New Orleans – Day One

Woke up bright and early, had breakfast and merry-like made our way to New Orleans. One lone 24 mile bridge, a quick route through the French Quarter and we found the hotel. Dropped off Nana and Harvey and then made my way towards Avis to drop off the rental car. Avis was located on Canal Street – a busy street that is similiar to SF’s market street. It was a sad sight. About 1/3 of the shops are closed, some boarded up. Avis itself was boarded up and a small trailer to the side was holding the temporary location. They drove me back to the hotel and for the rest of our journey will be carless.

The rooms weren’t ready, we dropped off the suitcases and made our way to the French Quarter! I wont bore you gentle reader with tales of shopping, but it was fun. A lot of shops are closed, the tourists are trickling back and almost every place I passed had a help wanted sign in the window. Heck Macdonals is now paying $9.75 as well as a $250.00 bonus every paycheck. Then we walked towards Jackson Square, hopped on a buggy and did a quick trip around the square with the help of Tommy the mule. The guide was pretty damn funny as well as informative. After that was beignet and coffee at Cafe De Monde, yummmmmmy. Powdered sugar everywhere! The next step was to find the Beauregard Keyes house – Confederate Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard lived in the house with several members of his family for 18 months between 1865 and 1867. This is Nana’s great-uncle so we had to find it. Well it took a little while and asking about 3 -4 people. Finally she walked into a bar and asked the bartender. The person next to her gave her the answer. What I failed to tell her is we were in the “alternative section” of the French Quarter.

• There were rainbow flags
• a rainbow balloons
• a store next door called “Out of the Closet”
• a mardi gras leather fetish shop
• The bar was called “Cafe Lafitte in Exile” – the oldest gay bar on the country.
• She also didn’t notice the person who told her where to go was a transvestite.

But they gave her the right information, called her honey and we were on our merry way. I told her later what it was and laughter at her. She found it pretty darn funny.

Back to the hotel, Nana and Harvey rested and I walked a lot. My hotel room is fabulous! HUGE bed and a window that leads off to a small balcony. Its very very nice. Bourbon street is mostly bars with the occassional food place and nudie bar. I checked out gallerys, most where knife paintings, which just aren’t my favorite, the paint is just too thick for my taste. I walked for about 3 hours and didn’t buy anything, whoo hoo.

Went back to the hotel, we went for dinner and some place on the corner of Jackson Square. Gumbo was fabulous! yummm. Too late for the ghost tour, so went back to room. Grabbed a drink, put my feet up on the railing and listened to the night sounds of New Orleans. Very nice.

Guess what this is?