When my husband, Bobby, and I were going to New Orleans, I knew that we had to hear live music. I mean seriously, New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz music and Louis Armstrong. The only question was where we would listen to it. I don’t think Bobby would have minded if we ended up in some club on Bourbon Street, but that really isn’t my type of thing. Instead I talked him into going on a riverboat cruise that also had a live band. Well, actually, it was Bob Adamov who told Bobby we needed to go on the Steamboat Natchez.
The Steamboat Natchez is only one of two truly steam-powered boats on the Mississippi River. This boat was built in 1975, but comes from a long line of steamboats carrying the Natchez name from before the civil war until now. The Steamboat Natchez has a couple of cruises each day, but the one we decided to take was the two hour evening jazz cruise with the optional dinner buffet. The boarding starts each night at 6 pm and then the cruise leaves at 7 pm and returns at 9 pm. Or that is what is supposed to happen. We probably should have guessed things wouldn’t go as expected when it began to rain while we were waiting to board. I had checked the weather app before leaving the hotel and though it had rained earlier in the day, there was only a 17% chance of rain for the remainder of the night.
I didn’t think twice about the weather because we were inside the dining cabin. The Dukes of Dixieland band was playing as we started eating our salads. Our table was next to another two-top table. We spent the good part of our dinner talking with “Pat and Nat” from Ottawa Canada. It was their first time in New Orleans, too. We talked about their other travels to the states, which included a trip to Amish Country in Holmes County, Ohio and a stay at a resort in Ohio on a private lake. (They couldn’t remember the name, but if any of my readers has an idea of what it might be I’d like to know. It is north of Columbus.)
The dinner buffet included a seafood pasta, a chicken and sausage gumbo, pork loin and steamship round beef. Dessert was white chocolate bread pudding and banana foster served over ice cream.
We finished our meal and were listening to the band, but the steamboat wasn’t moving. The paddlewheel was going, but we hadn’t left the dock. I think the captain had made an announcement, but we couldn’t hear it over the band. When the band took their first break, I decided to walk around a little bit. I stepped outside of the dining room and immediately realized that the fog had rolled in with a vengeance. The trombone and upright bass player were outside too. They were talking about how unlikely it would be that we would actually be able to leave the dock. The bassist shared that one time, when it hadn’t been as foggy, they were underway and it surprised him how close a tanker had gotten to the steamboat.
The guys said the band was getting ready to play again so we all headed back inside. Just then the captain announced that the Coast Guard had made the determination that the cruise would not be happening. The Steamboat Natchez captain said we could disembark and get a ticket for the next day for a cruise. Or, if we wanted to stay on the boat, we could listen to the band. While many people did leave the boat, Bobby and I decided to stay to listen.
We are glad we did. We first moved our seats closer to the band and listened to their next set. The band included the already mentioned trombone and upright bass as well as a pianist, drummer, saxophone/clarinet player and a cornet player. They were great.
After their next break, they brought up a group from Tokyo to play drums, bass and piano.
The cornet player told the crowd that they were part of a jazz band back in Japan. I guess the international language is music. They were able to play together and from what I could tell they did it flawlessly.
Bobby and I were super excited to be able to witness this. We were pretty sure this type of thing didn’t happen on a usual night. But the surprises didn’t end there. Apparently there was a woman on board who was celebrating her birthday. She requested a waltz to be played, so she could dance. Not that unique, right? Well when the band started playing the waltz, here comes this woman dressed to the hilt in a ballroom dancer gown. She and her partner floated around the small dance floor. Again, something that probably doesn’t happen often. And should that have happened while the boat was underway, I would have missed it. Our original seats were a good distance from the dance floor.
So while it wasn’t what we expected or how I planned for the evening to go, it was so much better. When we left the boat we had a great memory and I got the T-shirt to prove it!
The night didn’t end there, but I’m not going to write about it. Let’s just say that I finally agreed to go to Bourbon Street for Bobby. He said we had to do it for the experience. It was definitely that. I’ll never be able to unsee what I saw. And I am just going to leave it at that.
