New Orleans, I LOVE You!

I love New Orleans, N’Awlins, NOLA, the Big Easy, the Birthplace of Jazz or whatever nickname you know her as (it actually has the most nicknames of all the states). New Orleans is like no other city I’ve visited and it feels good to be back. It has a life of its own, its own heartbeat that sets it apart from all the others.

My youngest daughter said that it reminds her of Las Vegas. What happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans! While it does have similarities and even a casino in town, what it has that Vegas doesn’t is a distinct culture. From the unique foods original to the area to the colorful, laid back, easy-going mood that can be found here. New Orleans has a LOT to love.

Let me back up a bit before I go full steam ahead on NOLA. We are a much lighter crew these days. My brother flew to his newly found home – Phoenix, Arizona. He’s decided to set down roots there, at least for now. The week with daddy went by very quickly and before we knew it, we were dropping him and one of the twins on a plane heading for D.C.

So it was just me and two of my girls pulling out of Galveston the following day. The trip didn’t start smoothly and it seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day. The first hiccup was the RV steps. It seems they didn’t retract when we left. Not sure if it was the sea air cementing them shut or what but I had two people honking at me so I pulled over.

We sprayed them with WD-40 and they did retract somewhat. But I think a little damage had already been done when I thought I bottomed out a few miles back. I guess that was none other than the steps, ugh. Regardless, we managed to get them in enough to where they weren’t going to cause a problem. That’s item 2,001 that I need to deal with later.

The remainder of the day was littered with traffic, traffic, traffic. I haven’t seen this much traffic on the entire 7-month long trip. Our six-hour journey turned into nine plus as we finally headed into the RV park around 7:30pm. I managed to unhook the car and get Perl backed in and settled before we lost daylight.

But our late arrival didn’t stop us from hitting the street the next day. As I was checking in, the RV park guy asked me,

“Do you know you’re here during the annual French Quarter Festival?”

Me: “Why no, I didn’t.”

Guy: “There are some street closures and traffic will be heavy. You should take the bus or plan to pay more for parking.”

Here we go again! Come on guys, if I could plan to be here for these things, like the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, it probably would get screwed up. But since I’m just plugging along minding my own business……things keep popping up. I proceed to tell him about the 50th Super Bowl, the Oscar’s and NCAA of course.

So what did we do on our first full day in NOLA? Why headed to the festival of course! We took the city bus to the streetcars and the streetcar down Canal Street until we hit the waterfront. We hopped off and headed into the crowd. I honestly cannot think of any better way to spend a first day here.

There was music (of course), food vendors and the NOLA style all around us. Some folks brought camp chairs and were sitting on the lawn sipping beer and enjoying the music. Others were walking around taking it all in. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70’s. We couldn’t have asked for more.

I had the girls sample gumbo, nachos with crawfish, jambalaya, muffuletta, sno balls and more. I even had myself a little daiquiri – hey, I wasn’t driving. All in all, a great introduction to this fine city. We managed to route ourselves back home before dark.

I’ll take that, and that, and that too!

I would like to sample some other local fav’s such as boudin. I want to take the girls on a riverboat cruise and a swamp tour. I’d also like to show them the Garden District and the French Quarter.

Riverboat

Then there’s the original home of the muffuletta, Central Grocery Co.. Or at least they claim to be the founders. Click on muffuletta link above for history. But brace yourselves, they ship them nationwide! Gosh, I really wish we had more time here. We’ll never fit it all in. Oh well, all the more reason to come back again in the near future!

In my next post I’ll share with you all we were able to fit into our measly five days.

If you’re ordering anything from Amazon in the near future. I’d really appreciate it if you’d click on my Amazon Link and help this blogger out. Thank you! I really do appreciate it.

{HUGS} From the Crew!