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Published: January 11th 2011
...no, we are not the Saint's that is more of a reference to the New Orleans Saints from the NFL this year...
Now sitting in the departure lounge at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport awaiting our flight to Los Angeles... today has been something of a Louis Armstrong day. After breakfast walked up Canal Street and along North Rampart and into the Louis Armstrong Cemetery No.1#...believed to be the oldest cemetery in New Orleans dating back to something like 1780 something. All in fairly rough order and we wonder if this was an area affected by the flooding from Katrina as much of the paving tiles are uneven and lifted and the crypts were all displaying damage apart from some recently restored. Interesting slab of history as the French and Spanish influence was very apparent with the family names on the crypts and mausoleums. Was one large crypt dedicated to the heroes of the New Orleans Artillery who died defending New Orleans against the British in 1815, they just had the celebrations for the 195 year anniversary the other day.
There are a number of crypts also that display some unusual graffitti and have had little shrines of
all sorts of odds and ends and unusual assortments from broken cigarette lighters to empty beer and whisky bottles, cigarettes, piles of pennies and even magazines and books. These it seems are the tombs of Voodoo Queens. Finding that out really got the kids interest up and we dealt with the usual raft of questions you would expect from 6 and 8 year olds relating to Voodoo and Voodoo Queens...fortunately we had none of the answers so just made it up... I am wondering what a Voodoo Queen wants with an empty whiskey bottle and reckon she would probably have preferred a full one just as a means to pass the time... apparently eternity can start to drag a bit!
From there walked down to Louis Armstrong Park...but that was closed and from looking through the fence did not look to be in particularly good repair probably in part to it being the middle of winter.
Found ourselves at the top end of the French Quarter...what are the odds so wandered a little more through there. Very interesting for adults in early and mid 40's but for kids pre ten...dead boring... lightened the load with another visit to
the Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets... food and coffee quite good but the atmosphere is what really attracts. Just something completely different. Anyway any time walking through the French Quarter is an experience so even if a little curtailled a good day out.
Was very cold again today, not as cold or miserable as yesterday by a long shot, so not all that pleasant outside. Kids have finally succumbed and are both shattered so ended up a quiet afternoon around Canal Street.
About 4.30 pm headed out here to the airport - its a flat $56 to the airport so is cheaper than a hotel shuttle if in a group larger than 2 as they charge $20 per person... cabs are interesting as they just appear to be private cars with a bit of signage on the side. The interior of the ones we have been in has been more akin to a family car after a week of school pickups and drop off than a taxi as we know them. Despite that the drivers are friendly and drive fairly safely and it gets the job done.
Got to the airport, automated check in which works really well and then a staff member helps out with the luggage processing...we had heaps of weight to spare, unfortunately it was all in the wrong bags and one bag was a whopping 13 lb overweight...good thing is they don't sting you for excess baggage...they just don;t take your bag! So we repacked...full noise to the packers though as the simple transference of one or two items and we were sweet as a nut and onwards to the x-ray machines...they give you your luggage bag to take down and put through security. I advised them about Reub's Indiana Jones replica pistol from Disneyworld or Universal Studios or wherever (finally blocking it all out) and the two light sabres and where they were located and how to locate them and all was fine. Started to walk away when summoned back, suspected they had found an issue with the light sabre but turned out they wanted access to another pocket of another bag which contained nothing except Caitlin's books...perhaps Geronimo Stilton is a prohibited publication but anyway that was resolved and we moved on. Having a chuckle about our minor adventures whilst I went through one of my compulsive obsessive practices or checking and rechecking passports and boarding passes and everything was fine with the 3 we had.... we were missing one, luckily it was only mine! Anyway the airline attendant was watching me, I am now certain the prick just wanted to see how long it took me to work out he had not returned my passport...and smiled as he held up and waved my passport at me. Actually he was a very helpful guy and he had just overlooked my passport as he was so fascinated with our repacking earlier. Its not every day you see someone transfer a two and a half foot bulldog and a life size macaw parrot out of one bag and into another... so clearly he had been distracted. (parrot and bulldog were courtesy of some annoying side show at Universal Studios which the kids showed too much aptitude for)
Now have completed the march of the unshod feet through personal security and now as previously mentioned sitting in the departures lounge awaiting a 5 hour flight to Los Angeles. Will be getting in at 9:30 pm LA time which unfortunately is 11:30 pm New Orleans time so a late night for the youngsters. True to form Caitlin is sitting here munching on dinner of raw vegetables, brocolli and carrots (has got her eye on a particularly fat moth however) whilst Reubs has just knocked off a hot dog and is now into a slice of cheese pizza. This terminal not as weel set up as the others here and food options a little limited. Plenty though to get by on...
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Andrea
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safe journey!
Wow - you certainly had a action packed trip, Niels and Sven can't wait to hear all about it from Reuben. They wanted to show up on your doorstep on Friday Morning - talked them out of it until the weekend ;-)! Have a safe trip home - can't wait to catch up! Thanks again for all your daily updates - great reads!!