Day 93 in New Orleans, we got a late start on this day and hopped on the 3:45 pm shuttle bus to the French Quarter. Once there we found the St. Charles streetcar and headed right to the Garden District. I’m not sure what Rob was expecting it to be like but he said later it wasn’t what he thought. I think he was imagining a big park or something like Central Park in NYC.

The Garden District of New Orleans is a neighborhood located a short distance from the French Quarter. The area was first developed between 1832 to 1900 by wealthy plantation and business owners of the day, who did not want to live in the Quarter with the Creoles. It may be one of the best preserved collections of historic southern mansions in the United States. Originally there were only one or two houses per block, each surrounded by a large garden, thus giving the area its name.

In the late 1800′s many of the lots were subdivided which has produced a pattern of each block having a couple large southern style mansions, and being surrounded by Victorian style houses on the rest of the block. So this area is now known for architecture more so than gardens.

Victorian home - garden district

Here are several of my many photographs of New Orleans Garden District. You can still see evidence of beads and decorations from Mardis Gras on many of the streets and houses.

Chickens in the city, New Orleans

Rob was thrilled to see people keeping chickens in the city.  He wants to get some.  They had a little coop to go in and everything.  He says he’ll write more about the chickens separately, but for now – here they are!

This was in one of the gardens, I snuck a photo in between the fence bars

Looks like a great place to sip a Mint Julep

There was a photography crew just leaving this house as we walked by and we learned it is being featured in a magazine for the restorations this owner has done on the home. I keep running into photography shoots everywhere.

"Colonel Short's Villa" or the "Banks House" in the historic Garden District

Doesn't this house just scream "Gone with the Wind" to you?

"Colonel Short's Villa" or the "Banks House" in the historic Garden District

Interesting - things to tie your horse to!

Face of New Orleans Saints on a tree - Who Dat!

Garden district streetcar

New Orleans streetcar - Canal Street

After a day taking photographs of the Garden District all day, we were looking forward to spending St Patrick’s day in New Orleans. Our evening plans were to be in the heart of the French Quarter off Bourbon Street and more than likely finding a parade. Pat O’Brians would be a good place to start Rob figures… with their signature drink, the Hurricane.

Related posts:

1. New Orleans Café du Monde and French Market
2. Day 91 New Orleans Plantations
3. Day 92, New Orleans French Quarter
4. Day 85 – Dolphin Connection dolphin tour

After a morning exploring other parts of the French Quarter, enjoying coffee at Café du Monde and then the French Market, we spent the rest of the day and evening completely immersed in Jackson Square and its history. Street musicians, artists and landmark buildings like the nearly 150 year old St Louis Cathedral and the incredibly cool Pirate’s Alley filled our time, while jazz in Preservation Hall and Pat O’Brien’s Hurricanes filled our senses. New Orleans Jackson Square in the French Quarter; the heart of the Crescent City.

Outside a shop, loved the light and the bottles in the window

And inside the same shop, had to see what it looked like from the other side

Interesting shop we found. They had antiques, junk and a suit of armor. Rob bought a wrought iron Fleurs de Lis.

Evidence of the New Orleans Saints big Superbowl win were everywhere!

"Who Dat?" is the slogan for the Saints, this one is suggesting that they ARE dat!

Pirate’s Alley New Orleans

Rob was pretty insistent that he wanted to try absinthe so we found the original absinthe bar, Pirate’s Alley Cafe and Olde Absinth House, and he ordered one while I watched.  It’s quite a process, I’ll let him tell you about it.   I just liked the old bar and the fact it used to be a jailhouse for pirates back in the old days.  Pirate’s Alley itself is really interesting and on a weekend you’ll find artists around the fence in behind the cathedral.

Pirate's Alley Cafe and Olde Absinthe House

Absinthe

Inside Pirate's Alley Cafe and Absinthe House

I just loved the light and shapes happening here

Jackson Square in New Orleans French Quarter

Finally we stopped to rest in Jackson Square, which is THE place to hang out in the French Quarter.  You’ll usually find street musicians, artists, skateboarders, fortune tellers, magicians, people dancing, buskers and all sorts of interesting things going on at any given time.   The square was originally called Plaza de Armas, and was renamed Jackson Square after the Battle of New Orleans in honor of General Andrew Jackson.  It was also declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.   In the middle of the square is a statue of the general on a horse dating back to 1856.

