New Orleans

I think I could live in this city.

Bourbon Street by day is like my beloved Adams Morgan by day, except that the tourists here outnumber both locals and the "commuters" from other neighborhoods and the burbs who take over the entertainment areas of my DC neighborhood. By day you can tell real people live here, and you can relax a bit without being assailed on all sides by amplified music, young drunks, and hustlers as you are Friday night on Bourbon Street.

I also walked to the Mississippi River waterfront, the central business district, and some of the warehouse district; rode the waterfront trolley to the end of the line (thanks for that tip, Jessie!) where I explored the French Market (right). I took lots more photos that I'll spare you. Then I drove to the Garden District (another tip from Jessie) and along both the old levee walls along the Mississippi River docks and levee embankments along Lake Pontchartrain to the north that I think may be the ones the Corps of Engineers built after Hurricane Katrina. These are beautiful grassy parks actively used by rinners and bikers, and I want to see what it's like on top of them (not this trip).

Lunch was at Deanie's Seafood a block off Bourbon Street, a delightful pair of soft-shell crabs (that I ordered fried, of course, tsk, tsk). Yum. Now I'm off to try to walk around Metairie somewhere away from the expressway construction maze where my hotel is situated. Tonight I think I'll look for someplace quiet for dinner, away from downtown.

A note on yesterday's post: I actually submitted it before midnight Central Time but Blogger dated it today based on the time zone in my user profile.