New Orleans, Louisiana
November 22, 2022
Oak Alley Plantation.
We arrived at our campground near New Orleans to continued cooler-than-normal temperatures. But, seeing that other parts of the country were getting colder weather along with snow (how about 6 feet of it in Buffalo!), we didn't have the right to whine too much.
We stayed at Bayou Segnette State Park, which was quite convenient to New Orleans. It was a pleasant campground with excellent security.
Our campsite at Bayou Segnette State Park
There were only a few days during our week-long stay that had nice-ish weather, and those were the days that we did some sightseeing.
Barataria Preserve was our first destination during an almost sunny afternoon. There was supposed to be a boardwalk with good water views, but as has been our luck lately, that portion of the boardwalk was closed due to storm damage. A ranger said the park recently received a government grant to rebuild all of the boardwalk paths, but that project won't begin until next year.
What had started out as a sunny afternoon, soon turned moody.
Some of the boardwalk was not in the best of shape.
There were a surprising number of maple trees amongst the palmettos, but not too much in the way of fall color.
This little tree was trying hard to turn red.
The one day that ended up being sunny the whole day was the day we chose to go to New Orleans. Aside from it being a bit on the chilly side (mid 50s), it was a pleasant day. We began our adventure by driving about 20 minutes to a ferry terminal where there was free street parking (bonus!). After a 15-minute ferry ride over the Mississippi, we were on the edge of the French Quarter. We hopped on a trolley for a quick jaunt to the Garden District where we walked around and gawked at big old houses.
View of New Orleans from the Mississippi River
The Garden District
Many of the homes had signs detailing their illustrious histories.
The famous Commander's Palace restaurant which offers 25 cent martinis at lunchtime (limit 3).
Interesting cornstalk motif on this fence
Remnants of Mardi Gras past
The current owners apparently spent a lot of effort (and money) restoring this home to its original glory.
Julie liked the color of this house.
Along Magazine Street--the main commercial drag in the Garden District.
We stopped for lunch at Parasol's and shared a beef po-boy and fries with cheese and gravy. Rick thought it was okay, but Julie really liked it!
Lunch at Parasol's in the Garden District
After lunch, we took a bus back to the French Quarter where we enjoyed walking around, visiting the Historic New Orleans Collection Museum, and partaking in a free live jazz concert at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park.
The jazz concert featured the Simon Lott Trio. They were quite good!
We enjoyed an appetizer of boudin boulettes and some drinks at Kingfish and then headed to Gumbo Shop for some traditional Cajun/Creole favorites. Very tasty!
Rick ordered a gumbo sampler.
Julie ordered some other sampler that came with creole shrimp, jambalaya, and rice with red beans.
Being here in November had the advantage that it gets dark pretty early, so by the time it was 4:30 or so, our bodies were thinking it was close to dinnertime (especially after walking all day long). We hit happy hour at Kingfish around 4 and Gumbo Shop around 5 and got right in both times. By the time we were finished with dinner, there was a line all the way down the block to get in. Since it wasn't very warm out, we were glad we didn't have to wait in line outside.
A trip to New Orleans isn't complete without a visit to the (in)famous Bourbon Street. As it was a Friday night, it was quite hopping, even at 6pm. (It's probably hopping every night, though.)
In NOLA, it's legal to walk around with alcohol. So, many of the establishments had "to go" windows.
Must be really nice to sit outside on one of these balconies when the weather is warm.
Lots of live music in the bars. This one was really cozy.
Some random guy singing on top of his Suburban.
We made it back safely to the ferry, and upon disembarking, Rick was thrilled to find that our tires had not been slashed, our windows were not shattered, and everything was as we left it in the bed of the truck. Life is good!
We had a couple of dreary days, although the sun sort of came out on Sunday, so we took a walk around the campground and the cabins along Bayou Segnette.
We spotted this guy eating a snake.
The floating cabins along the bayou were very nice.
Our last day in New Orleans promised to be sunny, so we went to Oak Alley Plantation. It was a sunny day until the moment we parked the car in the lot. Immediately, clouds came in from the west and that was it for sunshine for the day. Oh well, at least it didn't rain!
We had very good tour guide for the inside of the house, and we found the on-site exhibits to be quite informative. All in all, it was a good side trip.
An iconic shot with 250-year old southern live oaks
The roses smelled so nice!
Julie loves gardens, so it was hard for her to limit the photos!
The southern live oak may be Julie's new favorite tree of the day.
We got to tour the house and go up onto the balcony.
We were surprised that the house didn't seem that big on the inside. The massive wrap-around balcony made it appear bigger than it actually was.
The plantation had a very good exhibit of the slave quarters. It was good to see attention being given to them, as it was through their hard work that everything on the plantation was built.
The next day we packed up and headed eastbound, getting ever closer to our winter destination in Tampa. We have been having weird feelings lately like it is finally the end of "summer", and it is time to go back to school or something. Perhaps it's the shorter days, or the thought of being in the same RV park for more than a week, or the planned doctors visits, or the list of winter maintenance tasks that is contributing to this feeling. But at the same time, we are very excited that in a few short weeks, we will be going to St. Paul to visit with our kids for Christmas. It will be so nice to see them again 😊!
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