New Orleans!

Just a big ole house in New Orleans

Need your future told?

A really good Alligator Po'boy

Mississippi river

Jackson square in New Orleans - Building to the left of Cathredral was where the Louisiana Purchase was signed.

I am stopping for 2 days here. Mainly to eat my way through the city ! therefore this post will be mostly about food. I arrived at my hotel down in the French Quarter, and promptly went looking for some great Creole food. Here in the French Quarter, there are about 2 restaurants per block and they all look wonderful! I wandered into the Gumbo shop and found, what else, but wonderful food! I dined on alligator sausage with a remoulade sauce appetizer, and then had a combo plate of Jambalaya, Seafood Gumbo, and crawfish Ettouffe’. It was great! Tues morning found me at Café Du Mond, which only serves 2 things. Café Au Lait (a coffee chicory blend mixed with steamed milk) and beignets! Ahhh beignets…. A French form of a donut. Fresh fried and served on a small plate with 3 beignets covered with about a ½ cup of powdered sugar. They were awesome! Lunch found me at a small place, no idea of the name, eating a delicious seafood bisque with crab, shrimp, and crawfish in it, along with a fried alligator po’boy a New Orleans specialty. After all the eating, I spent all afternoon walking around the French Quarter looking through the shops and looking at all the interesting buildings and old architecture. Seeing the building where the Louisiana Purchase was signed was cool, it is about 3 blocks from where I am staying. and took the street car on about a 15 mile round trip to see some of the city. It was interesting to note, that I have really not seen any evidence yet of Hurricane Katrina, but I am only seeing a small part of the city. If I had a rental car I would go and take a look at more of the city.
Food again! For dinner, I had some chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, followed by blackened catfish smothered in a crawfish ettoufe’. It is so good to eat here! I enjoyed seeing a small part of the Garden District from the street car, the big old mansions are amazing in their size and beauty. I understand the author Anne Rice used to live in the Garden District. The French Quarter where I stayed, is the original town of New Orleans, and mostly original buildings some dating back as much as 200 years or more. It was really very neat to see. It has been also interesting to spend 2 whole days on solid ground. I have really gotten used to the train, so it was quite a switch.