We did a lot of walking on Thursday and some more cycling too. First we walked to Elizabeth’s for breakfast. We climbed up a very tell pedestrian bridge and saw barges on the Mississippi.
We took a bike tour that afternoon that was very focused on music history. It was really fun and we understand a lot more about jazz now! In Louie Armstrong park there are a lot of sculptures, including this one of a Mardi gras Indian, Tootie Montana.
Mardi gras Indian traditions in New Orleans are really interesting. Chiefs of the different tribes dress up in amazing costumes to outdo one another. And it isn’t related to native Americans, but is an African American tradition.
We also got some questions answered about houses here. Taxes were paid based on house width, so they were built in narrow and varying widths. Very disorienting when you’re used to standard lot widths!
Also, windows were taxed but doors were not. A lot of houses have lots of doors and no windows!
There are also tile works in the sides of buildings to give more info about street name provenance. As an archivist who frequently has to include name changes in photo captions, I found this quite charming. Civic metadata!
The houses are so colorful!
We’re so used to the term Mardi Gras referring to the gay & lesbian Mardi Gras parade that it’s really hard to think of the original tribe!