We headed into New Orleans after a light breakfast. We had a drive through the French Quarter to sort of get the lay of the land before we went for an enormous buffet lunch at the Court of Two Sisters. Our dear friend, Eileen, had eaten here in the 1940's and loved it. To its credit, it is still a fine place for a generous and widely assorted buffet - there are tasty salads, huge piles of fresh shrimp and crayfish, meats, fresh fruit and desserts. The pleasure of listening to live jazz adds to the dining experience. It has a lively courtyard as well as indoor seating and a lot of what we think of as New Orleans atmosphere.

After checking in to the Hotel de la Poste in the heart of the French Quarter, we began our discovery tour by walking the district. It is as pretty and interesting as we had expected - wrought iron balconies with colorful flowers spilling over the top, small shops with just about everything imaginable and the aromas from kitchens drifting through the air. We walked the length of Chartres, then up to the corner of Dauphine to catch the St. Charles Trolley. The trolley skirts the edge of the famous Garden District. There are numerous mansions (for want of a better word) some of which date back to the late 1850's mixed in with newer homes and replicas. Some have beautiful gardens at their fronts (oleanders, jasmine, bougainvillea, banana trees, magnolias, live oaks draped with Spanish moss) many are Italianate, Greek Revival or Victorian (or a combination thereof) and have elaborate cast iron fences and balconies (or galleries), ornate porticoes, wood fret-work trim, all to the point of being "flashy" - they were designed by "Yankees" during the 1850's. These deserved a closer look and were added to our plans for the next day.

Also along the trolley trail, there lies a peek at the Lafayette Cemetery, Christ Church Cathedral, the Ruhlman-Hackett House (designed in 1854 by Gallier - more later), not to mention the Zoo and some grand colleges (Tulane and Loyola)! In the cooling of the evening, it was a most enjoyable journey and a pleasant look at the other side of town from our more typically Creole headquarters.

After a short rest, we headed out for a night in the French Quarter. As we meandered up Bourbon Street (closed after dusk to vehicles), sounds of zydeco, R & B, jazz and blues assaulted our senses from virtually every restaurant or bar. We peeked into some and lingered at others until our wandering led us to the famous Arnaud's. Started by "Count" Arnaud Cazenave in 1918, this grand old place has been restored completely. It has a variety of dining rooms, ornate mosaic floors, leaded glass windows and high ceilings with lazy fans. Aside from the crystal, linens and silver, potted palms are strategically placed to add to the atmosphere of old New Orleans. It's definitely worth a look. We were ready for a light snack and ducked into its more casual "sub-shop" called Remoulade to enjoy their spicy shrimp salad and a cool Abita amber beer.

Feeling rested, we continued our stroll down Bourbon Street. It is intense, loud, partying and stunning. After ducking in to a few places to listen to their sounds, we went in to Pat O'Brien's Bar. It was constructed in 1791 as a home and became the bar in 1942. It has a patio bar that's casual (except for the startling flaming fountain in the middle of a garden). There's a "dueling piano bar", a courtyard restaurant, and a small bar with hundreds of old steins hanging from the ceiling. The foyer is decorated with crossed rifles hanging overhead and the entire building has dark woods and glazed bricks. They served up some tasty cool drinks (their specialty is the Hurricane in up to a 3 gallon glass) and the crowd was lively. Their "expert" suggested the "R&B Club" a few doors down Bourbon as the best place to catch good blues on a Sunday night. We finished our evening at the R&B Club listening to blues by a couple of good local bands. The first was reminiscent of the old Paul Butterfield style, while the second (led by the owner of the club) had an extremely versatile repertoire. We returned to our rooms a little after two and the club was still going full tilt - one might even say they were just warming up!

