"Bob's first New Orleans Trip" Top 5 Page for this destination New Orleans Travelogue by grandmaR

Our daughter drove us to the airport (MIA) about 9:15 and we curbside checked one bag each. The baggage person gave us our boarding passes, but we didn't realize it so we checked in again and ended up with 4 boarding passes for 2 of us (I'm surprised they let us do that)

Then we got into the wrong line to go through security (apparently there is a line for people who are checking baggage instead of curbside checking but don't want to go to the regular desk because they've printed out their boarding pass at the machine.

Someone pulled us out of line and sent us to another area. Bob was totally unaware that he had to take off his shoes, so that caused a small delay, plus his tie clip set off the machine. And I had to have my computer swabbed for explosives I guess. But we were through security in plenty of time to make the long walk down to the plane.

There were at least four captains on the plane, but two of them were apparently dead heading in 1st class. And the plane had to wait to board us for a flight attendant to get there from another flight. But we still got off on time, and also landed on time. We got drink service but only pretzels in the main cabin.

After we arrived, Bob wanted to stop at the bathroom, so I did too. I had to wait in line a few minutes, and when I came out Bob was already there. He said there was too much of a wait for him. So after we got to the main terminal, I sat with the bags and he went.

We claimed our luggage. I knew there were 4 ways to get into town (21 miles)
1) Taxi ($28 for two)
2) Limo ($35 for two)
3) Shuttle
4) regular bus ($1.50 each). We ruled out the regular bus because of too much luggage.

On the internet the shuttle was $13 one way for one person or $24 each round
trip for two people. So we went to the shuttle booth and they charged us $22.50 round trip - at least that's what the ticket said.

They brought us right to the door, and Bob tipped the driver $3. He almost left one bag on the van until I reminded him.

We checked in and paid the $3.50 'bed tax' to the city for 7 days, and dropped our luggage in the room, and at the recommendation of the girl at the desk went across the street to the Half Shell to have lunch. We each had a po'boy - I had shrimp and Bob had oyster.

We came back to the room and tried to get organized. There's a 10 o'clock breakfast meeting tomorrow for orientation. After we unpacked and tried to figure out a way to set up the computer so that I could get email, we went down to the lobby and got a recommendation for a place to go for dinner.

First we stopped at Walgreens to get some first aid cream for my nose, and I also got a folding hairbrush to replace the old one that I have that is falling apart.

Then we walked across Canal Street and into the French Quarter. We saw the restaurant (Deanies) that had been recommended, but it was still a bit early to eat, so we continued on and lo and behold, there we were on Bourbon Street. There was a street party, with music and everyone outside drinking (maybe this is normal for Bourbon Street). We continued on past the Hustler club, and then walked back to Deanies and this time went in to eat.

Deanies is a big place and they give you a lot of food at very reasonable prices. In the corner there were apparently slot machines (which are called gaming devices here because there is no gambling allowed), and the sign next to the area said that the doors had to remain closed at all times and that persons under 18 were not allowed to see the devices and those under 21 were not allowed to play them.

Market Stall in the French Market

I ate the bread pudding for breakfast, and we went down for the orientation at 10. We got cranberry juice to drink (there were free bloody marys and margeritas but we didn't want any) and a piece of king cake (sickeningly sweet). They told us about some restaurants (Central Market, Uglesichs, Mother's and Port O Call) and a little bit about the vocabulary (like the median where the streetcars run is the 'neutral ground')..

I had made a list of tours I wanted to take, and one of them was a city tour. I have been to New Orleans before (albeit 44 years ago) and I remember a little bit about it, but Bob has never been. So I asked the front desk to book it for me in a small van so that it could get into the French Quarter rather than one of the big greyhound type buses. She required a cash down payment. I also want to do the battlefield tour which takes you on a paddlewheel riverboat down to the site of the Battle of New Orleans, and a Swamp Tour and a Plantation Tour.

We walked down to the check cashing place on the other side of Canal and got a three day pass for each of us on the buses and trolleys - oops - excuse me. They aren't trolleys, they are street cars. Then we got on the Canal street car (which have just been replaced this year) and went down to the riverfront area and transferred to another car and rode down to the French market. Had we been paying cash for this it would cost $3.00 for the two of us except that as old people, we could have paid just 80 cents.

