New Orleans: Wednesday
June 13 2018
Today we decided to buy a ticket on the Hop On, Hop Off tour of New Orleans. This expanded our range of sightseeing outside of the French Quarter into the Garden and Central Business Districts. We rode on the top deck just under the canopy, perfect for avoiding the sun and seeing the sights. The guide maintained a constant banter of historic and antecdotal comments. We've been on 3 tours now, and this is part of their job.
New Orleans' economy is based on the petroleum industry, port activities, and tourism. In the French Quarter, tourism is dominant, but in the Business District, huge modern office buildings show the influence of the oil industry, especially its white-collar side. The partitioning of the city into these industries was made clear on this tour today.
All this learning made us hungry, so we hopped off the tour bus after one cycle and found the sandwich shop recommended by our guide yesterday. We got and split two 'po-boy' sandwiches, one shrimp and the other crawfish, and gobbled them up with sweet iced tea. This solved that hunger problem.
Rain was starting, so we headed back to our room to rest and avoid the storm.
After Napping
We arose pretty early from our afternoon nap and decided to walk down to the riverboat dock and see about a cruise. The Steamboat Natchez does an evening dinner jazz cruise from 7 to 11 pm. Kinda pricey at $83 per person, but we talked it over and decided to try it. Bad luck for today: sold out. I took some pictures, and we caught the trolley downtown.
It was about 6 pm when we got to Canal Street, and we walked down it a ways in the hot sun. It is a bustling, modern city. We soon turned east and fled back toward the French Quarter.
Back in the Quarter
It's easy to tell by the buildings when you're back in the French Quarter. I loved this band of skeletons on the gallery here.
We were hot, thirsty and hungry by this time, so we headed for our dinner spot for the evening. Tujague’s, just a block from Jackson's square. We ordered up a dozen charbroiled oysters, two bowls of gumbo, and two fancy salads, washed down with a chardonnay. Was yummy!
For dessert, we planned an invigorating hike ending up at Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets. That's just what we did! After a sit in Jackson square to watch the night life, we headed home.
12,487 steps today.
