Another leisurely morning – gotta love vacations!!
Rode the green coloured St Charles streetcar (recognized as a national treasure and one of the two oldest in the US) down St Charles Street and into the Garden District where all the magnificent homes we had driven by during our tour are. St Charles Street and Royal Street are the same road except that St Charles is on the American side of Canal St and Royal is on the French side.
From St Charles and the Garden District we walked over to Magazine Street (supposed to be full of good shops and boutiques – but not many that we could find!) Did manage to find an amazing pizza place though (Rocky’s) so tried a shrimp etouffe pizza and yes…it was delish but….not as delish as the salad dressing! It was some mixture of oil and vinegar and balsamic and blue cheese over a simple romaine and tomato salad and I would go back to find the place just to have another salad!
From Magazine we walked back over to St Charles to do some more of the garden district and en route stumbled across Sandra Bullock’s home. What a gorgeous place that is!! Miss Verna put on her best southern accent, rang the bell and wouldn’t you know it……the gardener came out and gave us a tour! Well…..at least that’s what we told Helena-Marie and Jenny-Ann but in truth….we just thought about ringing the bell and I’m sure that if the gardener had been there he would have come out all right…but with a shot gun!
Ambling along St Charles is a bit like walking near the pyramids where you’re in constant danger of tripping on uneven ground….…you have to look down almost as much as you look up as the sidewalks are so disrupted by the roots of the ancient trees that line the streets in this area. It really is gorgeous though and there is a kind of quiet calm that you feel when you’re walking there.
Just as we were nearing the end of the Garden District on St Charles, we came across a place called the House of Broel and according to a sign on the fence, visitors were welcome between 10-5. Since it was just 4:40….we decided to check it out. We opened the gate and passed a fellow in the yard who gave us the once over. We went up the stairs to the front door and turned the antique handle. As the door was opening into the entry of the home….it occurred to me that this might not really be open to the public and that we might be entering someone’s home! A woman came out of the back of the house and said, “can I help you?” She too was looking at us rather oddly which left both Verna-Lee and I feeling like we may have just made a huge error and that the police might be called momentarily…..how would we ever explain this one?!
But to cut to the end of the story….Bonnie Broel does live in the house but she also does offer tours of her home as well as rent out sections of it for weddings (she had 100 there last year alone!) By the time we said good bye to Bonnie (more than an hour later) she was giving us a hug and a kiss good bye and we both felt like we had just stepped back to a time where traditional southern hospitality was alive and well. In addition to touring Bonnie’s home, we also learned that she is a countess, an author, a dress designer, winner of an international economic development award, we’d seen a photo of her and Tom Hanks, AND…..she was queen of Mardi Gras on two separate occasions! Her house is filled with doll houses that she has spent a lifetime making. Her grandfather was Russian royalty (hence the countess title) and her father started the first frog farm and canning factory in the south. We’re not sure how many times she’s been married but 3 at least and 1 of those husbands died in Egypt while on vacation there and where she had to travel to retrieve his body. She had more vintage wedding (and other fancy dresses) in her house…..it truly is a museum and an interesting one at that. The house was originally too small for the first owners so they raised the ground floor by 21 feet and put another floor underneath it. Ceilings are all 15 feet high and there was a massive original gas chandelier hanging in the foyer as we entered. Two other points of interest that I can’t let pass are: In the throne room off the dressing room for the brides who rent the space…the toilet does actually look like a throne and you lift the seat of the throne to find the toilet! Also, as she took us up to the second floor……there seemed to nowhere else to go until she pushed on the wall and a hallway opened up inviting us to continue on into the second story and eventually to the third floor.
After saying good bye to Bonnie, we caught the street car back to Canal Street and by the time we got back to our room and figured out just where the day had gone….we realized we had walked for a full seven hours! No wonder we were both beat and ready to call it a night.
Tomorrow morning our Conference begins so will get this posted as soon as I can but the next few days are going to be filled with learning and connecting with others who are doing the same.
Till next time,
Lorrie-Mae
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