Saturday, January 10th, 2026
We left home at 5:00am, stopping at Stewart’s for car fuel and people fuel on our way to Albany. We had flights on Southwest Airlines, and it was the first time either of us had flown with them. Lack of assigned seating was interesting, but we ended up being able to sit together. We had a connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale with a very short layover. But it was the same plane at the same gate! That’s never happened to me before. We got off the plane and just waited right there to get back on. (We couldn’t stay on the plane because the were different flight numbers…I asked.)
We arrived in New Orleans on time. Cab fare to the city is a flat $36, which seemed reasonable. We have decided not to rent a car this trip. In about 20 minutes we arrived at the Quarter House on Chartres Street in the French Quarter where our family has a time share unit, and this week is our week! It actually took us awhile to find the unit, which was a bit of a laugh. There are several elevators, and not all units/rooms are available via all elevators and we did not know where ours was and so took the “main” elevator and wandered around verifying that every room in the windy twisty halls was not, in fact, ours. A quick trip back to the front desk got us on the right track.
After a quick nap we walked the length of the Quarter down Chartres Street to Frenchmen Street and a place called d. b. a. where a dixieland jazz band called Tuba Skinny was playing. They have been playing the last few years at the Mace Chasm Farm in Keeseville–one of the band members is friends with the farm owners. As we were checking the place out, I saw Shaye Cohn, the leader of the group arrive. As she was putting down her stuff I walked up to her and said, “we came down from Keeseville to see you!” She smiled and said, “We LOVE playing up there!” d.b.a. doesn’t have much in the way of seating, and what little they had was full. We bellied up to the bar (standing) and ordered a couple of drinks. The band started and we stayed and listened to a few tunes before leaving to seek out food (no food at d. b. a.) because we hadn’t had dinner.
Frenchmen Street seems to be “artist central” and we found a pop up artisan market across the street from d. b. a. and spent a few minutes perusing the works. For dinner we ended up at a place called Willies Fried Chicken. A franchise outfit, their stores are decorated with incredible graffiti. The food wasn’t anything spectacular, but the ambiance was great. As we waited for our food, we noted the presence of the National Guard on the street.
After dinner we walked two blocks up to Bourbon Street and walked back down towards our hotel. Upper Bourbon is not much to comment on, but once we hit lower Bourbon, the activity level ramped up considerably. If I had to choose one word to describe Bourbon Street on a Saturday night it would be “cacophony”. Not terribly enjoyable, either. We couldn’t even talk to each other as we were walking down the middle of the street! We certainly weren’t going to go into any of the establishments–what would be the point?
As soon as we turned off of Bourbon things got quiet and we saw several nice places we’d like to explore later in the week. We made it back to the Quarter House and retired for the evening, blaming our fatigue on “jet lag” (only one hour) and the fact that we’d been up since 4:30am.
More to come!!
