Day 3 NOLA.

12-21-14, Sunday.  Our plan for today was to take the trolley (pic. 1) to the French Quarter. There was a stop right in front of our condo so it couldn't have worked out any  better.

We walked down Bourbon Street (pic. 2, 3, 4). It smelled just as bad as I remembered and was filthy dirty. There were a lot of Atlanta Falcon fans in town for their game against the New Orleans Saints (the Falcons ended up beating the Saints). And, of course, lots of alcohol being consumed, too!

We wandered over to Jackson Square (pic. 5, 6) as well as going through the big Farmers Market (pic. 7) to see if there was something we needed to buy. I did buy a picture (pic. 8) for my wall of travels at home!

We ate lunch at Stanley's (pic. 9) down by the Farmers Market before walking down the Riverwalk along the Mississippi. The Riverboat Natchez was getting ready to load passengers while a lady was playing Christmas carols on a steam pipe organ (pic. 10).

We rested for a couple of hours before going to Harahan to meet Uriah, Shannon and Logan Sandoval (pic. 11 although Shannon wouldn't let us take her picture) at the Fox and Hound for the big event of the day - Seattle Seahawks playing the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football. The game was being played in Arizona. The final score: Seahawks 35, Cardinals 6. Woohoo! The Sunday Night Football games don't start until 7:30 here so we had a late night.

Day 2 NOLA

12-20-14, Friday. We decided today would be a good day to drive around and look at the scenery and also stop for more groceries.

I could see the waterfront from our condo and saw that Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas was at the cruise terminal dock. Jim, Tracy & I were boarding her this time last year for a Caribbean cruise.

We drove through the French Quarter and along the waterfront so I could try and get a good picture of Serenade (pic. 1 - you can barely see her sticking up behind the Riverwalk sign on the building )! We drove through the Lower Ninth Ward as well. There are lots of empty lots overrun with vegetation and abandoned houses falling down in dis-repair.

We had lunch at one of our favorite places to eat - Don Jose Mexican Grill on Veteran's Blvd. and Williams in Kenner. Of course, the food was very good.

We stopped in Kenner for a good view of the Mississippi River (pic. 3) from the levy before stopping at Costco for a few more groceries and heading to the condo.

We checked out the condo amenities and ended up on the rooftop deck (pic. 2). The view of the city at night was pretty cool.

Christmas in New Orleans - Travel day 1.

Friday, 12-19-14. Jim, Tracy and I had a late morning non-stop flight out of Seattle to New Orleans (NOLA) on Alaska Airlines. We arrived NOLA about 5:15 p.m. after having to abort our first landing and circle back to land again. According to our Captain, there was too much traffic for us to land (this is the second time this has happened to Jim &  I in the last 8 months).

After picking up the rental car (I had reserved a Ford Escape SUV but ended up with a Toyota Mini-Van which actually turned out for the best since there are three rows of seats and plenty of room for everyone to have lots of room), we stopped for dinner at my favorite fast food place: Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers. We picked up a few groceries at the Winn-Dixie in Harahan, LA that we used to shop at when we lived here. After checking into Avenue Plaza/Wyndham (pic. 1) on St. Charles Avenue in the Garden District (about 1.7 miles from the French Quarter but right on the trolley line), we headed back to the airport to pick up Kevin & Laura coming in from Boise through Salt Lake City.

It was raining when we landed and was still raining when we went to bed!