Photos From New Orleans

On Friday, March 29th my son and I embarked on what would be the first leg of our week-long vacation together during his Spring Break as we flew to New Orleans, Louisiana.  I had booked a 7-day cruise for us, which left from New Orleans and gave me a great opportunity to visit a US city I’d always wanted to visit but had never had the opportunity.  This the first part of my usual photo travel report – the photos below can be seen in a larger sized version by clicking on them.

I left the office on Friday, and my son and I flew from Dayton to New Orleans, and grabbed a cab to the hotel I had booked for us in the French Quarter – on Iberville just a couple of blocks from the heart of the action on Bourbon st:

We didn’t get to the hotel and get settled in until about 1am.  Quick side note – if you’re looking for comfortable and reasonably priced accommodations in the French Quarter, you can do a lot worse than the Courtyard Marriott on Iberville.  It’s a former Ritz-Carlton hotel, and is several steps more luxuriously appointed than the typical Courtyard.  My son and I decided to walk up to Bourbon St. – uncertain that there would be much action about 1am.  As it turns out, things were just getting rolling:

I’ve never before seen so many bars – or so many intoxicated people in one place.  We probably walked up about 5 or 6 blocks before we turned around and it seemed as though we could have walked all night.

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast, and headed out to see what things looked like in the light of day – I expected to see the streets littered with vomit an passed-out party goes, but they’re well practiced at clean-up here in New Orleans:

We started off doing a little souvenir shopping at the local themed tourist traps:

My son decided to try on a few hats:

 

We made our way up to the Jackson Square area a beautiful public square bustling with activity and ripe with photo opportunities:

Jackson Square, named for US General and future President Andrew Jackson:

Across the street from Jackson Square, a high school band was putting on a lovely musical performance:

After a few hours of shopping and site seeing, it came time to sample some of that famous New Orleans cuisine – here’s where we stopped for lunch:

It didn’t look like much from the outside, but my son’s Cajun Po’Boy sandwich and my seafood sampler were quite good:

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel and gathered our things to take a cab ride over to the port and board Navigator of the Seas for our cruise.  Our first unofficial cruise stop in New Orleans was most enjoyable and I look forward to spending more time in this historic city.