New Orleans Days 3 & 4

Though Monday didn't go quite according to plan, it was still very enjoyable... but lesson learned: for the most part, the Big Easy takes Mondays off.  Brooke and I planned to spend the day in the Garden District and Uptown and later City Park.  We soon learned, however, that most of shops on Magazine Street were closed.  After deciding to save it for Tuesday we hopped on the Canal St. streetcar to City Park to look at art at the museum and take a break from the sun.  Our plans were again spoiled when the museum was locked up.  Nevertheless, we took a lovely stroll through its sculpture garden...

...then we hopped back on the streetcar to the aquarium, which was also closed.  So back in the French Quarter we started walking toward the Historic New Orleans Collection that were curious about.  Along the way we dropped by a couple shops we had missed the previous day.  One was an amazing wooden toy and gadget shop called IdeaFactory.

We bought Noah a flipping top (so simple but so entertaining)... and eyed some beautiful alphabet blocks.  We also stepped into an antique furniture store that had a fancy grand piano, from France.  I played Chopin's Nocturne in Eb major on a $225,000 antique... in a t-shirt and my worn-out toms.  We finally made it to our desitnation, but it, like everything else, was closed for the day.

Today's plans were more successful.  We decided to spend the day walking down 55 blocks of Magazine Street, which goes through the Garden District and Uptown.  It is a less touristic part of town, home to trendy design galleries and clothing stores.  But first we had a fantastic breakfast at St. Charles Tavern... thank goodness we slept through continental:

It was so refreshing to find some great mid-century furniture early on in our walk:

We were in heaven in Neophobia, a vintage furniture store.

There were some beauttiful danish modern couches and armchairs, and a fantastic expandable dining table... not to mention a couple of my favorite Eames peices.

We also hit up the Design Within Reach and had an enjoyable chat with the folks at Modern Market.  Here I am at DWR considering sticking this amazing chair on my credit card... haha:

There were quite a few beautiful shops and galleries to stop in.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Ashley Longshore, a New Orleans  based artist originally from our town, Montgomery, AL.  We had seen some of here work in Studio Orange in the French Quarter, where the owner told us Sarah was from Montgomery.  So upon meeting her in her own studio and gallery on Magazine Street, Brooke asked, "are you from Montgomery?"... and we got to experience her fun and excentric personality.

We even dropped in the Whole Foods for refreshment; it had some amazing flowers and surprisingly beautiful structure.  And finally we made it to Audobon Park.  It was great to see all the locals running, biking, and hanging out around the ponds.  We even came across a pavilion that we recognized from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  Exhausted, we walked a few blocks to St. Charles and took the streetcar back to grab dinner and relax the rest of the night.