22 March 2018
New Orleans is in the Central Time Zone. I’m waking up in the Eastern Time Zone. Four-thirty is too early to wake up in the CDT zone. Fortunately, I got a good nights sleep even if it were only 6 hours.
After the complimentary breakfast on the 7th floor (nothing to brag about for a Hilton hotel) Archie, Tanis and I hopped the Saint Charles Avenue Streetcar. You can ride the entire line for $1.25 or all day for $3.00 per person. The streetcar takes you through the Garden District, by Loyola University, Tulane University, the New Orleans zoo and the famous Camelia Grill.
Maybe I have forgotten how friendly the people in the south are, but everyone seemed to strike up a conversation while riding the streetcar. It helps that my brother has never met a stranger. There were some interesting conversations. In particular, a lady from Memphis sat down next to me and told me she had visited the WWII museum with her daughter. That led to a conversation about war in general and the Viet Nam war in particular. She started the conversation about Viet Nam by asking if I knew of any Viet Nam museums. I told her no, only Viet Nam memorials. I recommended to her the PBS series on Vietnam as I thought it gave a very balanced view of the war from both sides. She had not heard of the series and promised to look at it.
Since my days of riding the streetcar, they’ve changed their end-of-line procedure and disembark passengers before the end point and now have you re-board a little later after the car returns.
It used to take you to the end of the line, have everyone vacate the streetcar and the conductor would go through the car and flip the seat direction. Then you would re-embark.
On the return trip we got off at Canal Street. Canal Street, of course, was once a canal bisecting the city but is probably more famous these days for the big Mardi Gras parades of several krewes.
From there, we walked into the French Quarter and eventually found a nice bar, The Chart House, on, appropriately, Chartres Street. After a rest from walking, we headed to Mr. Ed’s Seafood House on Bienville, literally across the street and down 3/4 of the way from The Chart House. Archie and Tanis shared a seafood platter and I opted for “A Taste of New Orleans” with jambalaya, red beans and rice and crawfish étouffée. The jambalaya was a little fishy for my taste but the other two were excellent.
It was at Mr. Ed’s that I found the most unique urinal I have ever seen. Someone took a beer keg and turned it into a quite functional urinal that auto flushed. I propose all urinals look like the one shown below instead of the sterile porcelain ones we see today. It seems more appropriate in a bar environment in any case.
We used Uber for the second time since our visit began and made it back to the hotel where we all three decided we needed a nap. I realized that I had lost one of the key cards to my room, so when I awoke from the nap, I headed to the front desk and had that key card cancelled and two new ones made for my room. All I needed was for someone to find the key card with my room number and the hotel to find it and come enter the room while I am gone.
Tonight, Tanis and Archie treated me to dinner at the Redfish Grill on Bourbon. It has been voted best seafood restaurant in New Orleans for 2 years in a row. They had seafood and I had roast chicken. I can’t vouch for theirs but mine was delicious.
We headed back to the hotel after dinner. I think Archie and Tanis were fading fast and I have the beginnings of a cold – scratchy throat, runny nose, etc.
Tomorrow I say goodbye to Tanis and Archie and head out to Village Creek State Park in Lumberton, Texas for a single night of camping. After that, I head for a single day visit with my cousin Jo in San Antonio. Once I leave San Antonio, I begin my National Parks tour.
