Funked Up On The Bayou

We left Florida’s Panhandle and headed straight to New Orleans and the French Quarter Festival. We like to park the Tin Can on the west bank of the Mississippi River at Bayou Segnette State Park.

Our front yard

This park allows us easy access to the Algiers Point ferry that takes you across the Mississippi and deposits you in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Louis Armstrong greets you as you enter the ferry terminal.

We love exploring NOLA by bicycle and checking out new neighborhoods. This trip we discovered the Lafitte Greenway. This bike path allowed access to City Park, the New Orleans Museum of Art and a chance to check out the Bayou St. John neighborhood.

Some of Carlos Rolon’s work as seen at NOMA.

During our last visit we heard about the French Quarter Festival- four days of free music on 12 stages. The focus is on New Orleans musicians. It sounded like our kind of festival.

Three of the larger stages are set up along the river. During the first day of the festival we started smelling diesel fuel but couldn’t identify the source. Turns out a ship docked to hard and punctured its fuel tank. We found this out when the ferry was canceled. The clean up

The music is nonstop from 11am to 9pm. That’s a long line to sit in one place. There is so much going on in the streets that needed to be checked out.Magic on the streetWait in line for fresh beignets

Lots of excellent street musicans

And then there was this guyYes, he did land it.

New Orleans has a jazz museum housed in an old Federal Mint near the French Market. There was an exhibit of iconic jazz images by Herman Leonard. A terrific exhibit. The museum also had some interesting artifacts on display. Fats Domino’s piano

Louis Armstrong’s first coronet

There was also a fabulous display of Mardi Gras Indian costumes. The costume takes a year to construct and is used for only one Mardi Gras season. But our New Orleans visit was more than just music and history. There are lots of neighborhoods to explore and this time we chose to revisit some old favorites and check out some new ones. The Garden district has some beautiful homes and as we missed out on a tour of the Lafayette Cemetery last visit, we made a point to tour it this time.

Since we were nearby, we wandered over to the Irish Channel neighborhood for lunch. Bon Appetite’s choice for restaurant of the year is located on Jackson Ave.

The jasmine was in bloom and scented the air everywhere. After an afternoon of wandering, we bellied up to two for one cocktails and conversation with the locals @ Barrel Proof Whiskey Bar. (We had too much fun to document that though.)There’s always something to celebrate in NOLA.

And no trip to NOLA is complete without a Levy on the Levee.