Author: tanyabirch

Mardi Gras Day was yesterday and I was not part of the festivities this year. Just 9 days ago, I moved from New Orleans back to Charlotte, North Carolina.

So how do I begin to describe it?  

New Orleans was unlike any other place I ever lived, and before living there, I didn’t think much could surprise me – mostly because I have lived in major cities like New York City and London, and in the US states of New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.  I’ve traveled quite a bit throughout my life – to 20 countries throughout Europe and 37 states throughout the US thus far.   

But the truth is, I was still surprised, caught off guard by the culture and the way of life here. And after three years as a Nola resident, when I first learned of my husband’s new job opportunity and our forthcoming move away, I was sad. I had never before experienced strong emotions like this in any of our other moves. I am usually always ready for a new adventure, but this time I clung to New Orleans and held it tight. I over-indulged in drinking (that’s easy to do living in the French Quarter).

I tried to take in all the aspects of my daily life in the French Quarter that I knew I wouldn’t get in other cities, see every detail around me – like the sights of the flickering gas lanterns and the sounds of the clogging hooves of mules escorting people down Esplanade Avenue on carriage rides. I raided my costume drawer and found my purple wig, my turquoise wig, and my glitter jacket to accessorize for all the parades I attended during carnival season before my time to move.

After three memorable years, here’s my observations…

Daily Walks

Walks through the French Quarter and Marigny neighborhoods – the neighborhoods I lived in during my time living in New Orleans – never grew old, even If you repeated the same walk five days in a row. There’s always something new to discover.

I was constantly impressed by the architecture of these historic houses and landmarks. With styles like shotgun, double barrel shotgun, creole cottage, and Greek revival, you can spend the entire walk admiring the variety of designs and dynamic color schemes, like a yellow Creole Cottage with turquoise shutters or a bright purple shotgun with green shutters.

From the street, you have no idea what’s beyond the exterior structure of the French Quarter houses, and when you get a glimpse inside, like a peek through a window or a gate exposing a hidden courtyard, it’s a fun find, a secret passageway into a new world.

A Welcoming, Fun Community

During my daily walks with my dog alone, it was rare that I ever actually felt alone. That’s because there’s an amazing community of people in New Orleans, always an exchange of hellos whether you’re a stranger or a friend.

People like Kenny, the hardest worker I’ve ever seen in my life, who works at the dive burger joint down the street. He’s always positive and happy, even when he’s hauling kitchen equipment outside to deep clean it or doing the dirty task of spraying the greasy kitchen mats down. There are the street cleaners sitting inside large giant sweeper vehicles who wave and smile and tell you to “Have a blessed day.” There’s the Bubba’s Produce guys who start work at 4am every morning, and loved seeing me and Barley as we passed them to go to Crescent Park. One guy in particular told me the same story every time I saw him. “You have your best friend with you today, don’t you?” he asked. “Yes.” Then he replies, “I have a best friend, too, but she talks back to me and badgers me. It’s my wife.” Then we laugh, and it’s still funny when he says it the next day and the day after that. There’s the bar regulars who I know from my short stint bartending in the French Quarter, and as I pass them on the street I love that I have had the chance to know their drinks of choice, their habits and their favorite stops.

A Diverse Array of Neighborhoods

New Orleans is way more than the French Quarter. There’s 73 neighborhoods in this city. I enjoy biking along Bayou St. John, through City Park, and into Mid City and the Lafitte Greenway.

One such example is this dive pizza restaurant called JB’s Fuel Dock, located in a marina area on the south side of Lake Pontchartrain. When I went there and watched the boats cruising by and overlooked the peaceful waterways, I felt like I was in a small, relaxed port town. It’s not the New Orleans most tourists would imagine.

Safety and Security

On a normal day, it was not unusual to wake up and read the news and read about carjackings, armed robberies, and shootings. On my exercise routes, I often experienced the aftermath of crime.  I rode my bike to City Park and had to bypass shattered glass on the bike lanes – glass that was all attributed to broken car windows from break-ins. One morning I went on a run in Crescent Park along the Mississippi River but was warned I should not continue down the route – as the police were removing a dead body near the River as a result of a drug overdose.  

It became commonplace to carry my pepper spray, and sometimes even a taser, out on my walks, particularly when the sun went down.  And most Nola residents are in agreement that this won’t change – crime is part of the city’s makeup and past as much as Mardi Gras is.

A Holey Way of Life

I’m not talking here about the holy Catholic Church, a prominent religion and faith for many residents living in the city of New Orleans.

There’s other holey things about this city. Like the potholes, which are so famous that there’s even an Instagram page called Lookatthisf*instreet with 60,000 followers. Every day new pictures are posted of all the deep potholes in and around New Orleans. In the three years we lived there, we had five flat tires. It’s a real holey mess.

