New Orleans tour

Well I think we are eating our way through New Orleans, we have had Red Beans and Rice, Jambalya, tons of Gumbo, Beignets, Creole, Etouffee and today Ron had a Muffuletta. Wow, I am going to have to eat nothing for a month after this.

We went on a city tour this morning, it took in all parts of the city including some of the damage done by Katrina.

It started from the river where the paddlewheeler Natchez is.

Here is the line up at the Cafe de Monde, waiting to get their fresh beignets and coffee, they have to be good with a line up like this.

This is one of the houses in the area that the water was deep, they marked the homes so that everyone would know if they had been checked. The top was the date, to the right were marked such as NE for No Entry, the bottom might have 1A for one found alive or 1D for deceased or even 1dia for 1 dead in attic. Many homes have not been reclaimed.

This is Fats Dominos home, they say he never left but was found sitting on the roof and had to be lifted up with a helicopter.



This is the levee that broke into the 9th ward that did most of the damage

Below are some of the more wonderful southern homes.

We stopped at the St. Louis cemetery.

You can still see signs of Mardi Gras, here is a bead tree, when throwing the beads they end up everywhere.

This interesting fellow was down on the riverfront.

The Saint Louis Cathederal behind the Andrew Jackson Square.

They were just bringing out the shrimp from the boil after we had our lunch, they look so good.

Well better get to bed, got lots to do tomorrow.

Our first day in New Orleans

So we made the two hour move today from Biloxi to New Orleans.

Here we are entering Louisiana.

Lots of long bridges going into New Orleans

Our campground is very close to New Orleans and a very nice park.

We went right downtown New Orleans to the French Quarter to do a walking tour. This

spot is where we had our first beignets, oh so yummy and met our tour.

Bourbon Street was busy now but we went back that night and it was crowded and very busy and loud.



Some houses along the tour route showing lots of New Orleans flavor

Lots of these little courtyards

Still lots of Mardi Gras decorations

Tanya down on Bourbon Street, we stopped and listened to the music was lots of fun.

The city was decorated for the Saint Patricks festivities, but we missed the parade.

Tanya has arrived and Dauphin Island Alabama

Tanya arrived yesterday just fine and we were so happy to have her here.

She is a fan of the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives from the Food Network so has lots of our meals planned out. Last night we went to Long Beach to a dive called Darwells, it was fantastic, we shared two meals so we could try things out. Crawfish Etouffee and Yum Yum Angelhair pasta, they were excellent, we went home so full.

Today we took her to Alabama, our first stop was Bayou le Batre at a little park where we saw some fish boats.

On down to Dauphin Island, this is the West end Beach.

There were lots of rigs out in the water, one gentleman told us they were Natural Gas rigs.

This is a narly old tree in Cadillac Park

Took a walk through the swamp down to the beach, saw a few turtles in the little lake.

Tanya got to put her feet in the Gulf.

Here is the little lake along our walk

Can never let a lighthouse go by

Lunch was at the Common Loon where we had Shrimp PoBoys, oh so good you never saw so many shrimp in one sandwich.

Dinner was at The Shed BBQ, I had a Pulled Pork Sandwich, for 5.99 it had 1/2 pound of meat, almost could not eat it all.

Off to New Orleans in the morning.

Fat Tuesday

Fat Tuesday, mark it off the bucket list, an experience beyond all others.

We were warned to go early, parade was not until 1pm but we left the coach at 9:30am and
you bet it was a mob already everywhere, so amazing. By the time the parade started there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people. We had our chairs right at the front and were all set, and guess what 10 minutes into the parade we were 5 or 6 rows back but we were so lucky the group that got in front of us were about 30 to 40 college students out for one hell of a time. And yes that included the flashing of the boobs, so just when we thought we would not get beads today we got so many more as the students did not want the beads and kept loading our bags. They included us in their fun and we enjoyed their energy. Two and a half hours long of constant floats throwing beads, even full bags of beads, the college students liked the more exotic beads so we did not get many of those.

The crowd is gathering and we are in front.

Here it comes.

Now we are already being pushed back but the floats are so high in the air to get the beads out.

Some of our crowd, to bad we really could not see what the floats looked like.


Some were pretty elaborate

Our crowd

The mess after, if you look close you will see the thousands of beads left behind, Ron would not let me pick them all up. I must have some of Grannie Leona in me, what a waste.

It took 3 hours to get the crowd dispersed, so intead of trying to get to the other parade we went to a couple casino, had a fabulous steak and crab dinner and lost a few dollars in the machines.

When we got home I took a picture of the beads in the box of the truck, will not count them until tomorrow, I am sure I have enough to go around.

North Bay Mardi Gras Parade

Today the parade was on the North side of the Bay and we went two hours early and had trouble finding a parking spot. Where we ended up it was not crowded and we could sit in the truck and wait for the parade.
Now because we had only been to one other Mardi Gras parade I was not certain what to expect but as I got such a haul of beads yesterday it did not matter if I got any today.
This parade was probably three times the size so that is why I probably got over three times the amount of beads, over 375 strands and they just kept throwing them it was insane, it was so much fun.
People were everywhere and alcohol was not a problem it seemed we were in the minority. They
parked their cars whereever they felt like it and there was a huge police presence.

The storm we have had the last couple days has blown itself out and the skies were blue but it was barely 60ish today. Tanya be sure to bring a sweater.

So today was Poppas turn to flash his boobs for beads, no wonder I got so many.

About 2/3 through the parade, I looked in the back seat of the truck where I was putting

my stash and here was the pile.

Not only do they throw beads but lots of toys for the kids and moon pies which I gobbled up quite quickly as we forgot to have lunch.

Final stash, now we wait for Tuesday for the big Fat Tuesday parade in downtown Biloxi.

North