The French Quarter

Yesterday we drove over the River and into the Vieux Carre, the French Quarter, and parked along the levee near the Natchez river boat.    Our plan for the day was simply to eat some good food, including a couple Beignets and New Orleans chicory coffee, and stroll the streets until we were tired.

As we were walking away from the car we heard ridiculous music, "You are my Sunshine, My Only Sunshine" playing forcefully and slightly off key, sometimes loud, sometimes quiet,  then petering out to a squawky, breathy end.    What?

See the little yellow spot on top of the Natchez, near the stern in the picture above?   That was the source of the shaky music....

She was having a ball playing the calliope, going from one tune to another with great enthusiasm, made me smile!

We entered the wall of old buildings on St. Louis Street and after a few blocks turned onto Bourbon Street.    We were heading for one of the newer Brennan family restaurants, Red Fish Grill.     I'd forgotten about Bourbon Street.....even in the daylight it is an eye opening place.   Perhaps more so in the daylight.  At night the sharp edges are softened by neon, your step is lightened by the fantastic Xydeco music pouring out of the open doors, the liquids on the sidewalk are unnoticed and the people are just quirky, are just having a good time, have had a few too many Hurricanes or Sazaracs.   There are too many people on the sidewalk to stop and actually read the sayings in the tee shirt store windows.

Red Fish Grill was wonderful.   It wasn't crowded and the food was beyond fantastic.    We both had wood grilled Redfish topped with Louisiana crawfish tails and shared their signature Three Chocolate Bread Pudding.....burp.

To work off all those yummy calories we walked and walked.   Through the beautiful neighborhoods and along the top of the levee.

Dave matches!

sweet sleeping kitty

glittering antiques along Royal Street

the quintessential picture of St. Louis Cathedral

I noticed these two watching me and when I trained the camera on them
they threw back their little heads and told me to keep walking!

  It rained very hard while we were eating lunch but stopped shortly after we left the restaurant.   The sun came out but that made the wet city really really steamy and hot.   There was a lovely breeze on the top of the levee so we found a bench and sat awhile, watching the traffic on the river.

Cooled and refreshed we went back in for our much anticipated postprandial snack - Beignets!

we split one order, honest!

After that we were pretty much done.....we waddled back to the jeep and headed back to Beluga waiting in pretty Bayou Segnette.

Today we break camp and drive about an hour east to our next stop on the Gulf!