while.  Interesting thing about the two cemeteries that we visited in New Orleans and a quick tie back to Memphis.  At the Civil Rights museum we learned more about Plessy Vs Ferguson which essentially sealed the deal on segregation in the United States when Plessy boarded a whites only railroad car to challenge the segregation laws in the state of Louisiana.  He was arrested after he refused to give up his seat after which he challenged the segregation laws on the basis of equality (a right which was constitutionally protected) - Ferguson ruled that the railroad could regulate the railways as they saw fit if they operated within State boundaries.  This was taken to the supreme court on the basis of being unequal - however Ferguson's ruling was upheld and stated that being separate did not mean inferior (and thus separate but equal).

So back to relationship with the graves.....in St Louis No 1 cemetery Plessy's tomb resides and in Lafayette No 1 Ferguson's tomb resides.

The reason, however, for my interest in this cemetery was due to my love of Anne Rice novels as a teenager and into my 20s.  This location features quite often in the various novel sets she writes so it was great to walk around it.

We realised time was ticking on so had to rush back to town for our pick up to the Swamp tour we had booked.  Unfortunately although we just made it in time for the pick up, the agent had given us the wrong location - oops.  We managed to get our tour swapped to be in the morning of the following day and because this was our day to leave the US we self drove to the swamp but that is tomorrow's story.

Instead of carrying on as it was my birthday I voted to perhaps have a tipple or two so we headed back to the hotel and then went wandering to see if we could get into the food and drink museum which was closed with it being Mardi Gras so we just watched bits of the parades and caught the beads and stopped off at some bars taking advantage of the "to go" cup mentality that they seem to enjoy here.

In the evening we went to a wonderful steak restaurant for my birthday meal.  This was Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse in the French Quarter.  it was a bit quiet with it being Sunday before Mardi Gras but the food was delish.  After the meal the waiter asked us if we wanted our wine in a "to go" cup so our leftover wine was poured into plastic cups so we could wander home with them.  It is incredibly weird to be so free and easy with alcohol that just about everyone is walking down the street drinking and all the bars sell it "to go"!

At the end of the evening we watched a few more parades, caught more beads and then ended up in the hotel room modelling our HUGE collection of beads before falling into bed for the last night of our holidays.  Boo to holidays ending, hooray for great holidays!