We arrived in New Orleans on time.\u00a0 <\/span>Cab fare to the city is a flat $36, which seemed reasonable.\u00a0 <\/span>We have decided not to rent a car this trip.\u00a0 <\/span>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!\u00a0 <\/span>It actually took us awhile to find the unit, which was a bit of a laugh.\u00a0 <\/span>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 \u201cmain\u201d elevator and wandered around verifying that every room in the windy twisty halls was not, in fact, ours.\u00a0 <\/span>A quick trip back to the front desk got us on the right track.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> was playing.\u00a0 <\/span>They have been playing the last few years at the Mace Chasm Farm<\/a> in Keeseville–one of the band members is friends with the farm owners.\u00a0 <\/span>As we were checking the place out, I saw Shaye Cohn, the leader of the group arrive.\u00a0 <\/span>As she was putting down her stuff I walked up to her and said, \u201cwe came down from Keeseville to see you!\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>She smiled and said, \u201cWe LOVE playing up there!\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>d.b.a. doesn\u2019t have much in the way of seating, and what little they had was full.\u00a0 <\/span>We bellied up to the bar (standing) and ordered a couple of drinks.\u00a0 <\/span>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\u2019t had dinner.<\/p>\n Frenchmen Street<\/a> seems to be \u201cartist central\u201d and we found a pop up artisan market across the street from d. b. a. and spent a few minutes perusing the works.\u00a0 <\/span>For dinner we ended up at a place called Willies Fried Chicken.\u00a0 <\/span>A franchise outfit, their stores are decorated with incredible graffiti.\u00a0 <\/span>The food wasn\u2019t anything spectacular, but the ambiance was great.\u00a0 <\/span>As we waited for our food, we noted the presence of the National Guard on the street.<\/p>\n After dinner we walked two blocks up to Bourbon Street and walked back down towards our hotel.\u00a0 <\/span>Upper Bourbon is not much to comment on, but once we hit lower Bourbon, the activity level ramped up considerably.\u00a0 <\/span>If I had to choose one word to describe Bourbon Street on a Saturday night it would be \u201ccacophony\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Not terribly enjoyable, either.\u00a0 <\/span>We couldn\u2019t even talk to each other as we were walking down the middle of the street!\u00a0 <\/span>We certainly weren\u2019t going to go into any of the establishments–what would be the point?<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 <\/span>We made it back to the Quarter House and retired for the evening, blaming our fatigue on \u201cjet lag\u201d (only one hour) and the fact that we\u2019d been up since 4:30am.<\/p>\n More to come!!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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