We spend the morning walking through the 'flea market' which wasn't nice funky things that I expected, but was jewelry and souvenirs - most of it new. I couldn't find anything I would want to have as a souvenier or give someone. There was also some food but it was mostly very expensive. There were bands playing for tips and various performances also going on.

About the time my feet gave out it was noon, and I spotted the Cafe du Monde across the street - this is a famous place that Rachael Ray (Food Channel) ate breakfast in on $40/day - they do beignets 24/7. So we went in and had lunch which I didn't know was possible. I had a spinach quiche ($5.99), and Bob had a Decatur club sandwich ($6.99) and we had cranberry juice to drink, plus I got three beignets for $1.50 as dessert. I thought they tasted like funnel cakes.

I took a picture of Joanie on a Pony (Joan of Arc - Maid of Orleans), and we went in and browsed in the Central Grocery which is supposed to make very good muffulatta. There was a line around the store waiting for them.

Then we got back on the streetcar, and I intended to go out to City Park and perhaps take a carriage ride (they mostly use mules for the carriages because they say that mules withstand the heat better). But enroute I saw an art fair, so we got off and walked through that. I would have bought something there, but I lost Bob (temporarily) and he had the money.

Then Bob walked to a regular grocery story across the street and bought some tea and bread and margarine, and we hopped back on the next streetcar back to the hotel. Bob doesn't think much of the streetcar's hard wooden seats.

We were really too tired to go out for dinner, so we went across the street to the Half Shell again I had a shrimp salad ($14.95) which was HUGE, and seafood chowder which came with a scoop of rice in it. Bob had a house salad and the bbq shrimp, which basically was whole shrimp (heads and all) in a kind of spicy sauce. We shared a bread pudding for dessert. The total bill was $43.65 plus tip.

Cemetery #3

I had booked the city tour for Sunday, but when we looked at the weather, we found that it was supposed to get very cold on Tuesday. So I decided that it would be good to do all the boat stuff before then because otherwise it would be way too cold.

I was down to the front desk by 8:50 to be ready to book the Battlefield tour and the swamp tour at 9 (when the front desk person came in) before our city tour picked us up at 9:30.

Bob came down about 9:25, and I was just finishing up (paying the cash for the deposits), so quickly took my wallet back and left it in the room (leaving a notice on the door that we didn't want the room cleaned) got my coat and waited in the window seat section

After the little tour van picked us up, he took us to the old Ramada (which is now the Park Plaza) to finish paying. The tour was $40 each. It was to last 2.5 hours, and he did a good job about explaining the New Orleans history and architecture - raised houses, shotgun houses, camel back houses etc.

We saw the corn fence in the St. Charles district, and went to Cemetery #3 where we could get out and walk around. The guide explained the procedures (that only one or two bodies at a time could be in the tombs, so after a year and a day, the body would be decomposed so that the bones could be removed and the next body could be buried)

He made a big deal of the reason that the graves were above ground was because flooding would wash them up. I thought he was trying to make it really creepier than it was, and then realized that most folks don't have anatomists for fathers, and haven't spent their childhood in the Gross Anatomy lab where the medical students dissect cadavers like I have.

We ended up in City Park where we could get out and go to the bathroom or get something to eat.

Plaza de Espana at dusk after we got back

I had thought that if the tour started at 9:30 (which it did not because we had to go and pay first, and our pickup wasn't the first one), that 2.5 hours would give us plenty of time to get to the Battlefield tour which was to be by paddlewheel boat starting at 2 p.m. But it was a 3 hour tour, and we did not get back to the hotel until almost 1. Boarding for the Battlefield Tour started at 1:30 and we still had to get down there. If I had had the ticket with me, we could have gotten off down at the waterfront, but I had to go up to the room to get it. (Bob thought we'd been way over scheduled for the day, which we were, but it was necessary due to the coming cold snap.)

So we got off and got a couple of hamburgers at McDonalds (which is around the corner from the hotel) and then (since we just missed a streetcar) took a cab down to the waterfront.

There was no food or drink allowed on the boat, so I ate my hamburger quickly while sitting in the Plaza de Espana in the sun, and then we boarded the boat just a little after 1:30. They insisted on taking our pictures as we boarded and someone told us afterwards that was in case there was an accident so they could ID the bodies. Of course they also wanted an opportunity to sell us the pictures, but we did not buy them.

