Nawlins

New Orleans

Mileage; 4141

As we opened our eyes in our somewhat seedy hotel on the West bank (the only one we could find available that allowed dogs, most others were full due to a convention in town) we caught up on our internet and took our time getting into New Orleans, as we were sure that the city was still waking up just as we are.

Around lunch we made our way to the French Quarter, found parking and started walking with Addy excitedly jogging along side. It appeared to be restocking time in the party zone, beer and liquor trucks lining the streets and relatively quiet. It just wasn't going to work with Addy, so we took her back to the car (in a cool, covered, parking garage) to while we grabbed lunch. We stopped at the Cajun Cabin for some craw fish cakes, gator bites and a catfish po-boy and of course some drinks. From the corner balcony in the heart of Bourbon Street we watched life go by as seen from a corner in the home of Mardi Gras. The antics of the silver painted mime on the corner below us imitating a statue. Drama when a horse pulling a carriage got spooked from a passing motorcycle and jack knifed his driver's carriage and blocked the street. A crowd drew on the street and sidewalk as several random tourists tried their "horse whispering" techniques to get the horse "Ike" back in line, after about 5 long minutes Ike was on his way, on his own and the crowd dispersed.

Satisfied with our lunch we fetched Addy, on our walk back we stumbled upon a National Geographic moment and what we thought were 2 pigeons fighting, but turned out to be a hawk attacking a pigeon, Ben got some nice shots and there was a happy ending, the pigeon did get away. We continued on to the French Market, Cafe du Monde for coffee and beignets and the banks of the Mississippi absorbed in the culture and surrounding scene. By now Ben was sporting a nice fedora and Jess bought several great masks and beads.

During our wanderings we found a no-leash dog park for Addy to release some of her energy and as usual she made us proud as the best behaved dog in the park. We are constantly amazed at how she adapts to just about any surroundings. We ate pretty late and had a hard time finding a restaurant still open and stumbled upon the Bombay Club inside a hotel a couple of blocks off of Bourbon St. We had the best calamari ever, flash fried calamari with an Asian inspired spicy sauce (fried for 1.6 seconds, cooled for 10 minutes and then fried again for 1.6 seconds). Sooo delicious and highly recommended. After dinner we walked around in the chaos and party of Bourbon Street for a little while, but we had a long drive (14 hrs) the next day and wanted to be fresh enough to enjoy the drive.

There were so many characters and musicians on the street, that we tried to take some "Faces of New Orleans" photos.