Even though we had so much fun with Brenda and Trevor and were sad to leave Fort Myers, we are always happy to be back on the road again. We were lucky to be traveling ahead of the tornadoes and bad weather they had in the Florida Panhandle and Louisiana. After an overnight in Tallahassee, we arrived in New Orleans. We thought we would be there before the Mardi Gras madness began only to discover they start celebrating in January. There were parades every night and Bourbon Street was in full swing. On Brenda and Trevor's suggestion, we stayed at the Cornstalk Hotel, an historic house in the French Quarter just a block off Bourbon Street. We walked all through the French Quarter stopping to listen to music and visiting some of the Voodoo shops. The buses and trams were easy to navigate so we saw the Cemetery District with miles of above ground burials, the beautiful historic houses in the Garden District and heard some fantastic contemporary jazz in the Warehouse District. New Orleans is just as much about the food as it is about Mardi Gras and jazz. We were only there 3 days but managed to eat as many of the local specialities as we could - beignets and cafe au lait or the best eggs benedict we have ever had for breakfast, creole shrimp po-boys and muffaletta sandwiches for lunch, crawfish etoufee, seafood gumbo, cajun crawfish pie and bread pudding for dinner. We did show some restraint and only drank beer and not the New Orleans drink specialities like the Hurricane or the Hand Grenade. Exhausted and about 10 pounds heavier, we headed west across Texas to Phoenix to see Dan and Terri, to Las Vegas to see Elvis and finally to Palm Springs to see Bruce and spend some time resting by the pool while the boys play golf. At the end of the week we will head toward to San Francisco to spend a few days with Liz.
No comments:
Post a Comment