Thr French Quarter in January

 

We made it to New Orleans after a few "bumps" in the road....literally. A detour plus (what we now know are) typical Louisiana roads (read crap) made a 1 1/2 hour trip something closer to 3 but in the end...we prevailed! Interesting RV park as it is situated on a canal off Lake Ponchartrain but is literally ten minutes from downtown/French Quarter. Smack in the city, no privacy here as we are packed in like sardines, and the usual city sounds....trains, planes, sirens. Kind of made me appreciate our last park, all alone and waking up to the sunrise over a beautiful lake. The quiet!!! On the other side of the coin is the fun of being in New Orleans. We stayed in and watched the Packer game Sunday night. I won't be talking about that anymore...

Amilias wonderful picture.Sorry Ami! There's always next year!

 Yesterday we took the first shuttle into the French Quarter. This was at 10 a.m. We got the last shuttle home last night. This was at 8. We were exhausted but had an amazing ten hours in the FQ. The most educational thing we did yesterday was Mardi Gras World (which actually was very educational and very impressive), it is where 80% of the Mardis Gras floats are made, stored and reused. Other than that tour we wandered, ate, ate more (so much for my diet), wandered more, people watched, and hit up a few happy hours (3 for 1...nuts!) I think pictures are the best way to describe our day.

Cafe Du Monde
Chickory and Beignet

FQ Hotel



After the initial walk-about, Jeff's eyes had grown several sizes. He had never been here before and I think he didn't quite believe or understand all my "stories", from my long week-end here 11 years ago. I was equally awed. I think New Orleans just has that effect on people.

House of Blues

By the time we kind of got out bearings, Jeff was ready for lunch so we went to Crescent City Brewpub. Jeff had his usual but delicious burger and I tried my first ever Poboy. Basically a shrimp sub but sooooo much better. Or maybe it was the great red ale that went along with the Poboy....so good!

From lunch we called for the shuttle to Mardis Gras World. As I said, really cool to not only see how these amazingly beautiful floats for Mardis Gras are made but also the history of the Krewes and their parades.

Float in progress

Jeff looking good as a Queen!

Old Bacchus float front

Flowering a float

We returned to the FQ with this new item on our Bucket List.....attend Mardis Gras. And we were actually ready to head directly to Bourbon Street for a little Happy Hour action (with the rest of the Riff-Raff, as we heard a local refer to the Bourbon Street clientele!). Hey, three Coronas for about $6 plus entertainment????

Call me whatever you want, I just call that a smart and thrifty move!

After walking past the same Titty Club like four times (the hawker had started recognizing us), we turned off Bourbon and returned to the saner side of the FQ and found a place to rest alittle and have a "bite" to eat. Once again up for a first, I had a Muffeletta. $8.50 and extremely delicious, I actually asked the waitress two questions....how do you sell this much meat on a sandwich for such a ridiculously low price and how do you expect anyone to actually fit this in their mouth much less eat the whole thing?

             I ate less than half and found a very hungry homeless guy to finish the remainder...honest!

We caught the 8 p.m. shuttle back to the RV park (a very nice benefit of this place) and pretty quickly collapsed. Sunday I had warned Jeff that he would have three days of non-stop FQ action ahead of him but after yesterday....I need a break. Today we will do laundry, groceries, maybe have a drive about town and wait until tomorrow to return to the FQ. We still have the WWII Museum and the St. Charles Street Trolley and Garden District to check out. So we will most likely have another ten hour day. So worth it!

Xena knows...Another Day in Paradise!