Beignets and coffee at the Café du Monde started our day in top form. This is a must for any visitor - hot, rich coffee with fresh hot beignets loaded with powdered sugar. What a treat! We walked down Decatur to Jackson Square with its impressive statue of Andrew Jackson perched upon his horse. Here we visited the St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest in the United States of America. It is adorned with a large mural behind the altar that represents Saint Louis and the 7th Crusade as well as numerous wall paintings, an intricate ceiling mural and finely restored "painted" stained glass windows. An oddity (to us) was their "Millennium Door" which has been sealed temporarily with the intention of a grand opening event to coincide with the Pope's New Year's Eve party!

We crossed Jackson Square which is surrounded by an iron fence and filled with lots of flowering plants and banana trees. Along the edges, vendors, street performers and artists create a festive atmosphere. A quick trip across the park brought us to Café du Monde where we enjoyed those heavenly beignets and the "French Market" with its small shops and open air stalls.

Just up from Jackson Square on Royal Street is the Gallier House Museum. It was built in 1857 by the famous (in this town) architect James Gallier as his family's home. It has been very carefully researched and restored. As an architect, Gallier had not only drawn detailed plans, but also sketched wall covering designs, window treatments and other decorative items. There are fine marble mantles, high ceiling rooms, ornate cornice moldings and trim. The rooms have been refurnished with period drapes and furniture, crystal, silver, china and other accoutrements. They had an inside room for bathing which was quite a luxury at the time, quarters for their servants, a large cistern and (of course) an out house - with two seats! What once was the carriage entry holds a vintage carriage and ends in a beautifully manicured jewel of a garden courtyard. The tour guide was informative and able to answer any of our questions.

For those who can appreciate a bit of the weird, the Voodoo Museum on Dumaine holds a collection of magical articles. They offer a museum tour, cemetery tours and plantation house/swamp tours as well as psychic readings, rituals, voodoo dolls and a gift shop. They have put together an historical and multicultural exhibit to both entertain and educate their visitors.

We returned to our hotel via Royal Street. Here one finds dozens of antique shops scattered between gift and jewelry shops. It provides a nice window shopping walk. Because all of the museums are open from Tuesday through Sunday, we checked out of our hotel and drove out to view some more of the Garden District. Its finest examples are just off of St. Charles on First Street, Prytania, Jackson and Coliseum. For example, the Buckner has a 22,000 sq. ft. interior, Brevard-Mahat has delicate roses on its double galleries and fence, the Briggs-Staub has pointed arches and shutters with a bulls eye window, and Colonel Short's Villa has a heavy cast iron fence designed to look like cornstalks entwined with morning glories. This list could go on, and we will surely wander through more of the district on our next visit.

After lunch at Cannons (salad mounded with spicy popcorn shrimp) we began our drive out of town to the Oak Alley Plantation. We traveled through beautiful, lush green countryside to Vacherie. Along the way we passed several other old plantation homes - Evergreen (in modest disrepair) seemed caught back in time with its grand oaks dripping Spanish moss, and a completely restored plantation complex which offers a tour of "the way things were". There are dozens of restored homes, some of which have been refurbished to become inns.

Oak Alley immediately grabs your attention with a spectacular avenue of two rows each with fourteen live oaks that span a quarter mile from where the original French settler's cabin sat out towards the river. These trees are now about 300 years old and stand in contrast to a similar set of "baby" trees at the rear of the house that are a mere 150 years old. In 1836 the wealthy sugar planter Jacques Telesphore Toman bought the property and built Oak Alley mansion for his bride. The home's architecture combines several styles but is primarily accented by 28 (eight foot circumference) classical columns that surround it and stand two stories tall. The walls of the house are sixteen inches thick, it is surrounded by thirteen foot wide verandas and has tall windows that provide lots of cross ventilation. A thousand acres of the original land around it has been sold to leave the plantation grounds on twenty five acres. The interiors are furnished and decorated in the style of the period and their tour provides interesting historical information about the life style of the times. 

We stopped at the top of the levee to look across the Mississippi before heading back to the camp. The rest of our evening was free to relax, chat and enjoy a snack of bread, cheese and wine.