So, we arrived in New Orleans early last Wednesday evening after a long day of driving. Neither of us realized that there would be a giant, modern downtown area - we just always think of the French Quarter - but there it was towering above us as we crossed Lake Pontchartrain (even though you can't see yet it in this picture... sorry).
We booked a hotel that sat right on the border between downtown and the French Quarter, so we had easy access to both and were just around the corner from Bourbon St. We had an awesome view from our 26th floor room and were able to catch the sunset before we headed out on the town.
Since we splurged a tad on the hotel here, we decided to keep meals relatively cheap, so we opted for a slice of pizza for dinner. But first, we walked up and down Bourbon Street for a good half hour just absorbing everything and getting a feel for it. Neither of us had been before, so there was a lot to take in and process! Even for a Wednesday night, there were lots of people out - on the streets and in the bars - and music was coming from everywhere. It's pretty exciting. So, after walking around and then eating a delicious slice of pizza, we picked our first spot to have a beer.
In short, we hit a few different bars, listened to some live music, split the famous "hand grenade" drink, people-watched from a balcony, and called in a night (and the pics below look like no one was out - my photos don't accurately capture the crowds!).
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| please forgive the camera phone picture quality... |
After breakfast, we zig-zagged through the French Quarter from the riverfront up past Bourbon Street. It took a few hours to weave through, and we really enjoyed seeing all the life and culture every street brought. There were great painters and musicians at every turn. Here are some pics of our French Quarter tour to give a sense of what we saw (click on any photo to see the full-size version):
In the middle of all this walking, we got lunch at a highly rated spot called Oceana - known for their crab cakes. We had a table in an outdoor courtyard and ordered cocktails, crab cakes, Louisiana BBQ shrimp, and blackened alligator (!). This was a true New Orleans meal, and it did not disappoint.
After all this walking, we rested our feet for a bit and then decided to walk through the downtown & warehouse district to explore the more distant garden district. This looked much more walkable when we consulted Google maps on our phones (which does not have a scale, by the way). We had been completely occupied and engaged on our morning walk, but this straight shot with no attractions was leaving us wondering why we hadn't done it by car instead... and it was sweltering out. It turns out we should've turned up a street or two to get to the goods of the garden district, but by the time we realized that, we were on our way to catch the streetcar back to our hotel and couldn't walk a step further. At least we got our day's exercise in and got to see more of the city!
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| Waiting for the streetcar on the St. Charles line |
We got back to our hotel, rested our legs again, and repeated the previous night's events on Bourbon Street: pizza, bars, music, and a hand grenade. Since it was Thursday night, things were even more lively - it was obvious the weekend had started early for a lot of folks.
The next morning, we went back to Cafe du Monde for another order of beignets, back to the French Market so I could buy a fleur-de-lis ring, and back to our hotel to pack up and check out. We got in the car and drove nearly nine hours to San Antonio, TX, making the rest of Friday pretty uneventful and spent mostly just covering miles. We had planned to stop in Houston to visit friends, but the timing didn't work out, so we decided to make it all the way to our next destination that night to get an early start on Saturday.
Next up: San Antonio and Austin, Texas!
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