New Orleans

Where'd we leave you? As a recap, our first night in New Orleans we did a short walking tour of the French Quarter, listened to some blues at CoCo Club and missed our haunted tour due to a downpour.

The next morning we walked to Cafe du Monde for the delicous beignets. Hoping to take the ferry at Canal St. over to Algiers to visit Mardi Gras world (that's where they make the floats and masks and put everything together for Mardi Gras celebrations), we walked down to the port but were sad to discover that there had been an oil spill on the Mississippi River. Yes, it's true. The ferry and all other boats couldn't run while the coast guard cleaned up the mess. If you peered into the river you could see the oil. It was so sad, and everything down there was upset.

Instead, we walked along the river and back to Jackson Square to explore the Presbytere, which is an excellent Mardi Gras museum. It gave a great overview of what is actually an amazing tradition, not just a week of drunken debauchery.

At this point Sara's cousin, Vikki, made it in into the city and we met in the Square. Pat O'Briens wasn't serving food until 5 pm, so Vikki took us to get that delicious muffuletta sandwich. We were both a bit skeptical at first, but man that is a good sandwich!

Then we walked to the French Market (an open air flea market), tasted some pralines and did some shopping.

Next stop - the Charles St. streetcar, which follows the path of the Mardi Gras parades and goes by the beautiful antebellum homes around town. The highlight? The lovely Belfort home of Real World fame.

Back in the French Quarter we went to see the Voodoo Museum, and the dude taking our money had a snake wrapped around him...creepy. He's a practioner of Voodoo, and the museum was light on knowledge and heavy on altars, prayers & wishes. Still, an interesting glimpse into what is apparently a banned religion in New Orleans. Who knew?

We finally got to eat at Pat O'Briens - Sara had the hurricane described it as "goooood" (that's 5 o's). It was great to see Vikki (& kidnap her for the day). What a fun way to see the city.

To end the night we did a ghost tour. It was based on a lot of history and we learned a lot about how New Orleans was formed. Lots of murder & mayhem. Appropriate for New Orleans! We didn't capture any ghosts on film, however, we did capture some weird hairdo from the past that came to haunt us. I mean really, a dred as a rat-tail!? Sigh.

Onward to Austin!