Today is going to be nonstop, so the
second the alarm goes off we’re up and running, and by 8:30 we're already out exploring the streets of New Orleans. But let's start with some pictures of "our" place.
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| The resident bird |
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| Beautiful living space -- David removed the wall dividing the two shotguns at the front of the properties to make this one larger room. |
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| New Orleans is so colorful! Our HOA would so not be amused if we did that haha. |
For breakfast we stop at a cool bakery called Croissant d’Or. We order scrumptious ham & cheese croissants and decide to get a head start on dessert by celebrating with some sweet treats; a chocolate éclair for Sandy and a enormous meringue for me.
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| Don't laugh, but I actually ordered this meringue because it looked like a smaller option while it was in the display case but it was a monster! Someone start an insulin drip please! |
They also sell penguins.
Next stop Lafitte’s Blacksmith shop, but it’s too early so we
decide to take a walk down Bourbon Street and see where all the craziness
happens. Which as it turns out isn't very crazy in the morning.
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| Getting closer to party central. |
From Bourbon St we turn down St. Ann Street to explore Jackson’s Square. It’s a lively area with artists, street musicians and several really cool mimes. I loved this one … so beautiful and so talented!
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| Not sure how he could even tell when you were looking at him with his eyes closed, but he'd always wink just at the right moment. |
Cute overview of the square from the steps by the riverside. The church in the background is the St. Louis Cathedral.
Ursuline Academy is practicing their cheers on the steps facing Jackson Square. All classes have their own name and cheer to foster bonding among the students -- these are the Skipperettes (Skips):
After a quick walk down the steps to the mighty Mississippi we cut back across the square towards the cathedral.
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| Major General Jackson and his noble steeds |
The Presbytere:
It’s only a short walk to French Market, an open air market
that sells a variety of products ranging from spices, to clothing to souvenirs.
When we pass the gator stand the second time I can’t resist any longer; I must
try “the other white meat.”
After that – no, just kidding, I know you’re dying to know what alligator tastes like haha. Now, I got the gator on a stick which is a gator sausage with spices so it was hard to know what it really tastes like, but it actually tasted much like a normal sausage. Very greasy though, probably because of how it was prepared, so I could only eat a little bit, but it’s another thing off my bucket list and next time I get the chance I'd like to try some gator jerky.
We start heading back towards the French Quarter when I spot a store I read about in my guide book; Central Grocery – home of the best muffuletta sandwiches. Originally an Italian recipe a muffuletta sandwich is made with salami, ham, cheese and a special olive tapenade. No wonder there’s a line of people waiting for these babies, they’re so tasty!
Another cool horse statue on the way:
Café du Monde is nearby so we decide to take half a muffuletta to go, then place an order for beignets at Café du Monde – another New Orleans tradition. It’s a fried dough pastry topped with a ridiculous amount of powdered sugar not unlike Dutch “oliebollen,” except a bit less greasy.
We split both dishes and find a bench in a shady spot on
Jackson’s Square to have lunch. Not easy to eat those beignets without making a
mess.
Our guidebook cautions against visiting St. Louis #1 cemetery without being part of a tour, but it’s the middle of the afternoon so we decide to check it out anyway. It’s located right outside of the French Quarter and overrun with tourists so I’m not sure why they advise against going by yourself, but we didn’t feel threatened for a minute.
As the city’s oldest cemetery it’s not the most visually
appealing, but it is home to the Glapion family crypt, where voodoo priestess
Marie Laveau was supposedly buried. As you can tell her tomb is marked all over
with x’s … legend has it that she will grant you a wish if you mark her tomb
with three xxx.
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| Crypt of the voodoo princess |
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| Some of the older tombs are starting to crumble |
We start heading back towards the river and walk down
bustling Canal Street. This is one of the major department store shopping
streets in New Orleans, no adorable boutiques here, just your run of the mill
name brand franchises. It feels very un-New Orleans to me.
There’s a Harrah’s casino here, just like the one in Vegas, so we decide to pay a visit – to their lovely restroom. Let’s just say it can be hard to find public restrooms sometimes and casinos always have them right by the slot machines.
Another horse statue near the ferry terminal
The Algiers ferry isn’t much to look at, but it’s free so
you can’t really argue with that. We head to the lower deck and find a place to
sit down … our feet are on fire by now and it feels so good to sit down for a
spell. Ahhh!
Of course I can’t quite help myself and as soon as the ferry
departs I’m off taking pictures again. Here’s one of the skyline.
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| Me on the ferry. |
Some of these barges are enormous! Hard to believe but the
river is 200 ft deep at this point.
There’s not much to see on the other side of the river so we
opt to stay aboard when we reach Algiers Point.
Having seen most of the things on our wish list with time to
spare we collapse near the fountain while we figure out where to go from here.
There’s a snowball (New Orleans version of shaved ice) stand right there, but I
am dying to have one from a little store called Hansen’s that’s supposed to be
heavenly. It’s located in Uptown but I figure we can take the historic Charles
Street streetcar to the Garden district and get the streetcar experience at the
same time. Baaaaaaad idea!
