NOLA in a Week (Mom’s Visit)

There’s nothing like having a visitor to push you to take advantage of the city as much as possible in a week. My mom  and stepdad came to town and we went to 2 festivals, a number of concerts, a bunch of restaurants and plenty of cool shops. We even visited the set of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. If you’re planning to visit New Orleans or if you’re a New Orleanian looking for some ideas of how to entertain your guests, here are some highlights from our week.

The Out of Towners

I’ve had friends here for a week, a couple from L.A. in town for the librarian’s convention. Readers of this blog and web-surfers, they had a pretty long list of things they wanted to do and as a week came to close, I’d have to say they did pretty well crossing things off. We started with a walk through the French Quarter past Jackson Square and down to the river bank. The water has gone down a bit exposing slick algea-covered steps but the Mississippi continues to flow high. We moseyed past Cafe du Monde (which they visited later for some beignets and chicory coffee) and down to the French Market.

Vieux To Do

Vieux To Do is 3 festivals in one, the Creole Tomato Festival, the Cajun-Zydeco Music Festival and the Louisiana Seafood Festival. The Creole Tomato Festival is an over 20 year tradition showcasing the French Market, our country’s oldest city marketplace (1791). In addition to the super-tasty locally grown tomatoes, there are stages with live music, an air conditioned enclosed tent for cooking demonstrations and a parade I apparently missed.