NOLA walking, tall ships, French Market, Harrahs, Frenchmen St Finale

We all played a lot last night so morning movement was a bit slow going. Once we were upright, we headed out to venture the city. We made it down to Bourbon St where we swung by a couple of shops and then stopped on a sunshine filled balcony tabletop overlooking Bourbon to have a cocktail. A stupidly expensive cocktail, but it was pretty tasty and had an admirable amount of alcohol in it, so... almost worth it! Next up we wandered Bourbon St and meandered towards the French Market and waterfront. It’s fleet week and they had tall ships docked

- but we missed out on the free

 

 

tours as they had just shut up shop. Still super cool to see! We wandered around The River walk, down towards the Riverplace Park, and into the French Market. 

Frenchman Street Band

It’s a daily open air market that's got a little bit of everything TA sty from local flavors and fare. We grabbed lunch, bummed a bit, and hit up the adult smoothie line ;) w, while we were waiting in line I noticed a police officer putting up crime scene tape all front of a store across the street. By the time we got the smoothies and walked over to see what's happening they were already taking down the tape. Our own unsolved mystery, I guess. We then saw a guy in his 20’s with two black eyes and sores on his arms who was literally folded in half IN a random street garbage can as his friends were laughing and having casual convo with him. Definitely not a guy I'd want to see in the streets at night walk-in on my own! We kept on walking through Jackson square and then up to Harrah’s for a drink and a pee break. Bellied up to the bar, we scored a discount on drinks from the super sweet bartender. Hung out there for over an hour bs’ing with our new friend. We had to laugh at the payphones in the casino- I wonder how many people have no idea what they are or how they work... we were the dorks who then took pics with the 2 phones.. and suddenly felt pretty darn old! Ha!

What happens when you ask for water in NOLA. You get 5 drops.

We started to mosy back to the condo for a breather... it was a VERY long walk. I had 20k steps in super early in the day... no shortage of mileage on these legs today! After chillaxin for awhile, we got ready and headed towards Frenchmen St... at just after 11pm.. we come around the corner and see a band made up of a handful of younger folks playing trumpet, sax, trombone, tuba, and drums. Behind them were around 50 people dancing their way down the steeet, only to come to a stop right in front of us. The crowds kept dancing as the band kept playing. The atmosphere and energy here are addicting! We checked out a few bars along the street that had live music- stumbled into one where the singer just LOOKED like she’s awesome jazz singer and we were right. She was phenomenal!! And the saxophone player was equally amazing. We hung out there for some time listening to what I think of as true New Orleans music. After hopping a couple more bars we started the stroll towards home where we had to first hit Bourbon street. What a contrast from last night!! Nearly 1/4 if the people and many were quite shady and drug induced, by the looks of it. It was cold.. even by MN standards- the wind was fierce and we were hustling to get out of it. But first a quick stop for eats at the local 24 hour drunk diner- they had great food and cheap prices with a side of soak-em-up-grease that was likely good for us after drinkin! Bedtime was a little earlier ~ around 3am...!

Pay phone! 

Harrahs friend

Slap Yo Mama

Immigrant statue

Patio Drinks