Statue of General Jackson and the St. Louis Cathedral

Jackson Square Landmark Buildings

Jackson Square has many landmark buildings around it as well, and the history in the area is astounding.  The finalization of the Louisiana Purchase was done nearby in the Cabildo (old city hall) and opposite that building is The Presbytere which was used for both commercial purposes and even housed the Louisiana Supreme Court.   Both buildings were built in the 1790s and are registered National Historic Landmarks.

Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans French Quarter

The St. Louis Cathedral is one of New Orleans’ most notable landmarks, standing tall with it’s triple steeples that look down on Jackson Square and the statue of General Jackson. The landmark building was completed in 1727 and has gone through many disasters, both natural and “man made” in the years since. We noticed that a pope had presided over mass in the St Louis Cathedral recently, but for the life of me, can’t find the details about it. We remember seeing it though.

St Louis Cathedral

Inside St Louis Cathedral

Jackson Square, the Cabildo building

artist in Jackson Square

Jazz band in the square

These guys were really good

This guy gave me the finger and I had it in the frame and I didn't take the photo. I wish I had, it was classic. He looked right at me and flipped me the bird.

Television and Movies Filmed in Jackson Square

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, disobedient slaves were executed in Jackson Square.   More recently it has been featured in many a TV show and movie including:  Angel Heart, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the HBO TV series Tremé (which we managed to walk through a set of, more on that later) and even an episode of Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine.

As we stood on the corner of the square, we overheard a tour guide telling his clients that part of a scene from Interview With a Vampire was filmed inside and the building was used for the fire scene as they burned the French Quarter and left by boat for Paris.

Anyway, after watching a band play in Jackson Square for a while, Rob went to go find somewhere to sit and have a cold drink while I wandered around some more and took photographs.  I also popped into a gallery near the cathedral that featured some great local photography.

There are many different tours available in the French Quarter, one of them being by mule or horse buggy.  While we didn’t do one this time, I did on my last trip to the city and it was well worth it.  Comfort of sitting, a local guide and you can pick which places you can stop and get out at like one of the cemeteries.

Mule buggy tour leader

He told the mule she was naughty because she head butted a lady that was walking by. So he told her she had to kiss him to make up and this is what happened. Too cute!

Street Musicians

You can practically find musicians on almost every street corner in the French Quarter at almost any time of day or night.   If you stop to listen please support them by tossing in a few dollars, this is how they make their living. In fact, Rob suggests everyone have a wad of single dollar bills for just this purpose. Stop, listen, and leave a tip.

Street musicians are everywhere in the Quarter much to everyone's pleasure

Iconic Places You MUST SEE in the French Quarter

The French Quarter is a place of history. There are some things you simply MUST do when you’re here. These are are top “things to do in the French Quarter”

Pat O'Briens, home of the original Hurricane drink

Pat O’Brien’s

When I was in New Orleans in 2005 Pat O’Brien’s was on our Must See list and we were told to have the Pat O’Brien’s world famous Hurricane drink.  Little did I know then in that 8oz drink was 4oz of rum!  Three Hurricanes later and finding the bathroom become an issue (you have to climb a winding spiral staircase to get to the bathroom).  My advice:  drink slowly, make sure you have a DD or someone to watch over your drunk ass after having a few, and be aware of your drink count.  They are very tasty and go down way to fast like Koolaid – don’t say I didn’t warn you.  They also have some other great specialty drinks like the Cyclone and they sell the Hurricane drink mix in powder and liquid form to make at home.  We bought some and had a Hurricane party for friends which was a big hit.   Their piano bar is usually hoppin’ too and one night we witnessed a marriage proposal and engagement of a young couple.

Preservation Hall, home of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band - and simply a MUST DO

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall, home of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band – this is a definite MUST DO!   Blink and you’ll miss it as Preservation Hall is a very unassuming, hole in the wall place and if it wasn’t right next to Pat O’Brien’s it would be almost impossible to find.   No flashing lights.  No billboard.  Just an old sign that notifies you that you’re there.   Oh that, and the line up will give it away any time after 6pm too.   Preservation Hall is all about the music and nothing else.  There’s no food or drinks and not even bathrooms.  It’s a small $12 cover fee to get in and you can stay for one or all three sets if you get in to the 8pm show.   Inside there’s about 6 wooden benches, pillows in the floor and the rest is standing room only.   Get there early to line up, usually by 6pm and if you get in for the 8pm show you can choose how long you stay, then it’s all done by 11pm.   Buy a CD too!   I didn’t the first time and regretted it the whole five years until I was back this time.   The music is old-time jazz at it’s finest – just go!

