Thursday, January 29, 2004

The 2004 Adventure, January 29 2004, Riding the Mississippi and Street Cars, New Orelans Style

Campground shuttle downtown, leaving at 9 AM, went directly to Cafe du Monde for coffee au lait and more of those sinful beignets. AHH, YUM

Did some more window shopping and real shopping, got a couple of New Orleans t-shirts, and Al bought some spices (cajan, etc, but of course), and I bought a purple scarf with red hats! G> Now, I need a red hat to wear it with, and oh, what fun! We even saw a few Mardi Gras floats being pulled around down in the French Quarter.

Made the Mississippi River Boat tour on time, it was not crowded, not sure what we expected, but it was not exceptionally spectacular. It was pleasant, and some parts pretty interesting. Saw a few Navy supply ships, lots of river barges and tug boats, saw them dredging the river near the docks (the dredge is piped out to the center of the river and dumped back in to be carried down river by the current).

Rode the street cars and bus back to the campground. The street car system is the oldest in the world, and the street cars were made around 1920-30. It was fun to ride, and you could really see the houses along the road, wow, some of them were really fancy, the architecture is varied to say the least! There are Mardi Gras beads hanging from the trees from years past. They get stuck there during the parades and the locals believe it is bad luck to pull them out of the trees. They also believe it is very good luck if you find some that have fallen out of the trees (unassisted).

Made a grocery run, filled the truck with gas and had a quiet evening. Oh, we found “King Cake” at the grocery. It is a local specialty only sold around Mardi Gras time (so we were told). It is filled with tons of cream cheese filling (there are other flavors too) and has icing and sprinkles on top, in Mardi Gras colors, but of course, gold, green and purple. It reminds us of a breakfast pastry, but with extra filling. One of the food joys of traveling!
 

New Orleans Street car, this is one of the oldest ones.


Moving Mardi Gras floats around New Orleans

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