Brian's Friends

The trip to New Orleans was very good for cattitude, who had an easier tiee finding food he could eat and enjoy than Adrian and I, but the few days of warm weather did us good as well. (And then the trip home was physically difficult and painful for Adrian, unfortunately.)

I did more walking each day, including but not only the travel days, than I expected or planned, and found it less difficult than I would have predicted.

Saturday afternoon we met my brother at House of Blues, because they had outdoor music and a performer he liked. That was fun, and Adrian enjoyed dancing with an enthusiastic stranger. I think that was the day we took a streetcar downtown in search of lunch, only to find lines for the relatively small number of places with outdoor seating. But I'd wanted to ride a streetcar--streetcars are part of the New Orleans transit network, not just a tourist attraction, so we could get one a couple of blocks from our hotel.

Our hotel had a courtyard, which was part of why Cattitude chose it. The courtyard had an unexpected, charming cat. The drum circle I mentioned in the previous post was in the park across the street from our hotel, which is part of why Mark recommended it.

Also, the New Orleans airport terminal plays music, not very loudly, over the PA system, which is entirely fitting for an airport named after Louis Armstrong, and much better than what comes over the PA at most airports.

We’ve been in New Orleans for a few days, enjoying warm weather and eating outdoors— cattitude in particular needed to get away from winter. Not as much interesting food as we’d hoped, but lunch today was at a lebanese restaurant, where we tried Lebanese iced tea, made with rosewater— the server apologized because she thought we had asked for it instead of ordinary sweet tea. My grilled shrimp and rice were also excellent.

Then we wandered through the French Market, and bought hats, a shoulder bag, and a smaller cros-body bag.

We rounded the afternoon off by listening to the drum circle in Congo Square, which has been weekly for more than 300 years. My brother suggested than because our hotel is across thethe street street from the park.

More when I get home ; we’re flying back tomorrow