We arrived on Sunday with a small degree of stress. Beth had hoped that Sunday traffic would be the lightest of the week. This is what greeted us.
There was some construction on the main interstate from Baton Rouge into town (which forced us off that road onto regular city streets, ugh). Driving a 10 foot wide RV towing a Jeep was rather stressful. Maybe this will be good preparation for when we're in California. But this traffic was only a few miles and we were back on I-10, flying along, seeing things like the Superdome and the following, which is more or less next to our RV site.
This is one of the oldest cemeteries in New Orleans. Many of the graves are above ground. If you look closely, you can see some RVs on the left side of the picture. That's where we stayed. And on the right you can see a pointy tower in the distance. That is St. Louis Cathedral, overlooking Jackson Square, one of the centers of activity in the French Quarter. We had a great location - walking distance to the French Quarter.
We had dinner at one of the many fine dining establishments in the French Quarter, Oceana. It seems that most of the restaurants specialize in seafood (with some Cajun, or Creole, or new Orleans flavor, of course) and Matthew is not especially fond of seafood (or onions), so that presents something of a problem, but we generally could find a hamburger or Po-boy (a southern-style sub).
Monday
One of the things Matthew has been looking forward to most on this trip is the beignets (French donuts) served at Cafe du Monde. We walked there in the morning and they met all of his high expectations!
Cafe du Monde is on one of the busiest streets in the French Quarter. It is just off Jackson Square and maybe 100 yards from the Mississippi River. Jackson Square is named after Andrew Jackson who was in NO during the War of 1812 and is credited with a major victory in this battle which was fought a little while AFTER the peace treaty had been signed. He is a major hero here.
We spent the morning walking around the French Quarter and seeing the interesting French-inspired architecture. We also noticed the decorations for Mardi Gras. We also spent time in the French Market, an open-air food and trinket market.
This was a store dedicated to hot sauce!
This is Joan of Arc, in shiny gold. The locals call this Joany on a pony.
One of the things that NO is known for is the very loose life-style and love of music. We came across some musicians playing Cajun music in the street.
In the afternoon we took a city tour in a small van. The driver was a life-long resident of NO and he filled us with many stories. We covered much of the same ground in the French Quarter that we had walked in the morning, but then we drove to the residential section that had been hit the worst by Katrina, the Lower 9th Ward. The water had been 20 feet deep in this area. Singer Fats Domino had a home and recording studio in this area and he and his wife were there during the storm. This is his re-built house. You can see the FD on his house.
Here are some other scenes of this area. It's a mixture of re-built homes, deserted homes, and empty lots. About 100,000 people who fled the city because of Katrina never returned. Our guide mentioned that some local celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Harry Conick Jr. have been active in re-building and financing projects.
We also got of a tour of one of the largest cemeteries in NO. There are a number of celebrities here. Just as some people are showy in life, some are showy in death. The founder of Popeye's Chicken was a local NO guy and he's buried here. For his funeral he had a number of his "toys" brought to the cemetery, such as boats and cars. Not sure which picture has his grave. Many of these sites cost over a million dollars.
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