Bayou Segnette State Park
7777 Westbank Expressway
Westwego, LA 70094
GPS: 29.88990o, -090.16239o
Our instructions for today were "Take the Canal Street trolley north to Carondelet, get a transfer, get on the St Charles trolley, ride to the Garden District, and get off wherever you like."
If Blanche could do it so can we. Today we were determined to see the famed "Garden District".
From the ferry, we boarded the Canal Street trolley north for a very short ride to Carondelet.
The St Charles trolley gave us an interesting view, so we chose to ride to the end of the line and back, then get off in the middle of the Garden District. It has been ages since I rode a trolley. The ride recalled memories from my ‘kid’ days, although my trolley rides didn’t go through neighborhoods like this.
The Garden District is famous for the mansions along St Charles Avenue for much of the uptown section. Click here for more detail on some of those mansions. St. Charles Avenue is one of the chief Mardi Gras parade routes.
I've never been much for walking around adoring the homes of rich people I don't know, but it must appeal to some. There were several "rickshaw" type bicycle carriages successfully hawking tours.
photographed by Jim Spain
We walked about with no particular destination or plan and found ourselves at "Lafayette Cemetery No 1", a tourist attraction of some fame. It is falling into disrepair and obviously not being maintained by anyone. I suspect the tenants are not very happy with the situation. Now there is one spooky place -- even in daylight. If I was into writing scary stuff, I would park myself there for a night for inspiration. I settled for taking a few photos.
I know of Tulane University and I know of Loyola University. I know that they are both in New Orleans. What I didn't know until today is that they are both in the Garden District and side by side. You can't get a coat of paint between them. So I learned something today.
After walking the Garden District for a while, thoughts of food became a recurring theme. We reboarded the trolley and headed back to Canal Street where we met Dave.
Like most people, I try to avoid street people. But Dave wasn’t ‘street people’. He quickly gained my confidence, then took out a map of the French Quarter and marked good places to eat. I asked about places to hear good jazz. His response surprised me. “Good jazz and Dixieland have moved out of the Quarter. It takes hard rock to sell liquor and that is what the French Quarter is all about. For good jazz, you have to go to Frenchman Street. Places like The Maison, Blue Nile, Three Muses, The Spotted Cat Music Club, and Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro.
For dinner at a reasonable price and within an easy walk, he pointed us to Oceana at the corner of Bourbon and Conti Streets -- just inside French Quarter.
Creole jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, red beans and
rice with smoked sausage.
Jim and Bonnie split a Shrimp Poboy.
We split a very large portion of Bread Pudding for dessert.
We ran out of energy before we ran out of daylight. Time to head for the ferry and back to the campground. At our age we need to be home before dark. Seems like that was the way it was when I was a little kid.
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