Chapter 8, New Orleans
- traci wilson
- May 12
- 5 min read
We stayed at the New Orleans RV Park and Marina on the waterfront of Lake Pontchartrain. The first night we arrived we went to the little restaurant that was connected to the park and had an appetizer and drinks. I had my first hurricane there as we relaxed and looked out over the marina.
The following day we went to the French Quarter, the main attraction for this location. We’d found a doggie daycare for the pups online before we arrived, so after dropping the fur babies off at daycare, we went to the visitor’s center where we found a public parking lot for only $5 per day. The visitor’s center was adjacent to the French Quarter, so it was perfect. We picked up a free map, oriented ourselves, and headed out on the day’s adventure.
Our first stop was breakfast at Pierre Maspero’s, one of the oldest buildings in the French Quarter (est. 1788). It’s the site of the Old Exchange Coffee House, the meeting place where brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte and their men met to plan escapes. It was also the historic site that Andrew Jackson met with the Lafitte brothers to plan the defense of the epic battle of New Orleans, the battle where the British forces surrendered to the American troops led by Jackson. Jackson went on to become the 7th president of the United States.
We walked around soaking in the sites and the unique atmosphere of the Quarter. The streets are very narrow, some still with the original cobblestones. The architecture is also unique, a blend of French, Creole, Spanish, and American that merge to create a whole different style specific to this city. The buildings had expansive second-story balconies with intricately designed wrought iron railings. The houses that lined the streets were quite close to each other and many had shared courtyards with front doors opening into the courtyard instead of at the front of the house as we’re used to. Many of these courtyards had lush, beautiful, albeit small, gardens with tall wrought iron gates that locked, giving them an intimate almost “secret” feel.
As we strolled the streets we’d come across various musicians, some solo, some in pairs or groups that were playing different styles of jazz. I never knew there were so many variations, but then I’m not that versed in jazz. Sometimes they would have their instruments set up in the middle of the street (there are some sections in the French Quarter that are closed to autos during certain times). The other thing I found interesting is they allow open containers out on the streets, so we passed several taverns that advertised ‘to go’ cocktails and ‘bottomless’ drinks, giving it sort of a party town vibe. We were there during the day, so it wasn’t too wild, but I expect after the sun goes down it really ramps up—not really our scene.
Probably our favorite activity of the day was when we went to Café Beignet, an open-air café in a courtyard setting (much like the private ones I described above) that was also, wait for it…playing live jazz music at 11:00 in the morning on a Wednesday!
We sat outside, listened to the band (they were quite good), had coffee and fresh beignets—our first experience with this New Orleans classic—and enjoyed the vibe. I stopped on the way out to appreciate the life-sized bronze statues of some famous jazz musicians who had been a part of making New Orleans music history.
After we’d spent some time wandering around the streets of the Quarter we decided to go down by the water (Mississippi river) and check that out. The river is so big it looks like the ocean! There was a nice riverwalk with historical markers all along it depicting different events in the city’s rich history. There were two huge steamboats with their ginormous paddlewheels docked at the waterfront. We were amused to see a man standing on the very top of one of the boats playing songs from The Sound of Music on a pipe organ using steam from the ship. Very unique!
The final thing we did before leaving was to walk through the French Market, an open-air market that reminded me a lot of the Portland Saturday Market. There were some vendors selling original gifts and novelties, but many were ‘made in China’ knockoffs that were selling for much less money than their authentic counterparts we’d found in little shops we visited in the Quarter. We split a ‘Po Boy’ crab cake sandwich to try out some local cuisine. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s basically a deli sandwich with some sort of meat, but usually is made with local seafood, and is served on a long crusty French bread roll. It also has lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise or some version of creamy sauce. I didn’t really care for it, but that was mainly because of the crabmeat they used—soft shelled blue crab. I thought the meat was mushy and fishy tasting, not firm like cold water crab.
We had a good day exploring this famous area of New Orleans, and much like most of the places we’ve visited, felt like we’d just scratched the surface of what we could see and do there. We were entertaining the idea of returning to the area at some later date to explore it in greater depth when a couple of unfortunate incidents happened that changed our minds.
First, we approached a four-lane road, two lanes in each direction with a concrete divider down the middle, that had crosswalks without accompanying traffic lights. The traffic was moderate but not bad. We started across the road as there seemed to be plenty of time to get across before the oncoming traffic reached us. Unfortunately, there was a car speeding way too fast coming right for us and not slowing down. I had to literally jump out of his way to keep from getting hit. To add insult to injury, the guy blasted me with his car horn and screamed profanities as he sped past. Apparently, he wasn’t happy that we dared cross the street in front of him. According to a bystander who witnessed the thing, they don’t stop for pedestrians in New Orleans, crosswalk or not!
But the thing that really cinched it for us was when we got back to the parking lot to find our truck had been ‘booted’. I had no idea what that term meant before this, but I’m well versed in it now. If you don’t follow the rules in the city’s public parking lots, they don’t write you a ticket, they put a steal contraption on your wheels making it impossible to drive away until you pay for the infraction. Apparently, Dave took up part of an extra parking spot (our truck is very long, and the rear end was sticking into the space behind us) and so he was supposed to pay for two spots. They didn’t have this posted where you could see it. The guy that came to remove the boot had to show Dave the very small print on a sign behind the parking kiosk that states this. So, our five-dollar parking space that we’d felt so fortunate to find that morning ended up costing us $110.
So here are my tips for coming to the French Quarter: be very careful crossing the streets when you get away from the main touristy parts, and if you’re using public parking, be very careful to read absolutely everything before leaving your vehicle!
Next stop—Cottondale Florida.
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