Final shots of New Orleans.

The biggest bummer about D and I's little sojourn was the crowds.  I'm not sure why the large number.  It wasn't a weekend or a holiday.  It affected my ability to take pictures.  There were so many people it was difficult to capture a sense of the architecture, except in small doses.  This explains the reason that few of my photos are sweeping.

These next few photographs are of one of the oldest buildings in New Orleans.  It's managed to survive a couple devastating fires in the area during the 19th century.  Built in the early 1700s, it belonged, at one point, to the French pirate Jean Lafitte.  

Au revoir, La Nouvelle-Orléans.

Rolling down the river.

Jazz.

There are musicians playing all over the French Quarter.  You get so used to it after a while that the music often becomes background noise.  Lovely and atmospheric, but noise nonetheless.

However, D and I couldn't help paying attention to one band in Jackson Square.

Views.

The Astor consists of several buildings from the turn of the 20th century that were then consolidated into the hotel at the turn of the 21st.  The pool sits on the roof of one of those old buildings.  The thing about Canal Street is that it's the dividing line between the French Quarter and the business district so some of the views at the hotel sport the Quarter and others, downtown.

The Astor.

This is what staying at a hotel on Canal Street in New Orleans looks like.

During the day a streetcar runs right down the middle.

This is what staying at a hotel on the corner of Canal and Bourbon looks like.

If you're a tourist, Bourbon Street is the place to be at night.  Unless you don't imbibe or enjoy being subjected to tacky club gear and face-planting drunks.  In that case you might want to stay clear.  

The passing police cars felt appropriate given the atmosphere.

The red awning signifies the front entrance of our hotel.

Every afternoon a jazz band would congregate on that corner and play until well after D and I had drifted off to sleep each night.

Am I complaining?  No!  D and I knew exactly what we were getting into when we booked the hotel.  Since we never stay in New Orleans for any length of time, we decided that we wanted to be in the thick of things.  We kept off of Bourbon Street so there was no binge drinking or table dancing, but there may have been a bit of hip swaying to the band on the corner.

Besides, when we grew tired of the mayhem outside we merely walked a few yards into the safety of the hotel.

Lion King and New Orleans cuisine.

Several years ago D and I saw the Lion King musical in Houston, loved it, and have wanted to go again ever since.  For Christmas we received tickets to see it in New Orleans this past Wednesday.  It loses a little something after the initial time, but we still thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Mahalia Jackson Theater does not play around with photo-taking so I wasn't able to sneak pics.  Seriously, those ushers have hawk eyes.  People were getting busted left and right.  Thanks to Google I found photos of the same cast performing who knows where.

Neither D nor I have ever spent more than a day in New Orleans so we decided it'd be fun to stay.  We booked a hotel for a couple nights and had a blast traipsing through the French Quarter.  Except my feet didn't appreciate the traipsing one bit.  I ended up with several huge blisters.

Is there such a thing as bad food in New Orleans?  If so we didn't come across it.  Everything we ate was sensational, including the room service.  It seems crazy to order room service with all the amazing food around—and it is everywhere—but we heard that the room service at our hotel was good and wanted to try it out.  We weren't sorry.

On Wednesday, before the show, I ordered up a muffuletta (or muffaletta), a sandwich that originated in New Orleans.  It was a bit on the greasy side, but still very good.  I'm not much of a french fry connoisseur—usually I can take them or leave them—but I think I enjoyed those even more than the sandwich!  

D had a burger that was also very good, but I didn't manage to get a photo before he inhaled it.

For breakfast on Thursday we went with room service again.  D ordered the best waffles I've ever tasted.  They were so thick and fluffy.  Amazing!

I ordered a bread and pastry basket.  Sadly it was half gone before I thought to take a photo.  It was excellent as well.

For lunch we ended up at Corner Oyster House, a little sports bar in Jackson Square.

I had a sampler of gumbo (in the bowl), shrimp creole, jambalaya, and red beans.  They were all delicious, but my favorites were the red beans and the gumbo.  I normally don't order such heavy fare, but when in Rome!  D got red beans and rice with sausage.  The sausage almost melted in your mouth it was so moist.

My sampler came with bread pudding.  Best I've ever had, hands down.  Perfect amount of sweetness.

For dinner we ate, once again, in Jackson Square.  Really, we weren't too lazy to venture beyond.  We walked from one end of the quarter to the other and nearly tried several places far outside the square.  It's just that D isn't very adventurous with food and most of the recommended restaurants were too sophisticated for his liking.  The restaurants in the square seemed safe.  

We landed on Stanley and we're both so glad that we did! 

It's a bit like an old-fashioned diner, but with a modern twist.  A beautiful place.  I tried taking photos, but they didn't do the place any justice at all.  Check out their website for some gorgeous pictures.

D and I couldn't decide between 2 sandwiches so we ordered both and split them.  The first (on the left) was a chicken, ham, and bacon club with a spicy pesto dressing.  The other (on the right) was a turkey croissant sandwich with basil mayo, cornbread stuffing, and cranberry relish.  The latter was, hands down, my favorite thing of the entire trip.  I plan on making a bee-line straight to Stanley next time I'm in New Orleans so I can have that turkey croissant again.  As well as the sweet potato fries.  Like the bread pudding, also the best I've ever had!

D and I don't often order dessert, but when we saw that they served malts we really had no choice.  Easily one of the best malts ever.  Are you sensing a theme here where it comes to New Orleans food?

I couldn't resist the homemade ice cream so I got a couple scoops of blueberry cheesecake.  Probably not as tasty as the malt, but still delish.

My only disappointment food-wise was that we didn't make it to Café du Monde for beignets.  We'd planned on it, but couldn't figure out how to fit it in between the other meals and it was packed each time we passed by.

A+ to New Orleans cuisine!

P.S.  Sorry for the mostly blurry pictures.  I didn't want to haul out the big camera for food photos so I stuck with the phone.