Once again we were not sure what to expect before we got here. We had heard New Orleans is a great party city but hadn't really heard much about it to get us excited. We had also heard that even though it was on the way to recovery since Hurricane Katrina it is not the city it once was. The small taste we did get I loved and it may have been better and had more life before but it still managed to make it into my top 5 favourite cities, even now. I can only imagine what it would have been like before, I would have loved to experienced that.
The arena was downtown again which meant walking distance to lots of stuff once again, which is always good.
The French quarter and French Market are really nice and they do have a bit of a European feel to them with their small streets.
The houses here are great and I just love all the wrought iron balconies.
The French market was OK though too much of it was new, I think markets need a certain amount of tat in them. Willow bought a really nice Mardi Gras mask though.
There were plenty of shops that did sell tat, antiques and old books though to make up for the lack of it in the market. There were also a lot of art shops and galleries and Willow fell in love with George Rodrigues Blue Dog.
One of the things I thought we had missed were beignet's at Cafe du Monde but Richard one of the clowns had bought some so we got to try them. They are a bit like a square funnel cake and very nice so maybe it is just as well I did not go myself.
Of course we also visited the famous Bourbon Street though we didn't spend too much time there or visited after dark as it really isn't the sort of place you want to spend too much time with a child.
Like so many major cities you can get carriage ride/tours and when my mum and dad visited in New York we did the tourist bit and took one around Central Park. Here however they are slightly different. The carriages are pulled mainly by Mules. They are so funny and have so much character but initially it did look a little odd to see.
We generally try to walk different routes to wherever we are going so that we may find something new or interesting. One day wandering back to the arena we came across an old closed theatre. It was called the Orpheum Theatre and there is nothing strange in seeing buildings like this unused especially in today's economic climate but it is only once you start looking at it and see the last performance here was August 2005, you just know it has never opened since Katrina.
River walk is a nice area with a mall, there isn't that much along the river but it is a nice stroll along to the French Market or you can do what we did and take the Riverfront streetcar line.
A few things we didn't do but would have liked to where a swamp tour, a cemetery tour, a plantation tour and a New Orleans Rebirth tour (so many tours).
Yes I really loved New Orleans.
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