The weather keeps threatening rain but only drizzle so far.  Today we are going to try to get into the French Quarter earlier and hopefully have lunch at one of the many choice restaurants in the area.  Well we are not so lucky with the rain and here it comes!  It is still almost 80 degrees so it isn’t too bad but we decide that because my knee still hurts, it is raining and Paul is fighting a cold we will take a steam boat tour up the Mississippi River.

A Paddlewheel Steamer Ship

St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square

The boat was very nice and took us up the river about 8 miles where we could see lots of docks and some plantation homes on the other side of the levee.  The rain never really got going and the wind subsided some so we decided after the ride we would walk to the Art district and have lunch at Mother’s restaurant where they are famous for serving all the local favorites.  Today it was the World Famous Ferdi with debris!  The Ferdi is the name of the Po-Boy sandwich that some guy couldn’t decide if he wanted ham or roastbeef so it has both, dressed with debris and gravy.  Debris is the parts of the roastbeef that fall into the pan before they make the gravy and the gravy is like au-jus so it is very yummy.  Dessert was bread pudding.  Every restaurant we have been in says they have the best bread pudding and we had yet to try it.   It is ok, but I prefer some chocolate in my desserts so we bought turtles from the Southern Candymakers in the French Quarter. 

We walked back to the French Quarter, along the way Paul found a Cigar Factory where 8 guys make 40 thousand cigars by hand each year.  We got to watch them roll the tabacco and snip the ends and form the tips.  After seeing his cigar being made Paul paid $7 for one to smoke while he walked the streets of the French Quarter.

He's real. The dog is not!

Just like San Francisco and most other City’s there is always the street entertainment.  This guy was pretty good.  He stayed in pose without flinching while people asked him questions -and he answered!  The best part was when he walked away and stood across the street people were still walking up, checking the puppy out and putting money in the bucket!

So while most people come to the French Quarter for the cheap sex and the free flowing alcohol although it wasn’t free – Hurricanes were about $10 each, Paul and I did enjoy ourselves and we saw it all.  No Hurricanes to drink today but when we got home the rain decided it was time to appear and we have had off and on rain with big thunder and lightening all evening with even more wind.  I hope we don’t float or blow away!

Careful how you talk around here or they might guess you are a tourist!  We arrived in town about 2 pm under very cloudy sky’s – it has been so humid that I feel like a sponge.  Tonight we are going to give in and run the air conditioner and keep the windows closed to see if we can dry things out a bit.  We are staying at a nice RV park near Lake Pontchartrain which is about 5 miles from the French Quarter so we will ride the shuttle and save Paul the headache of where to park.  We catch the shuttle about 3:30 and it drops us off about a block from Bourbon Street and we start walking cause those Hurricanes are waiting, oh and the stripper girls of course!  Anyway, just as we are reaching the corner of Bourbon Street my feet give out and I find myself face down on the very uneven brick & paving stone sidewalk!  My knee is killing me and Paul has to help me up.   No one even notices because they assume you are drunk – drinking on the street is encouraged!  Now I really need a drink and some ice for the knee which is swelling very quickly.  Paul finds a nice police officer who finds a bouncer and they get me a bag of ice and I get to sit in the back of the cops 4 wheel golf cart sort of thing!  So much for a wild night in the French Quarter.  We decide we better find a place to sit down, have a drink and maybe some dinner.  That is hurricane #1.

Looking up Bourbon Street

After resting for a bit I was ready to venture out and see some sites.  We walked mostly and listened to some of the music coming from inside the bars – mostly rock, you had to hunt for the jazz.  Along the way we found one of the establishments that serve Hurricanes from a machine to-go.  That’s Hurricane #2.

Good music, with an added touch

This group was playing in the street and if you look closely behind the singer you will see a little girl (in orange) who is 7 and sat in so her dad could take a smoke break on the drums!  She kept the beat throughout the song which included a Clarinet, trumpet & trombone solo along with some great singing.  She was awesome!

