Flight to New Orleans:
Bags were packed and we were ready to go by 8am. The cats got one last bowl of wet food and Mike’s Dad picked us up for a ride to the Airport. We had considered trying out Lyft, but Mike was able to arrange Mitch to drop us off. It’s nice to have family do that. The flight itself was uneventful We got to the airport with plenty of time, I picked up a small gift for our AirBnB hostess (Victoria) at the Made in Washington store, breakfast at Kathy Casey’s place, then a short wait for the Alaska Airline flight.
With some great tail wind, we arrived nearly 30 minutes early, but combined with the 2 hour time difference we lost nearly 7 hours of our day. We made our way out of the airport found our cab and headed for the AirBnB. I’d talked to Victoria with our flight information and we had agreed that we’d probably be arriving around 7:00. With traffic, our favorable tail winds and a small airport, we were able to arrive by 6pm. The BnB wasn’t ready yet,so we dropped off our bag, got a really quick intro, and suggestions of where to find dinner.
The BnB I chose, was walking distance to the Central Business District and the French Quarter (about a mile away). It was recommended that we find dinner on Frenchmen street, a sort of tamer version of Bourbon Street. Instead of being about Booze and Boobs, Frenchmen was more about music and Art. Being a Thursday night the Frenchmen Art Market was going on and we arrived just in time to see them setting up.
Between the weird Art and the random seating, I would have sworn we were at an evening version of the Fremont Sunday Market. There were soap makers, painters, welders all selling their art. There was also a booth of folks selling a documentary on Train Hopping. (Cure for the Crash:http://www.projectnola.com/the-news/news/40-abc-26/263551-cure-for-the-crash-new-orleans-based-movie-documents-train-hopping-subculture).
Victoria had recommended the Praline Connection for our first dinner in New Orleans, and it was an excellent choice. We wandered in to find plastic covered white tablecloths, wait staff decked out in long white aprons, jaunty hats and wide smiles. Settling in with the menu, I zeroed in on chicken livers and a platter of fried seafood. Mike opted for fried shrimp and an appetizer of etouffe.
The fried livers came out in a giant pile with a jalapeño honey dipping sauce. The livers were crunchy on the outside, but still tender on the inside .
Not overcooked in the least. The seafood platter had oysters,shrimp, catfish and crab. I loved everything but the crab. The salad, some of the last fresh vegetables we saw in New Orleans came with pickles as the cucumber element, which i found weird but tasty. I also over ordered, and went home with a doggie bag. We also stopped in their candy store and picked up a praline to sample,on the way home.
We then wandered up and down Frenchmen, visiting the market again, pausing at bars to listen to the music coming from outside. We settled on Snug Harbor wandering towards the back where Terence Blanchard was playing. http://snugharborjazzbistro.tunestub.com/event.cfm?id=183238&cart We learned the tickets to the show were $35 each and instead opted to sit in the bar where we could hear the music, but not see the band directly, for the price of a couple of drinks. I opted for the local brew, Abita Purple Haze, Mike got a rum and coke. Terence wasn’t bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_O2dfkGWmg
We wandered back down to the airbnb, finding a local coffee shop (The Orange Couch) on the way to satisfy my cravings. We unpacked back at the airbnb and settled in for sleep.
A note on Walkability in New Orleans: We initially had booked a rental car for our time in New Orleans, but between figuring out the airport transfers to the cruise terminal, the plethora of narrow one way streets and lack of parking, we decided we would walk or bus most of the time. I pre-ordered bus passes, picked a bnb within a mile of the French Quarter and got the number of a local cab company. We needed up walking more then anything else. This meant my steps only pedometer ranged from 18-20K a day.
That doesn’t mean that New Orleans is easy for walking. It’s an old city, with homes dating to the 1800s. That means the sidewalks are often original cobblestone , some decaying, some displaced by trees, some simply rough or missing. Additionally, we landed in a sleepy neighborhood without a whole lot of overhead streetlights. Because the homes were all shuttered we wondered if people actually lived there. My flats made walking a challenge, and we would often opt to walk in the middle of the street.