New Orleans Mardi Gras

I am writing this a little after my vacation to New Orleans late last month. I wound up in the middle of what is really Carnival time, but is refered to genericly as Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is really the day of FAT TUESDAY, when the big parages are held, but for the tourist, I feel that anything that leads up to the actual Mardi Gras date will give you a little taste of the true parade. I went to New Orleans not to sure of what to find after the distruction of Katrina passing through just two years earlier. My original plans were to go camping, as I like to do, but then changed my mind when I realized that any nice parks may still be severely damaged as a result of the hurricane. I instead went online to chose a guest house and found a small bed and breakfast by the name of Burgendy House, so called by the color of the paint outside. My arrival into New Orleans was uneventful and picking up a car and navagating the streets was quite easy, even without a GPS. I think that the reports of the hurricane damage were so over played that it is easy to think that the whole city is destoyed. This is not the case however, and the city as a whole seemed to be funtioning quite well. My first stop after checking into the B and B was a walk into town to see the dog parade. Quite funny and cute. This years parade theme was Indiana Bones and the Raiders of the Lost Bark. Some of the costumres were quite cute. I was very hungry so I asked someone behind me where the nearest ^good^ place to eat was. The locals, as I found out, are quite happy to help you out, probably as a need to get some life back into the city. They recommended a popular grease kitchen that specialized in hamburgers, just up the road. This was the Clover Grill, a place where your food is cooked under hubcaps, yes, hubcaps. The burgers were very good, dripping and well worth the $20 for two with a shake. Yum!!! What I loved best was the music, a steady stream of 80s classics that kept the beat as fresh as the food. A further look around the French Quarter, stopping in some of the shops and a walk along the waterfront afforded some great entertainment from the local street kids. We stopped in at Cafe Du Monde for the beignets and coffe, which are supposed to be a must do. I quite enjoyed it. They are covered in powdered sugar and wondered how that was going to look on my next cholestorol test right after a burger at the Clover Grill. Dinner was at a nice restaurant, which I am having a terrible time remembering the name of. I will include it later if I can round up the name. Dinner was good, but the service a bit forgetful for a high priced, fancy restaurant. The wait staff were very apoligetic for their oversights and even brought us a free appetizer, even though we hadnt complained. We simply gave them the benefit of the doubt and under the idea that the city was trying to get back on its feet. The next day was a day trip out to the planation homes. About a 1 hour drive that will make you think that you are just lost in the middle of nowhere, you will eventually happen upon Desrehan Plantation. Cllick here for directions...(http://www.discoverourtown.com/Refer.php?link=www.DestrehanPlantation.org) This is the house where Interview with the Vampire was filmed and well worth a visit. The price of admision is about $15 at writing. The tour is included and quite interesting. There is a restaurant on the property which was not too bad but was better enjoyed since I was able to look out the window at the beautiful grounds while having lunch. There were a few more plantation homes in the area, but at $15 each I decided just to look from the outside and take the long ride back into town. On my third day, I decided to do the Hurricane Katrina tour. While it sounds a little macabre, it is quite often done, just as people make a visit the 9/11 grounds in New York City. What I think is holding people back from visiting New Orleans is that they think from news reports, that the whole city is destroyed, which is far from the truth. Actually, I had to follow a driving map, and got lost once, looking for what distruction there truly was. The ride takes you through several rough areas of town and interestingly some areas, which were completely spared, even though they were just a few blocks from the distruction. I felt that it was important for me to try to let people know that New Orleans is not in the horrible mess that the new media would lead you to think. Another interesting drive that we did was through the mansions of New Orleans, in the Garden District. We parked the car and simply walked. Seeing the beautiful homes in many different architectural styles was a postive image that not all of New Orleans was taken by the hurricane.