Down by the riverside
There are some big container ships that float through New Orleans. From somewhere up the Mississippi River, they fly down on the way to the Gulf of Mexico. A fun place to watch them is Woldenburg Park, south of the French Quarter. Here, the Mississippi makes a big bend, and heads north for a bit before making a sharp curve and flowing south again. Despite the tortuous navigation, the ship captains don’t slow down one bit.
These F1 drivers hit the bend like a boss, full steam ahead. It’s quite a sight to see these gargantuans quickly float down the river, seeming like they will crash into land. Then, at the last moment they execute a sharp turn, make the curve, and go out of sight. Wait a few minutes, and another one will come into view and make the move.
There’s more to do along the New Orleans waterfront than watching the ships go by. Woldenburg Park has a nice pedestrian walk path that follows the river. Along the way there are several restaurants, such as Cafe du Monde, with its French style beignets. I stopped for lunch one day at a place selling crawfish and fries. For such small creatures, they pack a lot of meat in their claws. I once caught a bunch from a creek in Wisconsin and boiled them up for the family. In New Orleans though, I was in prime crawdad country.
I got the Blues
On a weekend I stopped at a bar around lunch, and to my delight they had a small band playing some Delta Blues. It was three guys, with guitar, bass, and drums. The singer had that classic gravelly tone of a Blues singer. I listened in to the rolling rhythms and snacked on oysters. What luck I had. Live blues in New Orleans, right on the banks of the Muddy Mississippi.
Of course, Woldenburg Park is near the entrance to the French Quarter, which has plenty of its own live music. My favorite place in the area though is the Voodoo Museum. They have the dolls, the beads, and yes, the shrunken heads.
Some of the museum is dedicated to Mary Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. She blended many traditions, such as African, Catholic, Haitian, and Creole, to reinvigorate the Voodoo culture in town. Every week she went to the market at Congo Square, where she shared some of her Voodoo practices with the community. Examples of these were conjuring the Great Serpent Spirit and becoming filled with the spirit of Ioa. She also led the annual St. John’s Eve ceremony around the summer solstice.
The most exciting thing that happened on the New Orleans waterfront, though, didn’t involve anything with Cajun, Blues, or Voodoo. It was so cool, that I took a video of it, which isn’t something I do often. I’ll let the video do the talking.