There’s also some holey-ness in the form of missing gaps with the way society functions, or rather doesn’t function – kind of like a big black hole that leads you to nowhere. Like when I had to wait for 8 hours at the DMV to get my out-of-state license switched to Louisiana. Or when we received an energy bill for $900 for our two-bedroom rental that we just had to pay, even though no one could rationalize why it was 4 times the normal price.  Or after Hurricane Ida, when important city services were still shut down almost two months later. Garbage wasn’t picked up, and that resulted in huge flies swarming the city. We couldn’t sit outside and eat or drink anywhere without being surrounded by them.

Always Something to Celebrate

Positively, there’s always something to celebrate, even when there is flies and trash piling up all over the city.  Because when that happened, a group of people decided to throw a trash parade. They dressed up in trash bag costumes and marched to city hall with some trash – their trash in one hand and a drink in the other. That’s what New Orleanians do. 

In New Orleans, you celebrate weddings and you also celebrate funerals. You have a party. You appreciate life. You live in the moment.

And that’s something all of us should be doing every day of our lives.

So, New Orleans, thank you for the experiences and the adventures over the last three years. I will appreciate every moment I had there and continue to live in the present.

And most importantly, always remember to find a reason to celebrate.

My History as an Asheville Resident

When I think back to the period when I lived in the city of Asheville, there were lots of highs and lots of lows.

The first time I learned about this Western North Carolina city in the mountains was in the year 2015, while we were living in the New York City area, sick of the day-to-day grind of life there and careers devoid of passion. My husband Jim wanted to pursue a career in beer so we began researching a new place to live so he could pursue that passion. Names like Portland, Denver, and San Diego were all possibilities, but Asheville ultimately stood out. It had the most breweries per capita out of anywhere in the US and it had one other advantage that determined its final placement as our number 1 spot:  driving distance to our families living in the northeast.

I thought I was ready for it. For the mountains, the fresh air, and a slower paced lifestyle, and I sought out new adventures, so we moved in the summer of 2015.

Then the reality set in.

I couldn’t walk to bars, restaurants, or shops. There were no subways or light rails. When I walked out the front door, there wasn’t excitement and energy and action like I was used to the previous 12 years of my life living in cities with 8 million people.

Instead of being surrounded by people, I felt like I was now surrounded by 8 million trees. The only thing I could possibly walk to without getting in a car was a dirt trail to a hike, and I didn’t really enjoy hiking. I worried we had made a terrible mistake. But I had to make the best of it.

Fast-forward to six years later and the rewards were worth the risks. My husband secured a job at a growing brewery and we moved to a larger city, Charlotte, as he was promoted, then to an even more exciting opportunity in New Orleans where we live now.

But in Asheville, we met lifelong friends, and that in turn has given us lifelong memories. So as I planned my road trip itinerary, I decided to carve out four full days there to spend time with those friends and to reflect and reminisce about my life there while I called it home.

A Newfound Appreciation

Since I’ve lived there, the city has grown significantly.  In a little less than 10 years, from the census in 2010 to the one in 2019, the city grew by almost 10,000 people. Approximately 90,000 people now live here.

Even without googling population statistics, I noticed the growth as I encountered traffic coming into town on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer (not even peak tourist season which is the Fall when the leaves change), and as I observed all the new construction throughout the city.

Walks & Hikes

I thoroughly enjoyed the morning walks with my dog Barley to explore various coffee shops around the neighborhood I stayed. One morning I walked along a new greenway in the River Arts District about a mile and a half to get to a coffee shop between various warehouses and art studios.  The greenway is built for walkers and bikers and you can walk along the French Broad River on either side. It was a great walk, and flat, too, and this greenway did not exist when I lived here. There’s so many urban planning and design projects that are taking place throughout the city, and that makes me so excited to see.

My view of hiking has evolved significantly over the years, and during this visit, I was excited to hike and to take in the nature outside in a climate much cooler from the hot, humid, six months of summer that I now experience living in New Orleans. One afternoon my friend Natalia and I, accompanied by our two large dogs, hiked the Looking Glass Rock hike in Brevard. A 40-minute drive from Asheville, it was an almost 7-mile hike up 1,700 feet with amazing views in Pisgah National Forest.

A Laid Back Vibe

I love the relaxed feel of Asheville and the number of breweries, coffee shops, and artists workspaces. Though I’ve discovered that life in the mountains is not the best geographic fit for my tastes, I know it has a lot to offer. I understand why so many people are passionate about this lifestyle, and this stop of the road trip helped me to take in the city from a brand new perspective.

Reflecting and Reminiscing

Six years ago, I can confidently say that my husband and I never would have imagined starting a journey in Asheville that’s now led us to New Orleans, Louisiana.

This part of the road trip allowed me to take a deep breath, immerse myself in the nature and the beauty and just simply smile. I am proud of all the new ventures we’ve jumped into headfirst every step of our journey.

When we moved from Asheville five years ago, I didn’t turn my head to look back. I raced to get out. But this time, I took it all in, looking backward and forward, with a new sense of peace and fulfillment in my heart.