N'awlins

street musician

After a stop at Belhaven University and several flea markets, we made it to The Big Easy in the early evening yesterday. Our hotel is downtown about three blocks from the French Quarter. Since it was early and still daylight, we walked down Canal Street to see what the sites would reveal.

leaving downtown on a streetcar

Just a few blocks down Bourbon Street, and we'd had enough of this seedy street. David commented that he liked Disneyland's version of New Orleans much better than the real thing. The French Quarter is the oldest section of the city, and you can tell. It is definitely a touristy area, but one we had to experience at least a little. The narrow streets and the wrought iron on brick buildings were the real deal complete with crowds, deteriorating buildings, and hawkers standing at the doors competing for our attention. 

St. Louis Cathedral

We walked to Jackson Square and saw St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest continuously active Catholic church in the nation. We scoped out some places to eat and decided on Oceana on Conti Street. Our waiter was the best part of the meal. He was probably playing up the cajun act, but he was friendly and took good care of us. His accent and the way he spoke to us was charming.

Yep, that's sweat. It was really humid.

After our meal, we walked along the river and Decatur Street for a bit. Then we took a streetcar up St. Charles Street. By now it was dark and the route was quite long, but as we traveled uptown, we got to see a gorgeous collection of houses. This was a beautiful part of New Orleans.


I had hoped we might find a swamp tour we could go on today, but they all seem to require reservations, so that will get crossed off our list.  We are all getting a little tired and grumpy (okay, mostly me), and we have a long drive to Houston, but before we leave the city, we'll do a few more things: visit the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, eat a muffaletta from Central Grocery, and take the ferry over to Algiers Point. We might even stop at Oak Alley Plantation outside of the city if we feel up to it.