The paddlewheel boat was called the Creole Queen and the tour was $20 each. It is run by a diesel engine - the Natchez is run by a steam engine, but we didn't take that one. The captain told us about the things on the waterfront as we passed, and we could also have had lunch on board for another $7 each.

Then we got to Chalmette which was the Battle of New Orleans site. We were a little early because we had the current/tide with us.

This tour is fairly cheap because the main talk is given by the park ranger and he gives it for free to anyone who happens to be there at 2:45. There's another one in the morning too. He explained that the battle was NOT unnecessary - that the Treaty of Ghent had been signed but would not go into effect until the Congress and Parliament had ratified it, so the orders to both Jackson and his opponent were to fight the battle. I supposed that if we had lost, parliament wouldn't have ratified it.

The boat blew the whistle that we had to be back aboard at 3:15 (he actually started whistling at 3:14) to leave at 3:20 because we'd be battling the current. We saw a tug and barge going through the bascule bridge (like the Gilmerton RR bridge) to the locks, and the captain told us about the Chinese grain ship that ran into the Riverwalk shopping mall.

We got back a little before 4:30. Bob wanted to go see the free concert at the cathedral at 8 (they had them each night except Wednesday), and we had some time to kill. We went up to the top of the World Trade Center, thinking we could have dinner, but they only had a bar up there and no restaurant.

So we took the riverfront streetcar down to Jackson Square, and looked around for a place to have dinner. We went into the Cafe Matabla (or something like that - no receipt because we paid cash). One of the New Orleans specialties is muffuletta, which is a sandwich with shrimp and sausage and various kinds of cheese topped with an olive salad. Since I don't care for sausage much, I decided to have a vegetarian one of those. Well I don't like the olive salad either, and it was primarily swiss cheese which is my least favorite cheese, so I didn't care much for this either.

After that we were too tired to wait around for the concert, so we took the streetcar back to the hotel.

Picture I took before the guide came

I have the computer plugged in to the phone \ and electric behind the headboard (which is too heavy for me to move), and I've been just shoving it under the bed, but the big cleaning is done on Monday, and we can't keep the housekeeping staff out of the room forever, so I have to stash it. I loop the long phone line on one of the bedposts (standing on the bed to reach).

The Swamp and Plantation tour that I've booked picks us up started at 9, so we don't have much time. This tour cost us $57 each. I wanted another tour that would do the swamp part on a different day or do a plantation that is closer to New Orleans, but this one is less expensive.

I think the front desk girl may get a commission from the tour company. We have the same guy we had for the city tour on Sunday, and he takes us out to the Oak Alley plantation in Vacherie first.

This plantation has a tremendous live oak street of trees leading to the house from both directions which were planted some years before the house was built. It is one of the most famous ones in this area and is on the Mississippi. There is a riverboat cruise ship at the levee in front of the house. There are also a lot of school children here.

When we start the house tour, the docent giving the tour (in costume) tells me that I can't take pictures even though the brochure says that private persons are allowed to take pictures inside without flash. I think this is a load of BS. They say it is security reasons, but the British Museum allows photos.

She also told some stories which are suspect - she says that as a mark of hospitality a pineapple was given to each guest when they arrived, and if they stayed too long, another one was given. Pineapples were quite expensive and rare at that time (they were sometimes even rented to use in a centerpiece), so I'm pretty sure that is not a true story.

Anyway the plantation is furnished with reproduction furniture - it is NOT original. A much more authentic, and nicer house is Shadows on the Teche which has all the original furnishings (although it is a city house and not a plantation house.

The one piece that interested me was the rolling pin bed, which I had never heard of before. (The rolling pin shaped piece on the top was used to smooth out the mattresses in the morning - she said they were stuffed with Spanish moss) . I later ran across this same kind of bed in St. Martinville

In the place where the kitchen was, there is a building with "antique cars" which proved to be two Model A Fords. Big Whoop - How antique!!

We got lunch here at the plantation restaurant and shopped a bit in the gift shop. Then we drove for more than an hour to Jean Lafitte which is on the edge of the Jean Lafitte Barataria Preserve section. We went out in a pontoon boat, and while it was cold, it wasn't so cold yet that there was no wildlife. We saw nutria and several alligators, and birds.

We also saw the way the folks here catch catfish - they have the bait on a line which is attached to a clorox type bottle. The guide pulled one out of the water and we saw the catfish on the end of it.

