New Orleans

4/4/13 Thursday at New Orleans, LA (Bayou Segnette State Park)

We didn’t close the slides because there was no more rain in the weather predictions,  just lots of wet carpet to dry out.

On our way by 10:40 am, because I had to print, read then sign the condo Closing documents, calling the closing agent for help besides. As we were moving along the freeway, John signaled before he started to change lanes. At that moment another driver moved over into the same lane. John got us back into our original lane just in the nick of time. Boy, that sure could have ruined our day!

Getting to the Algiers Ferry was interesting since both our GPS and our Park written directions sent us to Mardi Gras street, which was torn up. We made it, though, to the parking lot there. John wanted to cruise the neighborhood streets to find a free spot but I requested that he just get into the parking lot. $5 charge for a muddy little place. Oh well. The ferry fortunately is free, coming on the hour and half hour until midnight. Of course, I really needed to go to the bathroom and naturally this free ferry didn’t have any restrooms. Ah, life.

Lovely lady waiting for ferry too. We’ve seen several ladies with rubber boots – must be a fashion thing here.

New Orleans, on the left (Canal Street is here) and New Orleans on the right (French Quarter)

Canal Street – Note the palm trees. Now that we’re in New Orleans we walked to the UPS store to have the condo Statutory Warranty Deed notarized as I signed it. Imagine that, my signature witnessed in New Orleans! Notaries here can keep their certification for life. We asked where we could get a simple lunch. Nearby was a food court. Perfect. We shared an enchilada dish. Time to take our documents to the Fed Ex Store in the Marriot building. Yea! The deed is done.

As we were trying to get a map at a welcome center a gentle black man asked if we needed any help. He told us how to get to several places we were interested in, assuring us that he wasn’t going to scam us. He also told us about the trolly (brown, not red and yellow) that takes you through historic houses. We never managed that excursion, but we did the others – all of which are in the French Quarter.

In the French Quarter: an all red building and wrought iron on buildings, with flowers. These are all over, really adding beauty to this old, old place.

On our way, we saw this guitar playing street musician who serenaded us with a song (forgot name), then we met a real talker who wanted us to donate to “Meals on Wheels”. We weren’t so sure he was legit, though he had a button and printed tickets, so we declined.

We took Decatur St to Jean Lafitte National Historical Preserve and Park. By the way, that welcome center had tours for sale, including Swamp Tours. I’m sure the Jean Lafitte National Park had the best swamp tour (self guided -walking) and it was free! (We walked it yesterday). We learned the derivations of words I was curious about: Dixie may have come from notes issued by a New Orleans bank that had both English and French. The ten dollar note had the French word “dix” on the back, so the city and later the South became known as “dixie” or “dixie land”. It was interesting that in New Mexico,Arizona and Texas when 2 languages were used (especially in grocery stores) they were English and Spanish. Once we crossed into Louisiana, it was always English and French. So cool. I minored in French in college – my grandparents were French Canadian. Another word I wondered about was “creole”: originally the word was Portuguese, used to distinguish slaves born in Brazil from those coming from Africa. Later it evolved to distinguish locals from outsiders. Creole was used by Catholic, French speaking whites who descended from French and Spanish colonists (from the Maritimes) before the Louisiana Purchase. It was also used by French speaking Catholics who were descendants of mixed race, whose ancestors were freed before the Civil War. It’s now used to describe indigenous, local, elements. No wonder I was confused!

Their carriages are pulled by mules. This guy was eating his chain! The next photo shows the driver encouraging a child to pet the mule.

 Besides the carriages you can also get around on these bike taxis. Other than that, walking is best. This is no place for cars – narrow streets, people crossing the street all over the place, just nuts! Parking is pretty expensive – we heard it’s $20/day. Good luck finding any. One major reason we chose to stay at Bayou Segnette St Park was because we could drive to the ferry, then walk in New Orleans.

Jackson Square is a large park in the center of the French Quarter, usually surrounded by artists (hanging their paintings on the ironwork around the Square, and street musicians playing for tips. Fun!

Cafe Du Monde. Everyone recommends this place, for good reason. They serve only beverages (great dark coffee we hear), and beignets (ben-YAYS), which are French doughnuts. Because it looked so crowded, we went over to a take out line. As we stood there the lady behind us explained that she’d come back for seconds, knowing that the beignets served at the tables are fresh and better, as opposed to those served for take out, which are from a boxed mix. We enjoyed ours, but they did seem a bit chewy, so we determined to try the fresh ones tomorrow.

Street signs are often mutilated, pasted over, bent or just plain gone. Bourbon Street had grand restaurants and “ladies of the night” who stood just outside the building, just off the sidewalk. They were not garish,although enticingly dressed. We just saw two. Of course, this was day time.

A voodoo store on that street – photos not allowed inside, but it seemed safe to shoot this view, from the sidewalk.

They sure love jewelry here.

We came upon a gun and coin shop. Amazing how old this stuff was!

By now, we were so tired, we couldn’t walk any more. We’d planned to eat supper here, so we checked out restaurants using the “Urban Spoon” app on John’s smart phone. Only after looking at several menus on the streets, of course. We chose Napoleon House – a kind of pub. Later I overheard a tourist asking a local where would they go to eat. The answer was at a pub or grill.

I had a shrimp stuffed avocado salad and John had Jambalaya. At least this time I only ate some before remembering to take a picture. Excellent food and reasonable prices, for New Orleans. They played classical music too, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Now fortified, we got ourselves to the ferry (it leaves on the ¼ hour and ¾ hour), then on home. I thought this image was precious, with that T shirt message. Double click image to make it larger.