State 47

2024-03-27
New Orleans, LA

I've never been to Louisiana, so when it was suggested that we go to New Orleans over spring break I jumped at the chance. It will be the 47th state for me. I haven't been on an airplane since December 2019, just months before the Covid lockdown. I am trying to remember all the tips for flying: Pack light. Boarding passes are on the phone now. Water is considered an explosive. Make a reservation for parking. There's always something that you'll forget, but in the middle of a city it shouldn't be hard to find.

We left the house at about 5:30AM and the trip to the airport and flight south was uneventful, which is exactly what you want when you travel. We got to our hotel at about noon so we had a couple hours to kill before our room was ready at the Hyatt Centric on the corner of Bourbon and Canal Streets at the edge of the French Quarter. We grabbed lunch at the Bourbon House, which was across Bourbon street from the hotel. I noticed a theme...

With plenty of time to kill and our cameras quite distinctly marking us as tourists, we headed off down Bourbon Street. The road is open to (one-way) traffic during the day, primarily so that trucks can deliver the food and alcohol for the evening. (Honestly I'm not sure we actually saw any trucks delivering food, so that may be more theoretical.)

Confined to the sidewalks, we got up to St. Anne street, across to Jackson Park, and over to the Mississippi. While enjoying the view of The Big Muddy, we got a taste of some of the local street musicians. One fellow played a passable guitar, but when he started "singing" it sounded like a bad Theremin. For all you kids, that's the instrument used to make the theme for the original Star Trek. Yowling cats would have been more enjoyable. There were plenty of other musicians during our travels in the city - some good and some bad - but none made us exit the area as quickly as this guy.

We walked down along the Mississippi past the Natchez, a steam-driven paddle-wheeler. They were encouraging people to come for the next ride by playing a steam calliope which was fun. I found out later that they also have normal engines and thrusters to help them dock, and quite possibly the paddle wheel is augmented by propellers although I can't be sure.

On the way towards the hotel we saw a parade. They had an eight-piece band going up Bourbon Street with police closing the side roads just in front of them. Following the band was about a hundred people, some parading like it was Mardi Gras and some strolling with that "kill me now" look on their faces. It appeared to be a corporate outing or a convention, and I feel like you could tell the difference between sales and engineering. At least some of them were issued masks.

We realized by now that we had no sunscreen. That left us with a dilemma: which of the three Walgreens and one CVS within a block of the hotel should we visit? I guess they know that us tourists like to forget stuff.

In the evening we went out on Bourbon Street. This is the Wednesday before Easter which is during Lent, which is one of the reasons that we heard for why it wasn't terribly crowded. The galleries (which is the local term for the balconies over the road) were empty and it wasn't too challenging to mosey up and down the street. The whole thing felt a bit forced, like the people were there for just that day and wanted it to be a Friday.