He also said you could kill alligators that were over 6 feet long and someone asked whether you measured before you killed them. He said they can leap half their body length out of the water, so you hang the bait 3 feet above the water, and if they can get it, they are big enough.

He said they saw one of the bigger gaters (about 12-13 feet) who got into a fight with a slightly smaller one (about 9 feet), and one of the ladies on the boat cried to him to make them stop!!

We got back to the hotel about 5, and were too tired to do anything but go across the street to the Half Shell for dinner. I had a PoBoy and Bob had fish strips.

"Fish Scale" sculpture/fountain

I'm certainly glad we got most of the boat stuff done yesterday because it is really cold today. We are in no hurry to go out. I spend the morning on administrative matters.

We found that old folks (i.e. with a Medicare card) can ride the streetcars and buses for 40 cents with a free transfer. So we decided not to get another 3 day pass (we didn't use ours at all yesterday on our 3rd day)

We get the streetcar down to the water front and went to the Aquarium - I figure it will be warm in there. It is about 11 and Bob is thinking about lunch, but I've just had breakfast (raisin cinnamon bread and cranberry juice from the market).

We go to the IMAX first and see a movie about dolphins. Bob says it is a very expensive movie - it's $6 each and takes about 40 minutes.

When we enter the aquarium and it is almost 1 p.m. There was a large metal sculpture at the entrance with water running down it - I'm sure it was meant to represent fish scales, but it looked more like breasts to me (pictured). We went through the Caribbean sea tunnel to get to the elevator to go up to the food court.

The food court has ice cream, Papa Johns and Burger King. We ate looking out over the river which was very muddy looking with whitecaps and the current whorls. There were some homeless looking men sitting on the benches outside taking their shoes off an inspecting their feet.

There's no map of this place except on the wall. They had a lot of nice sea horses, a large collection of jellyfish, and a shark pool which included a sawfish. There were also some huge catfish. I saw penguin try repeatedly to swim out the side of the tank just kept butting his head into the glass. There was a place you could touch a shark skin (live nurse shark), and sea otters in a pacific coast area. There was also a Mississippi delta area with their famous white alligator (cream with blue eyes so not albino).

The Amazon Rainforest area was hot and they had a lot of steam/mist machines making it very humid. Bob said it was an imitation of the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I don't know why the fish in the water would care if it was humid. The only birds a saw were a seagull, a great horned owl, and a two scarlet macaws and some blue ones.

After we got out of the museum, it was about 3. A real train went by. It whistled so loud I thought it would make me deaf.

I wanted to take the Vieux Carre loop bus around the French Quarter, so we went over and stood where it was supposed to stop, but we waited 45 minutes in the cold and it never came. So we went back to the Riverfront streetcar (using our free transfers), and went over to Jackson Square to the visitor's center.

Here we got a map to Louisiana (I've got one of New Orleans but I neglected to get one of LA), and then we walked around Jackson Square (I wanted to go in the Cathedral, but Bob did not) to the National Jean Lafitte National Historic Park - French Quarter Unit visitor's center and I got my National Park passport stamped - I didn't have it with me for the Battlefield tour because I didn't realize that it was a Federal site. We took the streetcar back (another 40 cents each)

It was freezing, so we couldn't go very far to get dinner. We walked into the Fairmont, which was all decorated for Xmas (including a Santa station, and a bear's house), but it was too fancy for us with Bob in a stained old blue jacket. So we went across the street to the Indian restaurant.

I had chicken and spinach curry - it was a bit too hot because I forgot to tell them mild, and nan bread, which was good. Bob had the Tandori chicken. We both had chaii tea to drink. I had an Indian rice pudding (more milky than normal rice pudding, but good) and Bob had a dessert which he described as like hush puppies in sweet sauce. It was $39.74 before the tip. Bob doesn't really like Indian cooking, although he had liked it in England. (We neither of us could remember what we had in England.)

Landing craft design - D-Day museum

It is still cold - Bob says only 39 degs. We left about 11 after I got finished catching up writing about the trip.

The maids had put a note under the door at 9:30 because we had the Privacy sign out. So Bob figured that was it and it would be OK to take it down. I knew they would be back.

