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We left the snow and cold of Canada only discover that it can get god awful cold in New Orleans. We had a nice day on arrival but then a cold front set in. For several days the airport was closed (no de-icing machines), the overhead interstate was closed (no de-icing of road ways), schools and businesses were closed as the water system froze. You can't go to the gallery if there are no washrooms, you can't go to a roof top restuarant if they have no water, etc. In our shotgun house in Bayou St John the water pipes froze and the furnace could not keep up with the cold -- the homes in the area are are poorly insulated and built cottage style on piers.
But we had some fun exploring the city in our car and on our bikes. Gordon and Leslie came to visit and house/cat sit for us while we were on the cruise -- our cat Piscine was with us. They had better weather, things had warmed up by then, and we had a good visit with them when we returned from the cruise.
New Orleans has lots of good restaurants and some fantastic seafood. We were at Superior Seafood a couple of times and it truely is "superior". Once we were driving around when Leslie spotted a "Red Lobster" -- she asked why anyone who would ever eat at Red Lobster when there's so much excellent seafood around. Indeed why?
Of course there's music. We really liked the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen St in the Marginy, we saw Washboard Chaz at the Blue Nile and were there when one of the Mardi Gras Krewe passed around some "King Cake" to elect their King (there's a tiny toy child hidden in the cake; if you find the child you are the king).
We caught a popular but rather lewd Mardi Gras Parade one night on Frenchmen St -- there are parades from January 1 through to the actual Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday before Lent). We immersed ourselves in some fine art at the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. And we explored some of the many cemeteries.
Finally, another thing I liked about New Orleans was cheap booze. At Costco you could get huge bottles of tequila for only about $20 -- perfect for margaritas. Gord and I discovered the same deals were available at Winn Dixie (the local super market). I think he went home with some cheap whiskey.
We like New Orleans and would go back again ... especially if the weather were warmer.
