New Orleans Roadtrip

We left Mobile by car on Friday around noon, and drove to New Orleans for the weekend.  This trip was a last minute decision, so we did a search on the internet for a Bed and Breakfast in the French Quarter, and a list of close to a hundred came up.  We brought up each web page, and quickly saw one that caught our eye.  Although their web page goes on and on, the personalization of their writings caught our eye, and they sounded like fun folks, so we gave them a call.

Deciding on a room was easy, as they only had one available for the weekend, and because it was last minute, she gave us a great deal.  We call her “the Banana Lady”.  The house was a bordello in the 1800’s, and the home was full of knickknacks and memorabilia (and I mean full).  We had never been to a B & B before, so of course had all the expected questions, do we get a private bath?  Yes we did, and it was huge, off the main room was an old 12 by 12 bathroom, complete with claw bathtub, shower enclosure, everything else expected in a bath, and a wardrobe trunk from the movie set “Gone with the Wind”.  They called it (what else) the “Gone with the Wind Bathroom”.  Our room was called the “Hexagon Room”, it had six sides, was complete with King sized bed, air conditioning, fireplace (gas, working, and we used it as it was cold that weekend).  Breakfast was continental at a full dining room table set up by Hugh.  It was, for our first experience of that type, absolutely grand, and we will surely do it again.  Thanks Banana Lady!  (http://bananacourtyard.com/)

We walked a couple blocks to the French Quarter music, and just walked around (with a drink purchased on the street) and listened to the live music, watched the tap dancers, viewed the shops, and I received a very expensive shoe shine (he really did know where I “got” my shoes).  We went back to the room, enjoyed the cable TV that we haven’t watched in five months, and had a relaxing evening.

Saturday, we went on a National Park walking tour, given by a Park Ranger named CJ, and was given a lengthy history of New Orleans, how and why it is important to the world, and a demonstration of the architecture of the time.  It was very enjoyable, and saved a lot of time finding things on our own in our limited time.  We enjoyed a gumbo dinner, and then had an afternoon siesta, preparing for a lengthy New Orleans evening.  We were not disappointed, although it was a cool evening, we took our jackets, and the “hurricanes” warmed us up.  At Preservation Hall, there was a Jazz Band that was absolutely fantastic, helped out with the Hot Butter Rum they served.  There were dancers in the streets that took up the whole road (traffic was closed off on the weekend evenings, much better than last night when dodging cars), there were young folks tap dancing for dollars, and there were statues that turned out to be real people.  It was a wonderful night, and when we got back to the room for rest, we turned on the TV and watched the end of “The Wizard of Oz”.  The evening couldn’t have been better.

In the morning we walked again to the Quarter, had jambalaya for brunch, and of course, couldn’t leave New Orleans without having an order of beignets.  Personally, I prefer Dunkin Donuts, but then that’s just me.

We returned to our boat Sunday, met up with some friends, had a fresh shrimp dinner on Monday, and are back to our regular boating life.  (Poor us).

Love to everyone,
Joe & Mary Beth Amelia
S/V “Pot ‘O’ Gold”