Day Fifteen - 30th October

This was going to be our last day in N.O, so we decided just to go back into the French quarter and spend the day wandering the streets to soak it all up one last time.

From our hotel room in Laplace, the drive into N.O was about 30 minutes, give or take. The drive in in quite extraordinary, because the motorway system is built over mostly swampland and the edge of the lake. For several miles, two raised separate raised highways (three lanes in each direction) cross over swamp land and marshes. It’s an incredible feat of engineering and topped off by a row of power pylons stretching out across Lake Pontchatrain as far as the eye can see.

The drive in was pretty easy, no sign of the huge tailback we saw the previous day going out (turns out it was some kind of voodoo-fest that was adding to the crowds in the weekend) and we managed to find a parking building close by where our hotel was, for $20 for 10 hours. That wasn’t bed and so we duly left it in their care and wandered off.

We’d wanted to hit up our favourite café for coffee and beignets again (Café du Monde, open 24hrs except for Christmas, Thanksgiving and any hurricanes passing through) but when we got there the queue to get in was horrendous, stretching back for several dozen meters. The day was hot (again) so we decided to go back later when hopefully the queue had died down and queuing in the heat would not be as long.

Being a Sunday, there was a lot of people in town, and a lot of cleaning up from the night before. The streets in the French quarter are in a great state of disrepair and a muddy odour pervades the area, with the streets again pooled in water and detritus. However a couple of streets had been blocked off again and street bands were again plying their trade with the senses once again being assaulted by odours, bright sunlight and noise as various eateries & bars were getting their bands playing.

Deb and I had separated off to spend a bit of solo time (as we wanted to look at separate things and at our own pace) and we met up again to have another crack at the café. This time the queues were only mildly horrendous so we took our place and within about 20 minutes were seated at a table. There’s a separate window where takeout coffees & beignets can be ordered and this queue was truly huge, stretching back almost a block in the hot sun.  I felt sorry for those folks, and it showed I guess how many more people added to the city crowd in the weekend.

However my greatest sympathy lay with the staff at the café, they were running around like crazy never slowing down and having to manage and serve the endless queue of people coming in all day. They all end up covered in icing sugar and looking very hot & bothered.

We duly got our order and as we sat there a jazz trio started up. Two men (drums & keyboards) and a woman (bass guitar) played some great tunes, so much so that I ended up getting two of their CDs on sale. For each of the times we’ve been at this place, there’s always been a musician or musicians playing. One time a chap played the star spangled banner to the crowd to rousing applause, and we couldn’t help but think of the difference if this was a kiwi musician playing the NZ anthem to a pub crowd. They’re very patriotic here no matter what the political allegiance.

A divergence on the election – we are here during the last few days of the US presidential campaigns, between Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump. We tend to watch CNN when we can and there’s a lot going on now with the latest revelations about Clinton’s email server. Anecdotally (i.e a few people we have spoken to, and conversations overheard) the feeling we gauge is that most people don’t like either candidate, but Clinton is the lesser of two evils and so it appears people will vote for her not because they like her, but they dislike her the least. It’s an interesting position to be in, but it’s also worthy to note that Trump has a lot of genuine support as well, and people genuinely believe his message and think he will be a credible option. Interesting stuff. The ‘attack’ ads we see on TV are also an interesting part of this campaign as both parties play them, and I can see how Trump appeals to the mass electorate with his painting of Clinton as a political machine not interested in life outside the Washington DC beltway.

After spending another couple of hours in town, and the stifling heat, we decided to head back to Laplace and our hotel. We’d been eating pretty cheap as there’s a “Wendy’s” close by, and so we have been going there for dinner as they do a pretty reasonable salad for only $6.00. Eating out in N.O is very expensive, not helped by the tourist dollar jacking up the price, and we paid $100 for a pretty average meal in a restaurant, which is not something we can do on a regular basis. Wendy’s is a much more reasonable alternative!