I neglected in the first post about New Orleans to mention our brush with fame that we experienced our first night. This is Grandpa Elliot, and if you don't believe he's famous, then you haven't been watching the videos from Playing for Change, and you are really missing out. The first Playing for Change video we saw was Stand By Me, featuring musicians from around the world. I never liked that song much, until I saw that video. You can watch it here:
Stand By Me. Go ahead...we'll wait...
On our first full day, we picked up something resembling breakfast at a little corner store, then took it to eat in Louis Armstrong Park, which is a large, gorgeous park. While there, we talked to an older woman walking a tiny dog with a little mohawk dyed in Mardi Gras colors. She asked if we were going to the parade and we assured her that we were. She gave us a bit more of a crash course in this particular parade and we began to wonder what we were in for. :)
The sky was the bluest of blues as we waited for the trolley to stop. The trollies are part of the public transit system of New Orleans, so in addition to clueless tourists (us), it's also used by people just going about their lives - headed to work, school, shopping. It makes for some fascinating people watching. It might be possible to get so caught up watching people that one misses their intended stop. ;)
We hopped off the trolley and set out for another po boy place David had read about: Parkway Tavern and Bakery. We decided that these po boys were even better than the ones from the day before. And what you see in the middle there, those are fries with gravy and that gravy contained lots of pot roast. Delicious!
Back toward the French Quarter, where we found that the difference in the number of people milling about on Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon was impressive! We walked, watched people, watched a cool street performance, sat, watched people. You get the idea.
For dinner, we headed to Port of Call, which was reported to have New Orleans best burger. It was a cool little place, that looked like it could easily have been a rough pirate bar at one time. The burgers were outstanding, and were served with a baked potato on the side rather than fries. Unusual, but very tasty!
Looking at these pictures is making me hungry again!
We ventured out for a stroll up and down Bourbon for...you guessed it! More people watching! The crowd was definitely larger than it had been on Thursday night and there was lots to see...and lots to pretend you didn't see. ;)
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