[Rob's note: I requested they play Happy Birthday for Darlene. We went there on her birthday]

Pirate’s Alley

I’ve already mentioned it once but it’s worth another. Pirate’s Alley is located right beside and behind the cathedral.  Pirate’s alley is a treasure trove of neat little places to discover. On weekends artists often display their work around the fence behind the cathedral. You can pop into the Faulkner Book shop which was the home of Nobel prize winner writer William Faulkner. It’s crammed with books of all kinds literally from floor to ceiling and is almost overflowing. Upstairs is still a private residence and I’d loved to have had a peak up there, but that was not in the cards this day.

Central Grocery

Central Grocery is home of the original Muffuletta, a sandwich of mammoth proportions made out of a whole ciabatta bread. Although we didn’t have one here on this trip, I did partake of the grocery’s sandwich last time. It’s a big sandwich so either bring a big appetite, only get 1/2 or 1/4 or one, or share with friends like I did. It’s full of Italian meats and cheese and a wonderful olive spread that’s to die for! They have a little eating counter at the back – grab a drink and take a load off for a while.

Coop's Place

Coop’s Place

So after cruising around on my own for a while I went and found Rob and we headed to Coop’s Place for a really fast dinner. We wanted to catch the last shuttle back to the RV park and had less than an hour by the time we got to the restaurant and got a table. It’s a dark tiny little place and we picked the dishes that would be delivered to us the quickest so it wasn’t the best opportunity to sample their wares. It is recommended highly by most locals and is another of the little hide-aways that make this city so unique. We vowed to come back and give it a full chance to impress us. What we did have was very good but too rushed to enjoy it. We’ll be back! Besides, we had to eat here – Coop is Rob’s nickname from his days at Peak Potentials.

Café du Monde

As I described in an earlier post about Café du Monde, this is THE place for coffee in New Orleans. Their café au lait and beignet are New Orleans in a cup and a pastry.   Serving the French Quarter for 150 years, everyone and their dog has been into this place. Expect to hear “Don’t line up. There is no line up. Find a seat and sit down.” over and over again as the line up’s begin.   There ARE NO LINE UPS.   Find a seat.   Make a new friend at a table and have a coffee.  Highly recommended.

New Orleans French Quarter Restaurants

If you’re looking for suggestions for New Orleans French Quarter Restaurants, we’d easily recommend Coop’s Place, the Central Grocery and without a doubt, hands down, the place to find clean food in New Orleans is Meals From the Heart, just a little down Decatur street in the French Market.

Another restaurant in the French Quarter is Mother’s. Absolutely fantastic place to eat. It’s just on the outside edge of the French Quarter, over near Harrahs Casino

Returning to the RV park we had a chance to see a free show from a Neil Diamond impersonator.   Apparently he was traveling by RV also and did the show for the park in exchange for their parking fees – very smart!   His 2 year old son came out and did an Elvis impersonation to open the show and Neil himself was very good.  Had to remind myself a couple times it wasn’t actually the real singer.   We didn’t take any photos of it, we just enjoyed the show.

The French Quarter of New Orleans offers the visitor many restaurants, music, art and landmark buildings like the Saint Louis Cathedral. Of the places you must see in New Orleans, make absolute sure you line up and hear a set or two in Preservation Hall. Get a drink from a walk up bar and then get in line. Just do it! Make sure you check out Pirate’s Alley and if you decide to sit in one of the chairs in the photographs above, know that a scene from Treme was filmed there where you sat. Check out the old bookstore next door too. Jackson Square in the French Quarter is the heart of New Orleans. Imagine hundreds of years of musicians, poets, artists, generals and lovers as you stroll the area.

Related posts:

1. New Orleans Café du Monde and French Market
2. New Orleans Garden District
3. Day 91 New Orleans Plantations
4. The Alamo

Day two in “The Big Easy” (one of New Orleans other names) started off by actually getting on the shuttle bus from the RV park this time relatively early in the morning.  I think we got on the 9:30am, first one out.  We headed straight for Café du Monde’s famous coffee stand at 800 Decatur Street.

