Monday morning we headed down to the old French Quarter to find
breakfast and to ride a paddlewheel boat on the Mississippi river.
We found the boat, which advertised that it was running seven days a
week, but for some mysterious reason it was closed that day.
Much disappointed, we wandered off to fill our tummies and find out
what else we could see of New Orleans in one afternoon.
After breakfast in a small cafe I could think much clearer and was
able to appreciate our surroundings.
This is the St. Louis Cathedral and the Plaza d Armas.
Informative sign.
I was stuck with the beauty and number of old buildings with
flowered terraces.
There's Old Man River and the old paddlewheel boat that we were
supposed to tour on. The Mississippi river looks a lot
different than I imagined it when I read The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn.
A street performer.
I had to look several times before I decided that she wasn't a
statue; she stood so still and her dress was so stiffly formed.
I don't envy her job!
After rambling a while and soaking in the old city, we found a shop
with postcards of the mansions in the area. Since we couldn't
go on the riverboat, we decided that touring more old houses was how
we wanted to use our one afternoon in New Orleans. So we got
directions and headed out of town.
Our day in New Orleans ended with a view of the sunset over Lake
Pontchartrain (which I had heard of from
Vienna Teng's song on her newest album, but I didn't know it was
real). Joshua got some more walking practice before we went
back to our hotel room to pack up for a very early departure the
next morning.
