Nothing like spending Halloween in New Orleans - especially by taking a walking Haunted History Tour along the surprisingly cold, dark (and rather treacherous with their uneven walkways!) streets of the French Quarter! Musicians playing on the sidewalks and in the streets, parades of dancing costumed revelers, marching bands, tricked out cars, noise from every open doorway . . . and a mile long line waiting for the only women’s restroom! Laissez les bons temps rouler! Let those good times roll! (and just pray there’s some paper left on that roll!) No one can throw a party like NOLA!
And nothing says NOLA like the food, starting with five-course Creole fare at Tujague’s and Mamou, a visit to The Court of Two Sisters and Café Beignet for brunch, and indulging a sweet tooth at the Royal Praline Company. Thank goodness for that trudge back up the hill to work off all that yumminess!
Though it wasn’t my first (more like my fifth or sixth) visit, this old granddame of a city can always find some new way to surprise me – especially when viewing it anew through the first-time visitor eyes of my virtual assistant. And particularly when this author is getting ready to reissue expanded versions of her By Moonlight series (books 4-8) – as soon as I get the pages rescanned (since the original handwritten manuscript pages have long since disappeared during several moves).
Being unapologetically OCD, I had lists a mile long to fill every second of our rather short six-day trip (one of them spent in the airport!). Good thing since the TV in our room didn’t work (and we both brought books to read!). With so little time, so much to see, we confined our trip to the French Quarter, except for a restful tour of the Garden District via streetcar to see the old grand dame houses. The day started down the hill into the Quarter along carefully traversed broken sidewalks (which I survived only to catch my foot on a bench while dragging suitcases outside the airport when arriving back home, taking a graceless fall that tore the heck out of my shin! At least no one was there to see me. Better returning than when arriving!).
My one regret is not having enough time to do more in the Quarter, though we did make it to the Square and the Moon Walk to overlook the Mississippi and its riverboats. Power shopping will have to wait for our next trip.
Next trip? Oh, yeah!
♚♚♚♚♚
Nancy Gideon on the Web
4 comments:
Looks and sounds like you had a wonderful time! And I love that you find new things to do and see even after being there several times already!
There's always that "more" that brings me back time and again. And just the pleasure of returning to what I've already enjoyed is enough to justify the onerous airport situation. And then . . . there's the food!
Of all the things I love about NOLA, my favorite is the food. Cafe du Monde where I dare you not to come away without brushing powdered sugar off your clothes. Emeril’s—talk above fine dining! Commander’s Palace and Antoine’s. Well, you get the idea. So glad you had a great time!
Now I'm hungry again! Too much good food and too little time! A good reason to revisit my favorite city!!
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