They empty the trash which is OK, but I don't want the bed remade. When the top sheet is tucked in along the side, I can't stick my foot out. And they always take the towels from the bathroom even though they are still clean, and put clean ones on the table in the living room. That means that when you are in the bathroom, you don't have any. We've left the sign on the door except for Monday.

Bob wanted to stop at McDonalds to have lunch. I did not. I thought it would be a waste of being in New Orleans, but he thought it would be something that wouldn't upset his stomach. (His stomach is much more easily upset than mine.)

It WAS warmer than yesterday, so I said it would be a really good time to go to Uglesich's for lunch. Bob wasn't thrilled with standing in line in the cold. This is a place that ONLY serves lunch M-F. No reservations, and no credit cards - only about 10 tables. But he's a very creative chef, so the other chefs like Emeril go there to eat. This was another place that Rachael Ray went.

I promised Bob that if we went on the streetcar to Uglesich's (and didn't take a cab) that we could go to McDonalds for dinner and wouldn't have to go to some expensive fancy place. So we walked down to where we could get the historic St. Charles line steetcar which has been in operation since 1835. Uglesich's is at 1200 Baronne St. about two blocks north of where the streetcar goes.

We stood in line outside Uglesich's for only about 15 minutes, and then we gave our order, paid ($33.12), and waited for a table to be free. While we were waiting, we talked to the champion oyster shucker - with the awards he had won back of him on the wall and told him he should come and compete in Leonardtown at our Oyster Festival for the World Championship.

I had fried green tomatoes with shrimp remolade appetizer, which was one of their specialties, and then I had Mama's shrimp pasta. Bob had a shrimp remolade salad. Everything was delicious. Mama's pasta proved to have shrimp, artichokes and dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese on spaghetti. We got there about noon, and were finished about 1:15.

We rode to the end of the line through the Garden District, and then rode back to Lee Circle and got off and went to the D-Day Museum.

I did not expect to enjoy this but it was VERY well done. There were two terrific movies - one about the D-Day invasion and the other about the war in the Pacific, including talking about the A-bomb. They had personal stories from participants on both sides, and exhibits of things like war bonds, and various uniforms. We got there about 2:40 and they had to kick us out at 5:00.

I had made Bob get a transfer when we took the streetcar the last time, although he complained that he didn't know where we would use it because you can't use a transfer to get back on the same line. But, as I had planned, we got on the Magazine Street bus, using part of the transfer, and then when we got back to Canal Street, we used the rest of the transfer to get back to our stop. I'd seen people do that - Bob thought we'd have to pay another 40 cents each. He's getting so deaf (or else he doesn't listen to what I'm saying half the time) that it is too hard to explain to him what I intend to do.

Bob tried to get some Krispy Kreme donuts at the Walgrens, but there was nothing to put them in. I went into the Great Wall restaurant and got General Tso's chicken and Bob went into McDonalds, and then we went back to the hotel to eat.

The maids had been there and moved all the towels back to the living room table. I haven't eaten the leftovers from Deanies, and I'm afraid to now, so I threw them out.

Mardi Gras World

We didn't do much today. Bob had to ask me how to turn the shower on - it isn't immediately obvious because of the whirlpool. You have to pull down a ring inside the faucet. We watched TV until 11 (or rather Bob made his breakfast (bacon and hot tea) and watched TV in the living room and I sat in the bedroom and computed).

Then we went down to the ferry docks. I noticed for the first time that the light posts in the neutral ground were all labeled with something on the four sides. This proved to be
French Domination 1719-1789
Spanish Domination 1789-1803
Confederate Domination 1861-1865
American Domination 1803-1861 and 1865 to present

We just missed a ferry. The ferries go from the New Orleans side (east) on the hour and half hour. They go from the Algiers side (west) on the quarter hour and quarter of the hour. Additional pictures and "The Rest of the Story" will be at Algiers.

I wanted to see the inside of the Cathedral (the outside has been remodeled and is more modern) and then shop, but my back hurt, so we returned to the hotel (I did not go to the Messiah, but I did go up and take some pictures of the facade of the Orpheum Theatre). Bob went to McDonalds to get hamburgers for himself, and I ate my General Tso's chicken leftovers. Then we packed.

This week has been a little more expensive than the week in Duck because we had to pay for transportation (like the airplane which was $194 RT), but it was only $10/day over the target of $157/day.

Next: Driving to New Iberia via Morgan City