My newphew was allowed to pretty much review the city's virtues for a month or two and collate that with the stories he had heard all of his life and plan for this trip well in advance. He decided that this third day of my being with our two mothers would be spent at City Park. This is a very old park built in the part of the city that followed the high ground that extended from the river's natural levees that held the young city of New Orleans, to the bayou that connected Lake Pontchartrain to the river, Bayou St. John.
Eons of over-topping it's banks had built up silted high ground near the Mississippi and it's tributaries and estuaries, and this is where New Orleans was constructed. What they say is true...New Orleans is in a bowl, and way below sea level, but the old city was reasonably safe from catastrophic flooding, although there were flood waters each year. However those floodwaters could simply run through the relatively high ground of the old city and settle in the low-lying areas. Much of what plagues the city today results from pumping oil and water out of the ground, causing OVERALL subsidence, and it's made ever worse by the channeling with levees of all that good silt that flows down the river from the heartland. The only place the river builds land today is at it's mouth where it does almost no one any good. At the downriver end of the Vieux Carre', Esplanade Avenue follows the other high ground in the city, The Esplanade Ridge to Bayou St. John, which lazily flows through the city to Lake Pontchartrain and roughly forms the Eastern Boundary of City Park. City Park is a huge 1300 acre park. A quick tidbit that helps bring it into scale: there are 4 18-hole public golf courses within the park, and they take up only half of it's area. There is a wonderful area for kids that has been there as long as I can remember, Storyland, which features playable and display-only structures which depict nursery rhyme characters and stories. There is a kid's amusement park, and a 13 acre Botanic Garden, both of which we would visit on day three of my time there.
The place is the bomb for kids, and lives on in the memories of all but the hardest ones. There are things about the city you just don't forget. But we didn't go inside. We should have, just for the pictures, anyway. So into the Botanic, or Botanical Garden. To me it's like "Historic Home" Why say Historical Home? But the sign says Botanical Garden, and they should know. Not a lot of people outside the city know this, but basically the entire plant collection at this facility was lost to Hurricane Katrina. And I can say after seeing it, that was some rebirth.
It should be noted that we visited this garden a few days after a series of ridiculous, torrential rainstorms that led to not just the flooding of many streets throughout the city and the surrounding parishes, but to tearing down utility poles, spawning tornadoes and obviously battering the recently emerged blossoms on every bush and tree. What it must have been like to see it the day before the storms.
My mother has always had a love for plants and shrubs, our home upriver from New Orleans was surrounded by plants that she loved or found and transplanted. We had a 12 foot tall Poinsettia "tree" that was once a tiny cutting. We had the most fragrant of gardenia bushes which took some of the pain away from sweltering summer evenings. We had a 4 foot tall or better compost pile tucked away at a hidden corner of the back yard. We almost always kept a garden. Our Satsuma trees were towering and well over-burdened each year. So I knew that this was a highlight of our trip for her. And there was a lot to be in awe of within the walls of this garden.
There were plants I had never seen before, and colors and textures I had to commit to photos or lose them forever.
We spent a few lazy hours there and then headed off to the lakefront for PoBoys from Deannie's and a shady covered shelter near the seawall. He took the only pics we had from the stop, so my apologies to Cam again for biting his shots.
The lakefront was our favorite place to cruise when we were in high school. But as always happens, the owners of large homes there, even despite a 40 foot levee and a hundred yards between them and the cars cruising, put their foot down and stopped the party long ago. It was a great place to fish, to catch blue crabs and to just hang out with a book or have a family picnic. The best part of the entire scene, though, had to be Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park, which closed in the early 80s. This area took a hell of a beating during and after Katrina. But on this trip, it was a great place to have a picnic. Cam had a Crawfish poboy, my sister had Shrimp, and my mother and I split a half a Softshell Crab and half a Oyster poboy. Mama Mia.
Tomorrow, the last installment...We hit City Park for a few more highlights and head upriver to stunningly beautiful Oak Alley Plantation, and return for the LAST and easily BEST treat we would have all week. Can a dumpy looking plain house with vinyl siding really hold the treasure of New Orleans' Best Meal? Find out tomorrow.
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