Advertisement
Published: August 1st 2010
New Orleans
Bourbon Street Baby!This magical city will always have a tight hold on my heart. But having never drove into the city, I was amazed by the beauty just driving down the interstate. Tall, expansive stretches of bridge over the Mississippi River and smaller overpasses over the bayou, it is such a treat to be back!
One interesting roadside experience - having sipped my way through 32 ounces of diet soda, I was the horrible wife insisting we break up the drive with yet another pit-stop. The truck stop was called Tiger Road Truck Stop and as we drove up the long driveway, I looked over and there was a huge fenced in enclosure with a tiger pacing back and forth! When they said Tiger Road Truck Stop - they really, really meant the tiger part of the name.
About 30 miles out of the city of New Orleans, you could make out the skyline and begin to see familiar images. Unfortunately, many of them from Katrina and the later days of evacuation - the Superdome and the neighboring streets still look like a war zone.
But the French Quarter was exactly as I remembered it. Beautiful brick Creole townhouses with
New Orleans
My first hand grenade! shops below and homes above, wrought iron second floor balconies, those same familiar sounds and smells - spices from the restaurants, but also a peculiar rot that Jim said reminded him of rotting wood - goes to figure that these old buildings having sustained natural disaster after natural disaster would have a bit of wood rot. We drove right up Bourbon Street and the street was quite tame - nothing like it would become five short hours later when the street was closed off to cars and thousands and thousands of people would pour down the road. Much like Vegas, everyone looked clean, bright-eyed and bushytailed - much less so a the night progressed!
We got checked in after a one hour wait for our suite - which was a pain, but paid off with a free breakfast in the hotel during our stay. We headed out to see the sights, listen to music (fantastic jazz/blues player at the Funky Pirate). In fact, fantastic live music was pouring out of every bar and restaurant - it was hard to choose which one to go into and which to pass up! We had bar-b-qued shrimp on a second floor balcony
New Orleans
Street Performer - No that Guy Isn't Real! overlooking Bourbon Street, had freshly shucked oysters at an oyster bar and had a really nice conversation the the man shucking - he tapped each one before shucking it. We asked why and he said, "I always knock on the door before entering someone's house." They were divine!! We also shared a shrimp po-boy sandwich with pickles and a yummy remoulade.
The other great feature of of Bourbon Street on a Saturday night is all the various street performers. One of particular note was a big, black man painted entirely in silver paint sitting in a chair appearing to be asleep. There was a bucket by his legs where people were putting in money to see if they couldn't get him to "come to life"...then all of a sudden, this tall skinny white guy comes over and picks up the "silver man" and throughs him into the air!! It was a dummy (or we were for thinking he was real!).
We also stopped in a country bar with a mechanical bull - something I have ALWAYS wanted to do, but didn't have the guts....still don't! We watched while I tried to muster the courage - to no avail.
New Orleans
Bourbon Street on Saturday Night Finally note: we went into one of the many, many voodoo shops and looked at all the candles, voodoo dolls and other interested things for sale.
Jim shot pictures last night, so I will post some soon!!
Off to Jazz Brunch!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 46; dbt: 0.063s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
orchid
non-member comment
tiger torture is what it is
THAT CAT NEEDS FREEDOM...not concrete and fumes! it should be given the opportunity of any wild animal to be re-instated into a NORMAL ENVIRONMENT! sad and sickly is a human who KEEPS SUCH animals in CAGES...if there is a huge flood, who will save HIM?