Under cloudy skies, we left Natchez following Route 61 down to Baton Rouge and then to Houmas House and Gardens, a well-known antebellum house on the Mississippi. The owner actually lives in the house, but vacates it every day for tours and visits. The house has a number of live oaks on the property, but used to have an alley of these oaks stretching out to the Mississippi River, which now sits behind a huge levee, built after the floods of the 1960s. Now it was all decorated for the holidays.

Houmas House

The Oak Alley Plantation, which we drove past, but didn't have time to visit because of the hour of the day, has the most famous example of a line of oaks as you would have seen in Gone with the Wind. As we paused here, the rain came down heavily and continued all the way to New Orleans. We attempted to visit the Whitney Plantation and take their well-known tour on slavery but it was sold out.

Oak Alley Plantation

Upon arrival in New Orleans, we passed the ocean-like Lake Ponchartraine, then headed down into the French Quarter and nearly stationary traffic to check into the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street - a beautiful old, but recently renovated hotel, that is extraordinarily popular. It popularity is in part due to its famous Carousel Bar, which boasts a bar that rotates - every seat of which was by our reckoning continuously occupied our whole stay. We had drinks there nearly every evening.

Hotel Monteleone facade

Lobby of the Hotel Monteleone, decorated for Christmas

During the whole week here we had fantastic meals - probably too many, but we did the rounds, eating at Arnaud’s, Compere Lapin, Brennan's, Thanksgiving Dinner at Revolution, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, and Emeril's - we had to cancel our reservation at the Commander's Palace Thanksgiving evening because we were too full!

Street performance of traditional New Orleans jazz.

The French Quarter is a fantastic place to walk around. Bourbon Street - the most famous - is probably a bit too honky-tonk for it's own good and probably not the best of French Quarter. Re-reading one of the most hilarious comedy novels Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole brings all of the locations of New Orleans together in hilarious fashion through the eyes of one Ignatius Reilly. You'll never see the French Quarter the same again.

Statue of Ignatius Reilly waiting for his mother in front of the former DH Holmes Department Store

One of the New Orleans hot dog carts where Ignatius pretended to work

We did opt for the Hop-on Hop-off tour, which gave us three days of bus tour plus free tours of the French Quarter and the Garden District. The most unexpected thing about this week in New Orleans is that it was packed! Not only with tourists, but unforeseen by us was the series of football events taking place in New Orleans at the same time. So everywhere we went, we had plenty of company.

River walk view along the Mississippi.

French Quarter street scene

French Quarter street scene

We did the normal tourist route: we walked around Jackson Square; got muffuletta sandwiches at Central Grocery, which we ate by the Mississippi River; walked the Garden District, the French Market, Canal Street, and the Riverwalk; toured the Garden District and the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1; rode the St. Charles streetcar to the end and back; went to the World War II Museum and saw the "Beyond All Boundaries" movie (a must-see); went to see the Celebration in the Oaks in City Park (a Christmas light exhibit in the botanical gardens); drank hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's; and played slots at Harrah's Casino. All great fun, leaving us exhausted and 15 pounds heavier.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Bourbon Street, as best seen, by night.

Jackson Square with St. Louis Cathedral in the background

Canal Street (Harrah's Casino at the end)

St. Charles Streetcar

World War II Museum

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we had to get back to Mobile to make sure we got work on Salty started on Monday. We decided to take the causeway across Lake Pontchartrain - but the rain was coming down so hard that we saw nothing, barely even the cars in front of us. It continued to pour rain the whole way back to Dog River Marina in Mobile.

The mighty Mississippi as viewed from the French Quarter