Vieux Carre'

Off to the French Quarter (or as my title says, Old Town) on Friday. I stole this picture of the Lake Pontchartrain causeway bridge, so I could show you how we got to New Orleans.

It's a toll bridge, but cheap. Some pictures show it has a curve, but I never noticed any curve...just 28+ miles of straight concrete with a few humps and some turn-outs.

First big mistake, I didn't re-set the time on my clock, and we got up an hour earlier than planned...big yawns later in the day, doncha know. The visitor center volunteer suggested it would take us two hours to get to our meeting place with the tour guide. But even with morning rush hour, we were really early.

So we began our morning with our GPS geocache tour. This statue is dedicated to the many immigrants welcomed to the area over the centuries. We had to e-mail the cache owner with when Drago came to this country and from where.

This is the little park, where we met our guide for the walking tour. "I Found My Thrill on"

beignets (ben-yays) at the little cafe in the back of the park. Boy-oh-boy, they were yummy! BTW, the park was a geocache, and my quote?...Fats Domino, the statue to the left. Love his singing, always have.

The French Quarter...very old...eclectic...colorful. The guide was excellent. Grew up and still lives in the area, and all the locals know him, which got us into some dining rooms with colorful pasts and on top of a hotel roof with great views. On the roof were some hotel guests, our guide's stories were so interesting, they even stopped and listened. The tour group was a blend from all across the country...England & Australia. And there were only 15 of us...

We took the guide's suggestion and had wonderful local food at a lovely nearby restaurant. I had fancied-up shrimp and grits; Norman had a beautifully presented blue crab cake. The waiter suggested the crab cake wasn't going to be enough for him, but didn't persist. We all laughed, when we told him a stop at McDonald's would probably be made soon...lol.

OUR last stop before absolutely running out of steam was this beautiful statue of Joan of Arc presented to the city by France. It is also a geocache...yep, Jill, we got a few here. A couple were hidden in gutter downpipes, so we pretended to tie our shoes and pulled them out...lots of muggles around.

Much, much more to see in the area. We barely got a good start, so we'll be back! We didn't see any of the beautiful mansions  (the Manning boys of NFL fame grew up in one)...didn't tour a graveyard...nor did we try some of the local cocktails. Hey! Looked like some great shopping in the French Quarter too. So, how about it? Got to have another couple come with us next time OR maybe a "girls' trip".