New Orleans – March 27, 2011

Our last day, flying home on the 28th.  Cleared customs off the ship and headed back to the Garlands, where we stayed the first 2 nights we were here.  Stowed our gear and off we went.  First stop was Royal St in the French Quarter.  People everywhere.  as I have said, this city breathes on its own.  Food booths and music everywhere. This is a sample of what we saw and heard on the street.

Fun to watch, and this continued all the way down the street.  We were heading for the street cars to head over to the Garden District.  On the way I noticed a music store.  In the window of this store was a guitar.  The guitar was used and autographed by Jim Morrison and was for sale for only $50,000.

My card was maxed out, so I couldn't buy it.

We made it to the street cars and caught the one into the Garden District of New Orleans.  Nice ride, lots of people.  We get to the main stop and the driver stands up and makes an announcement.  Quote “When you get off the car, I want to see everyone pass in front of the streetcar to the left.  Do not turn right.  If you turn right, and you have a purse, a wallet or a camera, They will take it”  I assume there is a bit of crime to the right.  We wandered the area on the left a bit, seeing one of the famous New Orleans cemeteries.

New Orleans Cemetery

The houses in this area are huge and are definitely New Orleans homes.  This is just one of the mansions we viewed from the street.

We headed back and caught the street car back to the French Quarter.  Cec and John were tired so they cabbed back to the cottages.  We decided to carry on.  As we crossed over to Decataur St., we ran into yet another parade, this time bicycles.  Also note the sign, these are everywhere in the Quarter.  You can drink anywhere, just don’t use glass.

As we continued through the Quarter we stumbled upon a band warming up in a bar called the Funky Pirate.  We sat down in an empty place, ordered some drinks and waited.  All of a sudden the place starts filling up and the band comes out.  They start playing and we did a jaw dropper.  This band is playing an afternoon gig in New Orleans.  They would rule Calgary.

We stayed a while (surprise) and eventually had to leave.  We headed for the Garlands to get ready for supper.  We headed out for supper, found a reasonable restaurant after some searching, spent the last evening on a balcony deck right on Decataur St and watched the world go by.  This was it, we were on our way back to Calgary in the morning.

Tomorrow’s post will sum up our recommendations, where we ate, where we slept, what excursions we did and provide costs and a 1 to 5 rating.

Next up will be some older trips and some planning for a trip to San Francisco in August (we hope) and the UK for the Olympics with a jaunt into Spain or southern France.  Whoever wants to, can invite themselves.