I love the Iron work and balconies

By now my knee is starting to hurt and we either  had to get a taxi home or wait another hour for the shuttle to return so we found a bar that was playing music and took a seat.  Pat O’Briens has two pianos on stage and call it dueling piano’s.  Lots of fun,  singing, and pretty good piano playing by two women who were in there mid 40s’ but they played some of the stuff the kids listen to now and were really entertaining the crowd of young people. 

He is playing a pizza pan along with the Dueling Piano's

That’s Hurricane #3 and time to call it a night.  We were on the shuttle by 7 pm and out of the French Quarter before dark when all the fun starts.  Tomorrow we will be back.

Our first night we went to a local eatery called “Chucks”, not like the name but like chucking corn.  A nice little place where we had Gumbo & Crawfish Etouffee.  The Gumbo was like a brown soup with rice and seafood – ok but the Etouffee is to die for!  Of course it is good, it has lots of cream and some great spices,thick & creamy with fresh crawfish pieces over rice – Yummy.

Our second meal was Crawfish Pie -Etouffee over pastry instead of rice and some catfish!  This goes on for 4 days while we are staying in Abbeville which is a small town in the Vermilion Parish about 150 miles west of New Orleans.  We chose this town because of an RV park we had heard about and wanted to check it out.  Betty’s RV Park where the hostess, Betty has happy hour everyday at 4:30 pm – my kind of place.  The park was everything we hoped for and a perfect place to park while we enjoyed the local flavor.

A swamp tour wasn’t about food at all.  Bryan Champagne’s Swamp Tours is all about getting up close and personal with the creatures that live in a swamp.  A swamp is just what you think it is, a wet, dark, muddy area that is the overflow from a Bayou.  What is a Bayou? A stream or creek off the main river or lake. 

Lake Martin - Looks harmless, but just wait!

We went onto the lake but quickly Bryan, our guide quickly turned left and we were in another world.  The good news is as he told us, you do not need life jackets because where we are going the water is at most 1-2 feet deep, you can walk out – I DON’T THINK SO!!!

Bayou

Beautiful by day.....

Closer to a swamp

Dragon Flies keep mosquitos out of the swamps - For real!!

Cute little turtles

There were lots of turtles sunning themselves but as soon as our little boat got within 30 feet they were off swimming.  There were lots of birds in the bayou & swamps but our favorites had to be the Alligators!  They are not afraid of the boats at all – infact it seemed like a game to them.

They look so harmless

A small one- 6 feet

12 Feet +

No! i am not using a zoom lens - he is about 3 feet away!

Right after this little guy swam away Bryan our guide informs us the boat is stuck on a log and we are stuck!  Someone may have to get in the water and push us off – kidding, we just had to all move to the side of the boat where the alligator was  and hopefully that will dislodge the log.  The good news is we didn’t fall in and the boat again floated so we could be on our way.  The scary part of this whole thing is that Alligator was about as long as our little aluminum boat was and there were 12 tourists that had to get the photo at all costs!

That was enough excitement and we are back to the food tour!!!   We ate in places that looked really scary but had awesome food; places were not big enough to call a restaurant; and places that were in the middle of nowhere.  We ate food like peanut butter balls (very much like homemade Reese’s); fried shrimp po-boys; platters of crawfish that you order by the pound and have to extract the tail.  We have a freezer full of fresh off the boat shrimp and Boudin (meat sausage with rice). 

No menu - are you kidding? Everyone just orders Crawfish - you want 3.5 lbs or 5 lbs?

Nowhere to sit but the Boudin is the best in the Parish

You know it is good when the parking lot is full and it is in the middle of nowhere!

Right next to the town of Abbeville is New Ibernia, the town made famous by TABASCO Pepper Sauce.  We had a tour of the factory as well as tasting such goodies as jalepeno ice cream!  Very interesting.  We also visited the oldest Rice mill that still produces a million pounds of rice each year.  The coolest thing there was they had cats everywhere, all sizes and colors to keep the rat population away from the rice. 

This was a great stop on our way East and we will be back to see Betty and enjoy her hospitality and all the great food!  Next stop New Orleans.