Now you might’ve noticed in some of the pictures that
there’s a lot of construction going on in New Orleans (to prepare for the Super
Bowl, the American football championship) and when we ask one of the bicycle
taxi’s to take us to the street car stop he informs us that it’s not running
until further out but he’ll drop us at the shuttle bus shop. Having never been in a bicycle taxi this is an experience I can't turn down.
The grumpy bus driver – with great economy of words and
total lack of explanation – takes our money and so it is that we find ourselves
wedged in the back of a city bus more than faintly reminiscent of my times
riding to the bus to school in the morning with all the resident crazies.
We debate getting off and cutting our losses but it’s all
happening so quickly – not to mention we don’t carry a lot of cash for a cab
back to downtown – so when miles later the bus pulls over in front of a convenience
store we're relieved to find a street car waiting for us. Yay!
Unfortunately we don’t really know what stop to get off and I’m so busy taking pictures of all the opulent homes along the tree lined street that by the time I look to see what street we’re at I can only conclude that we’ve gone too far - much too far!
Trying to conserve cash (they want exact change to ride the street car and we only have so many quarters) we ride all the way until the end of the line only to find out they make us disembark and then pay again for the return trip. After an unannounced stop where both conductors run off the street car and into subway for minute or two we are finally on our way back.
This little side trip has taken a lot more time than I’d
budgeted for and I’m torn on whether to stop for a snow ball or not, but won’t
it all be for nothing if we don’t at least get what we set out to find in the
first place?
Having learnt from our previous mistakes Sandy asks the
conductor where to get off and this time we find ourselves right on Bordeaux
Street … even though this is the closest stop it’s still about half a mile to
the store, but we keep on trucking until finally we reach the storefront.
Oh wait, what?! It’s closed. CLOSED!!! For no
apparent reason. UGH!!!
The only cool thing was that while walking through this residential neighborhood I couldn't help but be drawn to music drifting from a large warehouse with the doors cracked open just so ... and when I peeked inside found them
building larger-than-life Mardi Gras floats.
Sadly, by now we’ve run out of water so we’re both nursing a
dehydration headache and we’re still stuck in the middle of a boring residential
neighborhood. Mentally kicking myself we trudge back to the street car stop
where we watch our last quarters disappear in the meter.
If there is an award for best Halloween themed yard this house wins the cake. What a neat surprise
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| The picture is probably too small to get a clear look, but all these skeletons are labeled. There's Saturday Night Femur, Skeletons in the Closet, Kiss of Death, Bone Voyage, Femme Fatale, Died Laughing and many others. |
The bus is already waiting –sans driver – when we get back
to the convenience store and we don’t dare popping inside to buy something to drink lest we miss the
bus ... which of course means we end up sitting on the bus for 10 minutes before
it finally leaves.
Long story short-ish; when we get back to our starting point
we drag our parched selves into the nearest store and stock up on drinks then stagger to
Harrah’s for another bathroom break. We also walked past a hotel displaying
more Blue Dog art. We first discovered this artist while vacation in artsy Carmel
and to this day I really like this paintings. Don't pay any attention to the reflections in the window -- that's not how it's supposed to be.
It’s starting to get dark so we decide to browse some more
of the souvenir shops then turn onto Bourbon Street, which has undergone a
dramatic transformation since we were last there; people are everywhere and
scantily clad ladies are bouncing their “assets” in the doorways trying to lure in
customers. Yikes! Not sure what you’re paying to see considering there wasn’t
much left to the imagination …
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| No naked ladies in the picture, sorry! ;-) |
There’s also several street artists, including this guy who
was on America’s Got Talent.
Eventually we find ourselves back at Lafitte’s Blacksmith
Shop where I order my first Hurricane. I love rum so this drink is pretty much
made for me. They are very generous with their liquor -- and dehydration, fatigue and lack of food make for a dangerous combination. We still need to find a place to eat and I’m trying to drink as fast as I can so once I get halfway done the world starts spinning whenever I turn my head. Whoops!
They keep the interior very dimly lit, with candles providing most of the light … what a cool place to hang out!
After yummy side salads our food arrives; sizzling chicken
and dumplings and BBQ jumpy shrimp with French bread for me. The menu hadn’t
said they were jumbo shrimp so I was a little freaked out by all the little
legs on my plate, but once I had my first bite I was ripping them off like a pro.
Stuffed we stumble out of the restaurant where I – still a
bit woozy – promptly steer us the wrong way. Oops! Good thing I realized
right away.
After a short walk we find ourselves on Frenchmen Street,
one of the liveliest streets in New Orleans with live music blaring from every
establishment. We almost wait to see a
show by a singer called Dana Abbott, who the proper tells us has “great vocals”
but at this point just staying upright is a bit of struggle so we just savor
the sights and sounds as we walk down the street.
There’s a small open air market with local artists
showcasing their art, but nothing that catches my eye. Right outside the market
is a guy posing for pictures with his two colorful parrots. Tempting, but it’s
late so we keep walking.
I make it halfway down the next block before temptation wins
out. Sad but I have no self-control when it comes to once in a lifetime
opportunities and where else will I be able to hold a parrot in the palm of my
hand?
Are these pictures awesome or what?!
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| What can I say, he put us up to it! |
Dinner: Eat
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