New Orleans

We'll be leaving New Orleans this morning after a quick two-night stay. I had never been here before, but had certainly heard many rave reviews from friends.

On our first night, I wasn't sure if I would like it here. We're in a nice hotel in a quiet corner of the French Quarter, but we had a bit of a rocky beginning at the hotel with some misunderstandings about the room. Then we walked around a bit, and I didn't really take to it all. Really noisy, not very clear as to where you were, way too touristy. But we had a wonderful dinner at Brigtsen's in the Garden District.

On Saturday we went to Croissant d'Or for breakfast and had really good fruit, quiche, and good coffee and just hung out in a neighborhood place. We'll go there again this morning before we leave. Then we went on a two-hour walking tour of the French Quarter with a tour guide from the the Cabildo, which is a volunteer organization that supports the Louisiana State Museum (which is in a building called the Cabildo). It was fabulous. We learned so much about the history and the architecture. The guide was a retired dentist, a native of New Orleans (a Cajun - we learned what all those words mean), and really excellent at telling the story of this place. He lives in the Quarter, and we even got to sit for a while in the courtyard of the building in which he lives. He lost his house in another neighborhood in Katrina, and it was very interesting to hear him talk about that whole disaster.

After the tour we walked around some more and did some shopping. I felt much different about the city, and I am sure I would enjoy returning here some time. We had another excellent meal at Mr. B's Bistro, walked around a little more, and then just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Now we're off to West Monroe, LA, to visit Larry's brother and family, then on Monday to Texas to visit various people. I'm not sure what kind of internet options I'll have for the next three or four days, so I'm getting this one in for now.

Happy 10/10/10!