New Orleans

Saturday, April 13, 2013

A very early day!


 




We had New Orleans to explore, plus it was the 30th Annual French Quarter Festival.  Bands or venues are set up all over the French Quarter, playing jazz or zydeco.  The music was good too, not amateur either.  We parked on Rampart Ave. on the fringe of the French Quarter.  We walked down Bienville St,  We began to see the classic French  Quarter buildings with wrought iron railing on the second floor balconies.  The architecture is actually of Spanish design. There is little French architecture left in the French Quarter.

We found ourselves dancing in the street from the excellent musicians casting a spell on the audience.  The smells wafting from the restaurants providing Louisiana food was intoxicating.  Bourbon Street was up to its reputation and people walking, drinks in hand (Big Ass Beer, Hand grenades, etc.); others throwing beads from balconies; “Cats Meow” had excellent karaoke, etc.  For lunch we went to Huck Fin’s and split a bunwich called a “shrimp po’ boy”  Food, drinks and parking were expensive, as would be expected in the French Quarter.

We bought a “jazzy pass” to ride the street car lines.  We took the line by the harbour and the line up Canal Street.  We ate pralines and we went to an art show opening for supper.  Good thing, because all the restaurants were expensive and/or greasy. 

New Orleans continued – the good restaurants, Green Goddess and Café du Monde, had perpetual and continuous line ups.  We hope to return to them in the future..

We saw a $100,000 painting (sold I might ad) which was made into the poster for the French Quarter Festival, to $25 caricatures at Jackson Square. Fine art was sold there too.  We drifted off looking for Seafood Gumbo and found only sausage varieties.  “How you all doing?” was a phrase we heard lots.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

We awoke to loud thunder and lightening and wind causing “sideways rain.”


 





Scary!  This was in the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  One lady told Ken she hadn’t seen such bad weather since Katrina until now – I can’t imagine how it must have felt.

We drove through rain most of the day until before supper.  We ate at a truly wonderful vegan, soul food restaurant.  Best food for awhile!  We went for a walk around a lake.  We saw Cypress trees, Muscovy ducks with babies, squirrels and Canada geese.  Ken drove carefully through the rain.

Monday, April 15, 2013

I woke up about 3:30 am and could not get back to sleep – very frustrating.



 



I guess I woke Ken up and he was anxious to get up and at driving, wanting to make it to Washington, D.C.  Seems like high expectations (4:30 am) at the time.  We did drive in five states today, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina ending up in Virginia.  We are just a few hours south of Washington, D.C.  We drove I-95 all day, which was tree lined, mostly deciduous, some pine.  We made a few stops.  We ate breakfast at Denny’s – bad choice.  We stopped in Savannah, Georgia.  Downtown was peppered with quaint shops and little parks.  The parks had trees with low hanging branches and hanging moss.  Typically southern.  Many brick buildings.  We even saw horses pulling carriages for tourists.  South Carolina rest areas had blooming white dogwoods.  Ken drove like a machine to get us this far safely.