Day One In New Orleans

Blue sky, no clouds and 40 degrees. By 9:30 AM we had our plans, maps and the dogs and left for the French Quarter. We're about 9 miles by freeway and make the trip in twenty minutes. We found a parking spot on Decatur Street and walked to the Visitor Information Center for some info, of course! The young lady gave us a small map of the district and we spent two hours just walking around. We walked to the Mississippi River and walked along the Riverwalk atop the levee stopping at Jackson Square.

Continuing along Decatur we cut into town to Bourbon Street and browsed all the little shops. Returning to the car we put more money in the meter and headed of for a little bistro with outside dining. We found the Market Cafe and sitting in the sun ordered lunch for us and water for the dogs. Tina had Shrimp Creole and I had Jambalaya. Very good. After lunch we walked down to the riverboat depot and picked up a brochure for a Steam Paddlewheel Riverboat Ride for tomorrow or Wednesday.

Returning to the car we drove to the end of Canal Street and did a tour of two cemeteries in the Cemetery District.

The first one was overgrown and had suffered a lot of damage from Katrina. Not a lot of repairs had been made. The second one was more kept up and almost all the crypts were in good repair. Some dated back to the 1700's and some were so ornate it was incredible. There were two other cemeteries in the same area, both much larger than the two we visited and obviously in even better shape - the truly well of had been interred in these two but there was no where to park and no visible entry gates so we gave up and headed home.

Later, after naps, dinner for us, dinner for the dogs and a dog walk, we left Wicket and Punky to guard the rig while we headed back downtown for some blues. After all, we're in New Orleans! Tina had found a place not far from where we'd been earlier in the day called "The Apple Barrel" on Frenchmen Street. We navigated our way back to town in the dark and found a parking spot almost right away. A short walk and we found the club and grabbed a table.

This was a small club with three tables, a short bar with the stage just in front of the door. The room must have been about twelve feet wide from the back of the bar to the sidewalk and 15 feet long which included the performers area and the stairs leading up to the second floor restaurant. We got one of the tables and for an hour we were the only audience for a very talented musician named Michael. He played numerous older cover tunes along with some of his own material. Being in such an intimate setting we were able to banter with him between songs.

Eventually more people showed up and livened up the place. We enjoyed ourselves and his performance but left at his first break. Sad but true, we no longer had our youthful tolerance for cigarette smoke. We made it home safely with Tina driving, I'm not as good behind the wheel at night.

Turning on the TV, the weather report said to expect temperatures in the low 30's tonight but sunny tomorrow. With good weather we plan to do some more exploring.

This side trip, 35 miles.

To see all of today's photos click on the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski