Road Trip Day 7 – New Orleans, Louisiana

By day 7 of our road trip, we had traveled approximately 2400 miles.  and had driven through Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.  After spending 3 days in New Iberia, Louisiana, we headed East.  On our way we stopped in New Orleans.  We didn’t have any plans and we had no idea what to do there so we just found a spot to park at Riverwalk Marketplace and started walking.  Guess where we ended up.  (The pictures are NOT in any particular order. )

We have arrived! The French Quarter. Taking up a 6 by 13 block area, the French Quarter is the oldest (1722) French Colonial and Spanish settlement that exists in the United States.

Bourbon Street, lined with bars, jazz clubs, hotels, restaurants, "gentlemen's clubs" (strip clubs) and boutiques is the best known party street in New Orleans.

The street is closed to vehicle traffic in the evening when it becomes a pedestrian mall and an extension of the parties taking place in most of the bars and music halls which are shoulder to shoulder in the most visited blocks.

I would have loved to have had a carriage ride thru the Garden District.  If we ever venture that way again, I will definitely do that!  This was taken by Jackson Square.   The Mississippi river.

Inside Riverwalk Marketplace.  We checked out some shops before heading out into the wild unknown.   A steamboat on the Mississippi. Sarabeth has always wanted and VW bus and when we found this, she was in heaven.  I would even drive this around.  Isn’t it adorable?  

For such a historical treasure, we were surprised at how dirty and unkempt the French Quarter was.  It was really disappointing.  We heard from friends that after Hurricane Katrina, it went downhill and it’s full of bums now. 

   

The balconies in the French Quarter are famous. 

Old town meets new town.  And you can see some of the Bourbon Street balconies (think Mardi Gras). 

 

Standing on Bourbon Street taking a picture of the street sign. 

 

Bourbon Street. You can’t really tell from the picture, but almost every shop was PORN, PORN, PORN!!!!!!!  Click on the photo to make it bigger and you can see more detail.  Notice the guy in black on the left.  He was a human robot.  There were a lot of street performers (a.k.a. bums) on Bourbon Street. 

Standing on Bourbon street, not really knowing what to do.  We wanted to check it out, but Porn and kids don’t really go together. 

  This (bum) street performer scared Emily.  See the look on her face? LOL.  She is terrified of clowns.  He was very dirty, his teeth were rotten, he reeked of alcohol and I’m sure he was on some kind of drugs.  And how about that creepy guy behind us.  Welcome to Bourbon Street.

This gate looked really old so I wanted a picture of it.  It was a pathway between two buildings that led to more buildings behind.  Not sure what it was exactly, but I thought it was cool. 

  Part of Jackson Square.

The iron fence surrounding Jackson Square, its formal gardens, walkways and benches can be largely credited to the Baroness Micaela Almonaster de Pontalba, who lobbied for and financed these improvements after the Battle of New Orleans in 1814.

The Baroness built the Upper and Lower Pontalba apartment buildings on the square in 1848. The Pontalba family sold the Lower Pontalba building in 1921 and it was given to the state museum in 1927.

 

Andrew Jackson

Mississippi River

On the Moonwalk. The Moonwalk — named for former Mayor Moon Landrieu — is on the Mississippi River side of Artillery Park. Sit on the steps and dangle your feet in the muddy Mississippi or watch the steamboats, ocean going barges and other river traffic float by.

Next post…..more New Orleans photos.

Day 6, part 5. Jungle Gardens, Louisiana

O.K.  This is the last post for road trip day 5.  If you clicked on the Jungle Gardens link, then you know that part of the gardens is an Egret sanctuary.  Some of these photos are of that sanctuary.  The light green patches are the green covered water. Don’t know what to call it.  But it’s really pretty.

The small white things in the distance are the egrets.

Egret on a wall of concrete in the water.

Egret meets alligator.  Big bird? Or tiny alligator?  The alligator was around 6 or 8 feet long.   

This is how they made concrete in Louisiana a long, long time ago.  Can you see the shells in it?  Being married to a concrete man, we had to get a picture of it.  It was pretty interesting and cool to look at. 

A close up  of the green covered water. 

A closer look at the egret sanctuary.  I think we were there in their off season.  There weren’t very many there. 

I just LOVE these trees.  They are so big and expansive and beautiful.

These stairs were being the big, beautiful tree.  It seemed to be some kind of a sitting area with a fountain. 

Being the explorers that we are, we wandered off the beaten path again, walked thru some trees and brush and found this piece of paradise.  In the middle of nothing.  But Sarabeth dubbed it as the place she wants to get married.  It’s hard to tell from the picture, but you could easily seat 50 to 100 people in there.  I wish I knew what it was made for. 

So this is the end of  Jungle Gardens on Avery Island.  I hope you enjoyed all of the pictures.  I know there were a lot of them, but there were so many different things to see there and I wanted to share them with you.  If you ever go to Louisiana, please go to Avery Island.  I wish we would have had time to tour the Tabasco plant too.  I hate Tabasco, but I like touring places. 

Up next………New Orleans

Day 6, part 4. Jungle Gardens, Louisiana

Yes, I am still posting pictures from the beautiful Jungle Gardens.  I hope you’re not bored with them.

A view of the house that holds the Buddha.        We had to walk a path to get to the Buddha.  On our way back down that same path, we noticed these banana spiders.  Yep, they were above us the entire time.  I’m surprised Don didn’t come face to face with one of them.  They were everywhere. 

These spiders were about the size of your palm.  Seriously huge.  They were totally cool to look at, but I would have died if I had run into one of their webs. 

 

I thought this tunnel was absolutely beautiful. 

The light green area in the back is actually water.  The water was covered in green plant life.  I don’t know what to call it.  But it was so pretty.