Sidebar anecdote:  funny thing, on my first trip here I was expecting to hear French spoken quite commonly.  Many of the street have French names and of course there’s the French Quarter. Nope – not even a little bit. In fact, names I’d expect to be pronounced in a more French way were completely murdered, in my opinion. Decatur is one of those. I expected it to sound more like “deck-a-tour” and when I said it that way they looked at me like I had two heads. They said it “dee-katter”. One of the odd things I noticed anyway. So don’t try and use your French here, it’s long gone.

Café au lait and Beignet

Anyway, established some time in 1862 Café du Monde  has been serving café au lait and their famous beignet donuts for 150 years.   Taken right from their site, here is the history of this coffee stand:

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Dec 25th and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans.

The Original Cafe du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait. Au Lait means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. In 1988 Iced Coffee was introduced to the cafe. Soft drinks also made their debut that year.

This is the sight you’ll see as you approach the sidewalk café.   What appears to be a long line up gets quickly cleared by an anxious server yelling “No line, no line!  Find a table and sit down!”   So you do and often it’s to share with another couple, which we did, or join a partly empty table.  No space is wasted here and quick turn over is their goal – get you in, get you served, get you out – so they can serve more people I’m guessing and make more tips.

I’m sure I saw the lady in the photo below 5 years ago too, and in the TV show The Treme which we actually stepped into the set of by accident one other day (more on that later).    She’s the one that ushered us in hurriedly.  I learned later that they take the customer’s order, go to the back to get it, and PAY for it themselves.  Then they have to collect from the customer to cover what they paid and hopefully get a tip.  I hope they pay less than we would if we walked up to the window, but it makes sense then why they want you in and out so fast. The more served per hour, the more tips they can make.

Cafe Du Monde Beignets

Here we see people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying their beignets.  I have to admit I did have some, while Rob abstained.  But the Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee is out of this world!   I love the little girl with powdered sugar all over her face.  She was watching me take her photo, but didn’t seem to mind.

In the photos below you can see the staff, busily serving their tables.  After they collected a plate of beignets and poured the coffees, they’d go pay the cashier waiting for them at the end of the line.  I watched for a while and it’s a steady stream of coffee and donuts coming out.  You’ll also notice the staff counting their money, I saw that quite often too.  I’m sure they wanna make sure they are making more than they’re paying for the coffee.

Then of course there’s Cafe Du Monde take out, so here are three tips on taking stuff home with you.

1. order any canned coffee and/or souvenirs from your server when you order your coffee and beignets.
2. do NOT buy the canned coffee from any of the stores down the street or in the French Market.  A can of coffee is $5.45 in the café and you’ll find it as high as $9 a few steps away.   We ended up paying about $8 a can just because we didn’t want to get back in the take out line at the café.
3. go to the Café du Monde gift shop at 813 Decatur Street literally across the street.  They have the same prices as the café and can ship stuff if you need that service.   See photo of the sign below so you know what to look for.

New Orleans French Market

A short stroll north up Decatur street and you get to the French Market.   As the sign below indicates it was here well before the café, and is the oldest city market in America.  It has changed quite a bit since my fist visit in January 2005.  The junk and tent stalls have been replaced with permanent stalls with secure windows and doors and the vendors have gone from dollar store nick nacks to really nice hand made crafts, food items, art, produce and more.  A place locals and tourists alike visit.

This happy guy’s name is Oscar.  He makes resin jewelry that is very colorful, just like him.  I talked to him for a while and listened to his story of Katrina and how his life has been different since that day.  He talked about how hard it was to come back and for him there were no customers, no tourists, so his market had disappeared here.   He told me he lived in another city, I can’t remember where now, and started coming back on weekends once the market reopened and finally moved back home.  But it was a tough go for him and many other locals.

