Tourists in New Orleans

Since we had finished our 2 week commitment at UMCOR Sager Brown, and since we are not sure when we will be back to this area, we headed east last Friday afternoon, the wrong way to Phoenix (if we had been in a hurry). Within 2 hours we pulled into Bayou Segnette State Park in suburban New Orleans.

On Saturday morning, after taking the car a short distance to a parking lot, we walked onto a free ferry across the Mississippi River into the city proper, arriving at the foot of Canal Street. With the Warehouse/Central Business district to our left and the French Quarter to our right, we were right in the middle of the action. Our top priorities were food and music, with history and people watching close behind. We walked about 3 laps throughout the French Quarter, the first one taking in the history and layout. The second lap picked up the music and food. Have you ever seen a vocalist at an outdoor venue trying to sing through a turtleneck and scarf? She thought it was a cold day.

The Red Fish restaurant, near Canal on Bourbon St, was recommended to us last month, and the seafood was terrific. Our 3rd lap brought us to a Jazz performance at the Preservation Hall. You can’t get any closer to the performers than this.

Sunday was quite a bit shorter, but still very interesting. We started by taking the ferry again and walking the length of their huge Convention Center to get to Marti Gras World, which is a contractor who builds many of the floats used in the many parades here. They have a Visitor Center, complete with video and tour of their production area. There are dozens of krewes who build their own floats and schedule their own parades. As many as 60 different parades are held over a 3 week period (ending the day before Ash Wednesday, Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday)) on a variety of routes; any one of which could last 5-6 hours. This shop designs and builds the floats, focusing on fiberglass and Styrofoam construction. Every year the designs change, so they rebuild and repaint the props every year.

We took their shuttle back to Canal Street and walked to the opposite end of the French Quarter to catch a free jam session put on by the Louis Armstrong Society Jazz Band at the Jazz Museum operated by the National Park Service. The group included a singing Park Ranger. It was great, and the price was even better (free!). After more local cuisine (a combination of Lunch and Dinner) we tried to get home by 6:00 to put our feet up, and get ready to roll again tomorrow, this time really heading west toward Phoenix. It might take us anywhere from a week to a week and a half to get there.

Granddaughters – what is a beignet? Grandma loves them!!