New Orleans - without Mardi Gras

26 – 28 Oct

We spent all three days going into the French Quarter of New Orleans.  It’s all happening there; street artists, musicians, entertainers.  You can wear almost whatever you want – although the pregnant, bearded nun with a beer in his hand looked a bit odd-one-out!  We ate Beignet, gumbo, muffletta and even alligator sausage; Alison drank Hurricane cocktails.  We saw Mardi Gras costumes in a museum but none on the streets, although there was a Halloween parade one evening.  We were treated to creole jazz music (sung in French).  We learnt about damage caused from hurricanes Betsy, Katrina and Rita.  On the route in and out of town we could see some buildings still bearing signs from Katrina. 

We had a swamp boat tour and saw many alligators, ranging from 3’ to 5’. We learnt how the wetlands on the south coast are disappearing and how they can help reduce flood and hurricane damage.

The RV site next to the marina is also a place where many people were mooring their boats/yachts for the weekend.  There was entertainment in the bar every evening, many wore fancy dress.

Friday night the wind picked up and the RV was buffeted all night.  Saturday morning there was a twenty-five degree drop from the previous day’s temperature.  Although there was sunshine we wore jumpers and coats for the rest of the weekend. It had nothing to do with hurricane Sandy on the east coast; just a cold front coming through.