N'Awlins

Let me first say there was a distinct difference in geography when we crossed the Texas-Louisiana state line. As soon as we entered Louisiana, Interstate 10 became a highway over the bayou - on stilts for more than ½ the drive into New Orleans. It was amazing how, within a short hour, we had left the cowboys and country music behind and were on our way to discovering blues musicians, crawfish and being ‘easy’!

We arrived last Thursday and were drawn to the French Quarter like bees to honey. We’ve been to the Funky Pirate (‘3 for 1’ beer), Tropical Isle Beach Club (said ‘no thanks’ to their famous ‘Grenades’), the Bourbon St. Blues Club, Pat O’Brien’s (gumbo and crab cakes), Drago’s for the best oysters we’ve ever eaten (charbroiled), Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, Harley Davidson, Dicky Brennan’s for seafood, the Crescent City Brew House and Café du Monde for their incredible beignets. Here's a pic of one of the hotels in the French Quarter - beautiful, eh?

We visited the French Market, the St. Louis Cathedral, the House of Blues, Ya Mama’s for crawfish, Rev Zombie’s Voo Doo Shop, the Clover Grill (24 hour breakfasts), St. Louis Cemetery 1, the National WWII Museum and the Acme Oyster company. Johnnie went to one of Larry Flynt’s places – he was only there 45 minutes – just to say he was there.

We felt sad when the tour guide took us to some of the areas destroyed by Katrina. Equally, we got a real laugh when we went through the French Market and he referred to the statue of Joan of Arc as “Joanie on her Pony”! And, oh yeah, the tour guide drove us down Gov. Nicholls past Brad Pitt and what’s her name’s place!

Quite a mixed bag, eh? Well, that’s what we’d say New Orleans is about – a real mixed bag – anything you want. There are a zillion other places to go and things to do besides what we did - we’ll just have to get to them on the next drive thru. Mind you, the jury’s still out on whether we would actually plan to be here for Mardi Gras – it’s crazy enough without that!… m.