Continuing on our adventure in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, I noticed a strange phenomena. Just about everyone was walking around with a dog. Big dogs, little dogs, cute dogs, ugly-looking dogs — you name it, they were there. Some of the dogs were also “dressed up.”
I had never seen so many dogs in one place and it seemed quite odd to me. Â Then, I noticed that people were starting to gather on the sides of the streets. It appeared that a parade was going to start soon.
People didn’t seem to mind being in such a large crowd and since we were there, we also found a place to stand and waited for the parade to start. Then the funniest thing happened. I figured out why there were so many dogs around. Can you guess?
Well, this was a dog parade. (laughing) There were dogs in the parade who were also up for adoption. Â Coming from the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle, I shouldn’t have been so surprised but it caught me totally off guard. (A quick note — my pictures of the parade didn’t come out as well as I would have wanted because people were moving quickly and they were also throwing beads in the air that I was trying to catch.)
I was told by a friend of mine that when you catch beads that are thrown at you, you’re supposed to expose your breasts. Uh, well, that didn’t happen. I caught the beads and happily went on my way.
After the parade, we walked to the waterfront and were able to see the Norwegian Star (the ship we took a cruise on) sail off on another cruise.
Walking back to the hotel, we found the restaurant that the Holiday Inn concierge had recommended to us called Pierre Maspero’s.
It was a tad bit loud for me in the restaurant but we had a very friendly waiter and we heard the food was really good so I took the noise in stride.
For dinner, we had Blackened Redfish that was served with tasso grits and potatoes, Black Shrimp with jambalaya and a Red Bean Rice dish all of which was pretty good.
Our dessert was pecan pie and cherries jubilee. My husband and I shared the pecan pie and it was the best pecan pie I have ever tasted in my whole life! It was not as dense as most pecan pies, not too sweet and it just seemed to melt in my mouth.
Don’t let the not-so-good picture fool you. This was truly an amazing piece of pecan pie!
After dinner, we walked back to our hotel room at the Holiday Inn.
The next morning, we walked to a restaurant called The Market Cafe.
They had outdoor seating but it was a tad chilly to sit outdoors.
We were probably the only ones here when we arrived which was shortly after they opened. Our waiter was quick and the food, again, was good. We really were fortunate in having good food while in New Orleans.
After breakfast, we walked over to a neighborhood called the Garden District. We had decided not to take a cab but just get a feel for the neighborhood and that can always be done better on foot. Looking back, we probably should have taken a cab to the ninth ward where hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding.
The Garden District looked more like a “regular” neighborhood and quite different than the French Quarter. The streets were a little bit wider and the homes weren’t as decorated.
We also saw an old church that was boarded up and was in need of much repair. It always makes me sad to see churches that are run down and closed.
After our walk, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go to the airport as our vacation was officially over.
So, did I like New Orleans? No — not really. It is a unique town with great food but I was troubled by the spiritualism that seems to be prevalent around town. Stores had “voodoo” dolls and, for me, there was a distasteful flavor of darkness.
Perhaps it’s because I grew up around spiritualism with its crystal balls, voodoo dolls, curses and everything else that goes along with it.
This is strictly my opinion and it may be biased because of my background. Everyone needs to decide for themselves, right?
Goodbye New Orleans!
One thought on “New Orleans – Part 2”