I talked to two other ladies as we ate lunch and they live in East New Orleans and said many things are still not opened like stores, schools, clinics.  They have to travel farther now to find those things.  All of the people I talked to were super nice and seemed eager to talk about their experience to someone that was really listening.    I feel for the people of New Orleans who, in many ways, have been treated like second class citizens in their country.   I bought a couple books on the disaster, one on a group that rescued stranded pets after they had been left behind by their owners.  The sad thing was the city told the people to leave them behind, that they’d only be gone a day or two at most.  2-3 weeks later many of those pets were still tied up to leashes, left in homes with 8′ of water, or left to wander the streets to find food.  Some were found still treading water as they were tied to something and couldn’t get away.   I don’t want to get on a rant, but this was a disaster of mammoth proportions that was utterly and completely preventable and it’s shameful how the government on all levels (municipal, state and federal) responded.  (stepping off my soap box now).

Anyhow, continuing on  - we had what was probably our best meal in New Orleans at a place in the French Market that I’d found out about on the internet (what a great resource hey?!).

Meals From The Heart

Meals from the Heart advertises low sodium, low fat and no transfat – fabulous!  In a city full of rich, heavy foods this was a great find!   We totally loved the food and have recommended it to others already, and they loved it too.  If you are looking for a nice light, clean meal – this is the place to go.  They also do catering and bulk orders – take home a couple dozen crab cakes today!

Rob's grilled salmon, brown rice and veggies

I had the crab cakes with lemon remoulade sauce, and fresh organic greens - yummy!

Chef Averill Lazard who created our fabulous meals at Meals from the Heart

Related posts:

1. Day 92, New Orleans French Quarter
2. High Desert Market and Cafe Bisbee
3. New Orleans Garden District
4. Day 91 New Orleans Plantations

St. Joseph Plantation

Inside St. Joseph Plantation's foyer which is on the second floor

We were the only ones on the tour and we which we led by an older lady (not a family member though).  She carefully recited her speech on the stories of the house, but if we interrupted to ask a question she got a bit flustered and had to start that room all over again as she’d memorized it, or so we figured.

Bedroom at St. Joseph Plantation

The tour and grounds were okay and mildly interesting but the plantation itself was still being restored and wasn’t in all the great a shape.  They didn’t have a lot of furniture, it was pretty simple.  Not what I would have though of when you say “plantation”.

We did learn that the kitchens in those days were outside the main house in a separate building.  That was mostly because the stoves were wood burning and fires were very common, so to keep the house safer the kitchens were separated.

St. Joseph plantation kitchen

Stove - St. Joseph plantation

Kitchen St. Joseph plantation

I took a few photos of the outside, the grounds, and the slave cabin.  Every plantation seems to advertise their slave cabins as “the most authentic” or “in the original locations”, etc, in the area.  More on this later but I wondered how different they could be at this point.  They all looked pretty much the same – a plain wooden two room shack, that housed entire families of up to 5-7 people.   It’s bizarre to see how much disparity there was between the plantation homes and how the owners lived and how the slaves were forced to live.   I often wondered how people that owned plantations now, felt about their sordid pasts – more on this later too.

Slave cabin St. Joseph plantation

Slave cabin St. Joseph plantation

Slave cabin St. Joseph plantation

Laura Plantation

Our next scheduled stop was Laura Plantation.  It proudly advertised that it was named “Best History Tour in the United States” by Lonely Planet Travel and was awarded the title of “Top Travel Attraction” by the Louisiana Office of Tourism.  I was starting to think they make up awards just to sound good and draw a crowd.  This one however, was way more impressive than the first one.

We paid another $30 to join a tour with about 20 other people, being busy was a good sign we thought.  We were quite impressed with the information, the stories and the actual house at Laura Plantation (so named after the last actual lady to run it).

Kettles like this were used to boil the sugar cane

Laura Plantation main house

They use figures on boards to represent the characters in its history going back 3 generations.  Inside the house were many photographs of Laura, her parents, her grandmother and the rest of the family.  This was a Creole plantation and as such was colorfully painted, compared to those of their European neighbors which were typically white with large Greek style columns.  We learned that Creole families did not wish to show their wealth at their plantation homes because their business partners and buyers would think they were making too much money and that their prices were too high.  They chose instead to furnish them simply and have second homes in New Orleans in the French Quarter or Garden District which were much more opulent.

