More of New Orleans

Jan 19, Tuesday, New Orleans


The condo we are staying in was built in 1842….and yes, it has been modernized over the years, however, the exterior looks like 1842. We are right in the middle of the French Quarter as well. In the French Quarter you can modernize the inside of a house/townhouse/building, but you can not change the exterior. You have to maintain the old French Quarter appearance. I find it very charming.



Ron and Melanie left today, heading back to Portland. Little by little our group is dwindling down. We have two more full days in New Orleans after today. Time flies when you are having fun. We reallly enjoyed having all of our kids with us on this trip.



Ric, Janet, Jenn and Jerry are off to explore the cemetaries today. I was going to go with them, but decided to take a break today. We had lunch at Clover’s Café…a true 1950’s diner on Bourbon St. and St.Louis St. in the heart of the French Quarter. The hamburgers are cooked on a grill and covered with an old hubcap!!! Very good and worth the walk. Right now Jack and Suzi are off on a walk and Al is resting. He seems to be doing a lot of that lately.

Tonight we had dinner at the Crazy Lobster, which is at the end of the River Walk. Jerry had the “Seafood Bucket” which is what they are famous for. It contained a full lobster, shrimp, crab, mussels, corn, potatoes and was huge. He managed to eat most of it with a little help from his dad! Janet and I had red beans and rice; Jenn had jambalaya…all was very good. So I have tasted this trip beignets, hurricane, pralines, jambalaya, po boy sandwich, etouffee, gumbo, red beans and rice, and only have a muffelatta left to try. UGH…I am full!



Jan. 20, HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY GARY

Up late this morning, guess I was tired! Woke up to rain and mist and fog…eerie!



Jack, Suzi, Jenn and I took off walking this morning to Café DuMonde for yet another round of coffe au late and beignets. Then it was shopping time…through the French Market and the shops that surround them. The French Market is comparable to Pike Place Market in Seattle…a little smaller, but not all of the vendors were out today. Loved walking around in the fog and mist however. The sun came out later this afternoon. I think I will take a walk around the French Quarter this afternoon….just can’t get enough! For someone who didn’t expect to like New Orleans, I am really liking it.

After a lunch of a quarter muffalatta sandwich, which was exceptionally good and they are huge; Jenn and Suzi conned me into taking a walk with them. What they forgot to tell me is that I was going to be walking all over the French Quarter. Actually, it was fun, but I had to give them grief about it. They were doing a walking tour from a book Suzi bought today. There was really a structured tour in the book, but we didn’t discover that until the VERY END of the walk!!! We kinda’ zig-zagged all over the French Quarter. At one point we had just visited the cathedral and were standing on the corner trying to decide which place to go next and the heavens let loose and it poured. Of course, we had left our umbrella’s and poncho’s at the condo….so we found a store selling ponchos, put them on and it stopped raining!!! It figures! We didn’t let a little rain stop us….we continued our walking tour. We stopped for a cup of coffee and to let our feet rest for a while, and then we were off again. Finally, just as it was getting dark we returned to the condo. Tonight for dinner we went to Mona Lisa’s restaurant, right around the corner…excellent Italian food. Fun day….



Jan 21, THURSDAY

Our group here is dwindling rapidly here….Jenn, Janet and Ric left today…what was 12 is now down to 5!

After Jack took them to the airport, he picked us up and we went to the WWII Museum….all I can say is WOW. That was a great museum. I learned more there than I learned from the school books about WWII!

After that we set out to find a Sam’s Club (since there is no Costco anywhere around!!) for a broasted chicken. Well, it wasn’t exactly as easy as we thought! Lucy, my GPS, wouldn’t, couldn’t find a Sam’s club here …. The gps on Jacks phone said one place and the gps on my phone said another….after many wrong turns we finally found it. When we got in, they were out of broasted chickens and we had to wait 20 minutes for one…..we could have stayed lost for a bit longer I guess.

Tomorrow we are headed home…well back to Phoenix. We will stay overnight in Phoenix since I don’t like driving in the dark and especially through the desert. I talked to Denise at home and we are really having the wind and rain….winds up to 30 mph and 50-60 mph gusts…ugh.