First Evening in New Orleans. Bourbon Street, Now and Then.
New Orleans travelog #2
French Quarter - Friday, 21 Apr 2023, 11:50pm
We landed in New Orleans around 4:30 today. Our flights from San Jose connecting in Dallas were thankfully uneventful... though not exactly on time. Remember I quipped that one benefit of leaving early in the morning is Southwest hasn't had time to fall behind yet? Well, the obvious corollary of that is when taking an afternoon flight....
Yeah, it was delayed. By about 30 minutes. But it could have been worse. The flight that was headed to New Orleans 90 minutes before us left about the same time we did. 😝
Getting to the hotel turned out to be a mess. Everyone at the airport wanted a ride from Uber and Lyft. I spent at least 20 minutes trying to hail a ride and having my request canceled after timing out. When we did finally get matched to a driver it was almost twice as expensive as the first offer.
Well, again, the benefit of leaving early is that we got in in time for dinner. Even with 45-60 minutes of delays we still got in in time for dinner.
The folks at the hotel gave us a few recommendations for dinner. We decided to walk up and down Bourbon Street and neighboring streets and check things out ourselves. We ended up eating at their recommendation. 🤣
After dinner we went to a jazz bar and sat and listened to a few sets from a local band. They weren't really jazz, but their lead was really talented. The man could play sax, sing, tell a story, and dance... pretty much all at the same time.
After that we basically headed back to the hotel. The trek back along Bourbon Street just wasn't that interesting. Maybe it's just the getting-older codger in me, but I found it too loud. And full of fat, drunk people. And reeking of pot smoke. ...Okay, 24 year old me wasn't a fan of those things, either. Bourbon Street is not what it used to be.
French Quarter - Friday, 21 Apr 2023, 11:50pm
We landed in New Orleans around 4:30 today. Our flights from San Jose connecting in Dallas were thankfully uneventful... though not exactly on time. Remember I quipped that one benefit of leaving early in the morning is Southwest hasn't had time to fall behind yet? Well, the obvious corollary of that is when taking an afternoon flight....
Yeah, it was delayed. By about 30 minutes. But it could have been worse. The flight that was headed to New Orleans 90 minutes before us left about the same time we did. 😝
Getting to the hotel turned out to be a mess. Everyone at the airport wanted a ride from Uber and Lyft. I spent at least 20 minutes trying to hail a ride and having my request canceled after timing out. When we did finally get matched to a driver it was almost twice as expensive as the first offer.
Well, again, the benefit of leaving early is that we got in in time for dinner. Even with 45-60 minutes of delays we still got in in time for dinner.
The folks at the hotel gave us a few recommendations for dinner. We decided to walk up and down Bourbon Street and neighboring streets and check things out ourselves. We ended up eating at their recommendation. 🤣
After dinner we went to a jazz bar and sat and listened to a few sets from a local band. They weren't really jazz, but their lead was really talented. The man could play sax, sing, tell a story, and dance... pretty much all at the same time.
After that we basically headed back to the hotel. The trek back along Bourbon Street just wasn't that interesting. Maybe it's just the getting-older codger in me, but I found it too loud. And full of fat, drunk people. And reeking of pot smoke. ...Okay, 24 year old me wasn't a fan of those things, either. Bourbon Street is not what it used to be.