Figure depicting Laura's grandmother, the first women to run the plantation

The tour covered three generations of this family, starting with the grandmother (who we learned ruled with an iron fist), Laura’s mother and finally an unwilling Laura (who didn’t want any part of the plantation and had actually left but inherited it and got stuck running it).  The homes along the river were built with living quarters on the second floor and pantries and dining room on the ground floor.   (this was due to the river flooding it banks often enough to become an issue, until the put in the levee years later).  This family also had a heavily fortified wine cellar as the grandmothers husband had come from Italy where his family were wine makers.  The family then brought the first wine to this region and sold it from their cellar (notice the bottles in the photo above with the female figure).

Slave cabin Laura Plantation

Slave cabin Laura Plantation

During this tour I started up a conversation with an African American man.  I was curious what he thought of the history of the plantations regarding slavery.   His first answer when we stared was something like “I’m curious myself, that’s why I’m here”.   Then once we got to the slave cabins, I asked him again and he had a very different answer.  He felt very odd there and that if it had been him forced to endure what they did he couldn’t have done it.   I pointed out that if his ancestors had felt the same he wouldn’t be here today.  It definitely makes one think about life and how can one human being treat another the way those people were treated?   But the sad reality was that it wasn’t just one person doing it – it was many.  Another sad thing is that racial discrimination and hate still abound in the world today and we’re no closer to eradicating it.  I urge you to visit places like this – stand in a slave cabin and look up at the big house and wonder – could you have done it?   What will you to do today to help stop hatred?

Slave cabin Laura Plantation

Cat - Laura Plantation

He was so impressed with the stories of Laura that Rob bought the book created from the papers and memoirs she left behind.  We rushed out after the tour as it was almost 6pm and we wanted to make that shuttle bus in less than an hour (remember it took us an hour to get here?).   We hit some traffic (I have to interject and say that Louisiana roads are absolutely some of the worst we drove on in the whole country) and got back to the RV park just to see the shuttle pass us on the driveway as we were heading in, and it was already heading out.  Damn!  Time for plan B.

Mothers Restaurant in New Orleans

We now had to drive ourselves in to the Quarter so one of us was now going to have to be the DD.  We got the Quarter (only a 10-12 minute drive) and parked at Harrah’s casino.   I knew where is was on the edge of the quarter and I knew there was parking – so we just did that and started walking.  We had no plan other than I wanted to go eat at “Mothers of new Orleans” (advertised “best baked ham” and last time I was there they had absolutely THE best sweet potato pie!) and wander the area and Bourbon street a bit for our first night.   We waited in line outside Mother’s, then again inside until our order was taken at the front and we were allowed to get a table (you can’t go take one until you’ve ordered).   I remembered the sandwiches being better, but the pie was still great!

Of the many New Orleans French Quarter restaurants, Mothers ranks up at the top for both authentic Louisiana cooking, as well as an old local favorite. Make sure you check it out.

Inside Mother's restaurant

The rest of the evening we did just wander.  It was Rob’s first taste of New Orleans so I wanted to give him a broad feel and we’d come back and do the things we wanted specifically another day.  We did see the famous tossing of beads by men (and women I might add) from  balconies on Bourbon Street as they yelled to young women below “show us your tits”, to which many of the women did oblige.   I must admit that on my first visit to Crescent City (New Orleans) I myself did indeed participate in the aforementioned behavior and received my fair share of beads.  I was however much more intoxicated on Hurricanes from Pat O’Briens and this time around I wasn’t feeling it.    If I recall correctly I even drove home that night.

Window shopping New Orleans style

You can find music in pretty much every bar on Bourbon street

Police patrol on horseback in the Quarter and I've seen the horses go right inside even

One of the MANY drinking establishments on Bourbon Street - we learned later that locals have secret spots where drinks are 3 for one.

A new look for Rob? We were shopping for St. Paddy's day hats

One of many diners in the Quarter dating back over 100 years

Bar we stopped to watch a band, had a one drink per set minimum. At something like $8 a drink they may as well just charge admission! We only stayed for one set even though the music was good.

Anyway, after touring two New Orleans plantations, eating at Mothers and walking through Bourbon Street, our first day was done. We headed back to our RV Park and prepared to do it all again the next day.  Our plan is to spent a total of six days in New Orleans, two of which we’ll catch up on some work, a blog post, etc – yeah that probably wont happen!

Related posts:

1. New Orleans Garden District
2. Day 92, New Orleans French Quarter
3. New Orleans Café du Monde and French Market