we didn’t plan it that way. we were tired from all the walking the day before, so today we decided we’d take it easy.
here’s kevin, doing a great job of taking it easy in our comfy bed with the cute doggie Boudin the Wonder Dog on tueseday morning, march 14th.
and continuing to take it easy, we took the ferry over and went back to Royal Street, the one with all the antique shops. we stopped at a cafe that served chickory coffee and beignets, with no crazy line like at Cafe du Monde. the coffee was pretty good, and who doesn’t like fried sweet bread covered with powdered sugar?
but at this point kevin was tired of the crowds and suggested that maybe we could leave that day. the only problem was that it was about 12:30 already and we’d have to go back and gather our stuff and couldn’t be on the road for a couple of hours at least.
plus we’d driven all that way, and i really wanted to see the Garden District. i’d read about the sprawling mansions and because it’s called the garden district i assumed there would be some spectacular gardens. and who knows if we’ll ever go back?
so first we stopped in at this great gift shop where we bought a couple of souvenirs. there was a huge table in the middle of the store where you could sample so many kinds of hot sauce and different other sauces, and the place was filled with many fun things.
and because it wasn’t over on crowded bourbon street, we could move around without bumping into people.
we walked down the street where there was an antique shop whose front window was filled with all these crazy binoculars. telescopes?
this is the carousel bar inside the hotel monteleone, also on royal street. the carousel slooooowly rotates.
we sat in the lovely hotel lobby for a few minutes and decided to take a trolley to the garden district.
but when we got to the trolley stop there were about 50 or so people swarming around with the same idea. uh oh. when the trolley finally pulled up it was already overflowing with tourists so we decided to walk a bit, to the next trolley stop.
here’s one of the many trees festooned with beads. i wonder if they’re always like that, or is it just around mardi gras time?
at the next trolley stop we quickly realized that waiting for another overcrowded vehicle wasn’t going to work, so we decided to walk the whole way. it was over two miles, which doesn’t sound like so much now, but like i said, we were already so tired from the day before.
when we arrived at the district we stopped in at a bar for lunch but it was cavernous and kind of smelly and looked like the wait for food would be forever, so we tried another bar which looked like the kind of place you’d need to be armed to enter.
finally, finally we found a tasty place to eat and lingered, enjoying resting our feet.
walking around the district we did see some nice big houses, but i guess i was expecting more. this is the best one, and i realize i just loved it mostly because of the fabulous cornstalk fence, like the one at the cornstalk hotel.
here’s a great Architectural Digest article about the place, which is for sale for a mere $5 million. please click on the link to see the fabulous kitchen – i want one like that someday. the whole interior is pretty amazing, and i wish we’d called the realtor and pretended to be rich enough to think about buying it.
here’s a little information about the history; a southerner named colonel robert short built it, it was seized by the yankees during the civil war, and they gave it back to him eventually.
we walked around some more and completely wore ourselves out. we decided we’d find a bus to get back to the ferry, and we waited a good long time for one to show up but that was ok because we were sitting down.
when we got back to the main street leading to the ferry we heard music coming from up the way. it was a small parade! we stopped to watch it, then followed along.
the crowd of people following the parade was bigger than the parade itself. it was a great way to end our trip out of town.
but there was a giant mall next to the river and i wanted to go in and get some food. we had to walk about 20 miles to get to the food court, and on the way i saw a lindt store. i was drawn in, and i’ve never seen so many delicious lindt chocolates in one place. i bought a big assorted bag and was in heaven.
and here’s the ferry, coming across the river to pick us up.
yaaaay, we survived another big day in the big easy.
next stop, memphis, with a visit to graceland.
ok then,
mrs. always trying to catch up hughes.