We woke up and began checking the weather forecast from home. It’s become a daily occurrence these last few days. It wasn’t good. Every day it’s a roller coaster ride–bad report for our area, improving, back to bad, then worse, then better! It’s been very hard waiting for Irma to arrive. Can’t we just get the worst part over with already? This morning, Irma moved farther west and we would end up more directly in its path. Oh my! Our vacation plans had to be adjusted…again and so we would spend more nights here until things improved at home. We planned to go down to the French Quarter this afternoon in the hopes that keeping busy would take our minds off of Hurricane Irma…at least for a few hours. So off we went to see the sights in New Orleans. We could see the beautiful skyline and got a small glimpse of the Super Dome as we approached downtown.
It was about a 20 minute drive over the bridge to the French Quarter. There was a lot of public parking available, even for a Saturday afternoon. The streets were bustling with tourists–you know, those people with the cameras, including me. We walked from the parking structure down Canal Street where the trolleys run.
We made our way from there to Bourbon Street, only to discover that it was under construction. Bummer!
Luckily, the construction only took over a few blocks. We cut over one block and walked parallel to Bourbon Street for awhile. Once we got past the construction area, we were able to cut back over to Bourbon Street and check out more. We saw street bands and performers on the street. Most were very good.
The architecture in New Orleans is very unique with its iron railings and balconies high above the street.
We walked over to Pat O’Briens for a beer and enjoyed talking to the locals. This is one of our favorite spots!
We probably should have had a shot of that rum! What an appropriate name!
From O’Briens, we walked to the Riverfront and the Mississippi River where we saw a paddle-wheeler moving down the river.
In Jackson Square, people were milling around, checking out the vendors and watching the street performers.
After all that walking, we were hungry, so we stopped at the Gumbo Shop for some Louisiana cuisine.
We had a short wait and got a perfect table by the window where we could do some people-watching. Bob chose the Jambalaya and I had the shrimp po-boy. Both were delicious!
There was way too much for either of us to eat, so we walked out of there with doggie bags of dinner for tomorrow. Walking back down Bourbon Street, music was pouring out of almost every establishment. It was crazy loud! We found Gandolf sitting in the middle of the street. He was very authentic looking.
We passed this Hookah Shop that we just had to go into to check out all the paraphernalia. It was wild in there.
Of course, we had to peek into the Tropical Isle–home of the Hand Grenade. The name just called to us.
Down the road a bit, we heard some hooting and hollering going on which got our attention. When we went to investigate, we discovered some young, male dancers putting on quite a show. Woo-hoo!
From there, we passed the statue of Louis Armstrong on the way back to the car. It was good to get out and get some exercise for a change. My balance had been a little off the last two weeks and I was feeling the best I’ve felt for awhile. Pretty much back to normal after my fall.
We enjoyed our time in the French Quarter and once we got back to the campground, we relaxed with our stomachs still full. We checked and rechecked the weather a few more times before calling it a night.
