A Sunny And Warm Thursday In New Orleans (On To Dallas This Morning)

Sitting In Ronald Reagan's Seat

Plaque At Mr B's Bistro

It's early of course because we cannot wait to get to Dallas to see Beth and family.  We packed our bags last night, so all we have to do is put on our clothes, call for our car, take our bags downstairs, pack the car and we are off, probably another 8 hour drive to Dallas.  Let's hope the traffic out of New Orleans, into Dallas, is not too bad.

 Our Trolley Drivers

Trolley On And Off Switch

We decided to take a recommended bus tour of the area, especially the ravages of Katrina from 1:00 to 3:00, so for the morning, we took the trolley car, an experience, down to the Garden District, to see the Lafayette Cemetery, the homes and tree lined streets.

It was a vast, walled tree lined cemetery, with mostly crumbling vaults from the 19th and 20th centuries. The vaults are above ground as of necessity because most of New Orleans is below sea level.  The ravages of time have taken their toll on them, but some are much newer, in better shape, even new ones occasionally dot the cemetery. We were taken around by a guy who professed to be a worker at the cemetery, a security guard who nevertheless asked for a donation at the end of 15 minutes, not unexpected by the way.  The area surrounding the cemetery, in fact the entire Garden District is lovely, lots of trees and great houses, all differentiated from one another, no Ryan Homes here.  Lots of pillars of course, as you would expect in the Garden District of New Orleans.

Lafayette Cemetery

After we tired of walking, we stopped for coffee, fresh fruit and a bagel at 'Perkin', a cafe across the street.  We then took the trolley back to Canal, walked Bourbon Street down to St. Louis, checked out Pat O'Brien's, which has dueling pianos each evening, a great show and usually packed with people like us. We had hoped to try it but never made it. To be honest, we are getting tired of just walking around, looking at shops and bars, so the bus tour should be a nice change.

Bourbon Street Legends

St Louis Cathedral And Andrew Jackson Park

The bus tour, our first that I can remember, definitely puts us in the senior citizen class. We were picked up before 1:00, got back about 3:15.  The first part, a tour of the French Quarter was a bore because we walked it.  Once we got out of there, it was new territory, somewhat interesting, especially some of the areas affected by Katrina.

The Light Colored Cement is Where The Levee Failed

Typical New Orleans  House

Garden District Mansion

Buses are no longer allowed in the 9th District, the most hard hit and still a wreck because residents complained of all the buses.  But we got a pretty good idea of the shot gun houses they lived in and the neighborhoods we did drive through had up to nine feet of water though most if not all look rebuilt. We were  able to see the levees, the pumps, the areas where the levees broke, the 15000 acre New Orleans Park, with an art museum, gardens, a cafe, lakes, tennis courts, pavilions, horse back riding stables, an amazing area worth visiting next time.  We did not even know it existed.

Moss Laden Oak Tree

We also visited St. Louis Cemetery, much better kept up then the Lafayette we saw in the morning.

Deano, Our Tour Guide

The  best part of the trip was the running dialogue by the driver, appropriately funny and knowledgeable about the area, its history, and culture.  I am not sure I would recommend the tour because for us it was too repetitive. I would like to have seen more of New Orleans and surroundings then we did.

French Market Inn Courtyard

We decided to go out for a special dinner, so I had made reservations at a highly recommended restaurant called Mr, B's Bistro.  We left a little early, hoping to stop somewhere for a drink at a bar but every bar we checked on was packed.  So we just went to Mr. B's Bistro, a little early and our table was ready, a special one by the way because Ronald Reagan sat in Evie's seat twice, once in 1989 and again in 1990.  By the time we got our salad appetizer, the restaurant was packed, not a seat to be had.  The service was over the top, so many waiters came by, so often, that we lost track of who was our waiter.  They were efficient, no doubt, but almost too much so.  Our meals were quite good; Evie had wood grilled fillet of fish, a local fish called black drum, and I had shrimp wrapped in bacon over grits with cream and cheese.  Both were what we expected, but we also agreed we are more bar than restaurant people.  It was strange not having someone new to talk to while we ate.  A note as usual on the demographics of the places we visit, like this restaurant.  Most if not all the staff were African Americans; all the diners were Caucasian.  Draw your own conclusions.  We ended up deciding to just pack it up after eating, both of us tired and stuffed from our meals.  We must have been to not have one final beignet.