Mar 31
Becca MartinUncategorized
The New Orleans Botanical Garden in City Park has a "train garden" complete with tiny organic structures.
After a journey, you never know which memory will stand out, so here are a few random “scenes” from New Orleans:
— The silver-painted street performer on his bike, headed for work.
— A tourist in Jackson Square, expressing surprise there’d be a cathedral in the city that hosts Mardi Gras. (Here’s your sign!)
— A little girl covered in powdered sugar — and grinning from ear to ear — at Cafe du Monde.
— Dogs in specially crafted dog strollers.
— The all-female crew of the Gretna ferry.
— A magnificent old warehouse on the Mississippi, perfect for a vampire movie. (Viewed from the Gretna ferry.)
— The amazing Asian artist in the French Market who paints your name in dolphins, lighthouses, butterflies and flowers — in about 5 minutes!
— Pat O’Brien’s fountain of fire, always one of my favorites.
— The random music that echoes along Bourbon Street, from the inimitable jazz to hip hop.
— The mysterious, palpable aura of Pirates Alley.
My favorite memory this time will be the long-awaited visit to James H. Cohen & Sons, a Royal Street dealer in rare coins, guns and antiquities. My best friend wears a Cohen coin — a griffin — and I’ve wanted one since I began visiting New Orleans. The nickels had been saved up, and this was the year, so now my boyfriend and I both wear little pieces of history.
Metaphorically, a coin from 300 B.C. or 1789 is a good reminder that today is a tiny speck in the greater scheme of things. Laissez les bon temps roulez!
Mar 29
Becca MartinUncategorized
A statue of Andrew Jackson rides forever in front of St. Louis Cathedral In New Orleans' Jackson Square.
Here’s what I love about New Orleans: Everywhere you look, everybody you meet, every time you turn around, you have a chance to learn something new.
We arrived in NOLA about 4 a.m. March 20, and by 10 a.m., I was on St. Ann over by the cathedral, ready for a French Quarter walking tour. Our guide, Mary, was 77 years young and outwalked all of us! She also had a wealth of knowledge about the Vieux Carre. We learned about wrought iron and cast iron; about Henriette Delille, who started the first African American religious order in New Orleans and is a candidate for sainthood; and about French Market doughnuts, the original name for Cafe du Monde’s famous beignets.
Then we moved on to the Spring Fiesta Association’s afternoon home tour in the Garden District, and I saw a beautiful block-printed wallpaper mural — the same as one that hangs in the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
On Sunday, I learned about French Quarter architecture — shotguns, double shotguns and so forth.
On Monday, I learned about shrimp and the amazing additions to the World War II Museum.
On Tuesday, I learned about how Mardi Gras floats are made, transformed, stored and repaired (most of them at Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World on the Mississippi River) and found out why Frenchmen Street deserves its reputation for great local music.
On Wednesday, I learned about butterflies at the Audubon Insectarium and plants at the New Orleans Botanical Garden, which seems to have recovered completely from Hurricane Katrina, when City Park was under 6 feet of water.
I also discovered this year’s research project, Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba, an unusually emancipated 19th century woman who designed and commissioned the construction of two elegant buildings on Jackson Square known as the Pontalba Buildings.
More about New Orleans will be coming in the next few days. I’m sorry this was delayed until I got home. We had an amazing room in the rafters of our Decatur Street hotel — but no WiFi!
Mar 19
Becca MartinUncategorized NOLA
“Are you excited?” I’ve been asked a thousand times this week.
The truthful answer is, “Not yet.”
I’m a worrier, and until I’m in the car, no turning back, I’ll worry about what I did do, didn’t do, should have done, forgot, etc. It’s a family curse: “Honey, did I turn off the stove?”
But as we speak, the road beckons. The schedule already includes a walking tour of the Garden District on Saurday afternoon, a walking tour of the French Quarter on Sunday afternoon and shrimp at Bubba Gump’s on Monday for a shrimp story.
Am I excited? Soon. Very soon.
Mar 18
Becca MartinUncategorized
The Little Queen posed with Mom before prom last spring.
Over the years, readers have come to know my daughter Amanda as “The Little Queen” and have taken her into their hearts, homes and prayers.
Now that she’s 21 and almost as tall as I am, “little” might not be completely accurate, but “queen” certainly still applies. As her stepmother said recently, “Now that she’s adjusted to me being here, she often looks at me like, ‘All these people, and the service is still terrible!’”
The Little Queen has made a lot of adjustments in the past year. Finishing high school and starting a sheltered workshop would have been enough. So would acquiring a stepmother and new family. She got both at the same time.
It hasn’t all been wine and roses — although whine and ruckus might be fair. But she’s doing beautifully, thank you.
Among the most amazing changes in the last year is Amanda’s increased patience — with situations where she’s bored, people around her who just don’t get it, requests not immediately met. In the old days, she’d sense weakness — like Mom not feeling well — and go for broke. Now she pats me sympathetically. It’s very cute and very touching.
She’s also gotten amazingly good at making her desires known, even without language. You can say a lot with a pointy finger! Her Granny Martin and I marvel that we forget she’s not talking. We simply understand — and when we get it right, we’re both rewarded with big hugs and (still slightly toothy) kisses. Trust me that that makes any tough moments worthwhile.
Don’t get me wrong. Those moments happen. For about three months, she cried clear across town when I took her back to Dan’s. It was awful — not a statement on life at Dan’s, certainly, but a protest against change.
Now, we sing. Everything is fine there: She has a teenage sister to watch “I Carly” with, a wonderful stepmom to make sure she has everything she needs and an extended family to entertain her.
Everything is fine at my house, too. She has her own room, and we have our own routine — which often includes popcorn shrimp at Red Lobster. Because a queen deserves good service!
Mar 17
Becca MartinUncategorized NOLA
Among the mandatory stops in New Orleans is the Audubon Zoo.
With all the changes at Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, my column, “The Other Way,” has been on hiatus. I’m b-a-a-a-ck — but in blog form! And the first order of business is a trip to New Orleans for spring break. I hope you’ve enjoyed my visits to the Crescent City over the past four or five years and will come along this time as we look for the best shrimp, visit the homes of the Garden District and the French Quarter, check out the additions at the World War II Museum, see the gardens at City Park and Longue Vue House and sit on the balcony at La Pension. Let the good times roll!
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