Trip to Cuba and New Orleans

Mike and Judy Henderson
January 25 to February 8, 2016

2/3/2016 Today, we travel to New Orleans.  Our 11am flight gave us extra time this morning.  We had breakfast at the hotel (included with the room) and took the train back to the airport.  Cheap and easy.

It was also nice to get free Internet at the hotel - if you're a Hilton Honors member.  Good hotel and recommended.

The trip to New Orleans was quick and uneventful.  We picked up our rental car and drove to the hotel - Le Pavillon on Poydras Street.  It's about two blocks from St Charles Avenue, one of the main parade routes.  I took these pictures the next day.

Not being familiar with the hotel I was a bit apprehensive, but when I made the reservations, it was the only "nice" hotel downtown that still had rooms available for Mardi Gras. Turns out it's a very nice hotel - about 109 years old but it has been renovated and is clean and modern.  It's a "small" hotel, and is on the National Historic Register.  It's only nine floors and narrow.  They have one restaurant, one bar and limited conference space.  But as a place to stay for Mardi Gras it's great - close to downtown and within easy walking distance of the French Quarter.  And a side comment for those who have never been to New Orleans: you never want to stay in the French Quarter if you have a car.  Even in the best of times (non-Mardi Gras) it takes forever to get out of the Quarter. 

There are many good hotels just outside of the Quarter within easy walking distance.  My experience has been that you get treated better in non-Quarter hotels (I've stayed in Quarter hotels).  They know that people who stay in the Quarter are tourists and you don't always get the best facilities and service.

There were a couple of night parades passing on St. Charles, and we caught them.

The Marine band is taking a break.  They were in several parades - but I'm sure the musicians didn't complain about getting sent to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

One of the floats.  It's hard to try to catch throws and take photos at the same time.

Another float.

Judy did pretty well catching throws, especially for her first Mardi Gras parade.

Two decorated tourists.

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2/4/2016 The next morning, we drove out to the City Park area and found a local breakfast place called "The Ruby Slipper".

Inside.  I have no idea what the couple in the foreground was doing with the arm waving.

Then we went to the New Orleans Museum of Art.

I was born in New Orleans and wanted to see the house my parents were living in when I was born, so we drove out to Metairie and found it.  It's a shotgun duplex.  When I was a child, it seemed that the two sets of steps were much further apart :-)  We moved when I was four.

That afternoon, we drove out to Destrehan to see my sister and her husband.  The Mississippi river is high and you can see the ships beyond the levee. The green in the bottom of this picture is the levee.

My brother-in-law Donald, and me.  Don is a great guy and a wonderful Cajun cook.

My sister, Eugenie.  My father nicknamed her "Madam" and that's what I've always called her.  But she prefers "Eugenie".

That evening we went to dinner at Mr. Ed's in Kenner with some of the family.  Here's Don, Judy, my niece Donna, her husband John, and Eugenie.

After dinner there were more night parades.  The King float begins that particular parade, and there are no "throws".

And some of the "dukes".  Just as Miss America has a court, the king has a court of dukes.  Note that the dukes are on horses but are being led.  Most of these guys have never been on a horse before.  They sure aren't going to trust them around a crowd with a horse.  Plus, they are masked and might already be three sheets to the wind.

A few of the riders on one of the floats.

Some flambeau carriers.  Most of the flambeau carriers are men but these were the exception, and they stopped right in front of me. Flambeau carriers go back to the time when there weren't street lights, and they were used to light the night parades.  Today, it's just for show.

A group of flambeau carriers.  This is unusual. Most of the time they're spread out over the parade, with a few between each float.

Judy with her "haul" after this parade. I caught the stuffed toy.

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2/5/2016 I texted my cousin Phil this morning while we were walking to a restaurant for breakfast. Phil is an attorney, and works nearby.  He immediately got back to me and suggested that he meet us in a restaurant by the name of Willa Jean, near his office.  Here we are at the restaurant.  I really look like my father in this picture.

After breakfast, we went to Phil's office on the 32nd floor of the Energy Centre building.  Great view.

Our friends Don and Ronna arrived this afternoon

We went to a nice restaurant in the French Quarter by the name of GW Fins.

After dinner we experienced some of the excitment on Bourbon Street.  It is sort of the center of the Mardi Gras craziness.

People who had rented rooms facing out on Bourbon street were on the balcony throwing beads to the crowd.  As you can imagine, renting one of those rooms is VERY expensive.

Here's our intrepid group in the middle of Bourbon Street.  They did well catching beads, as you can see.

But when we got to Canal Street (which we had to cross) we found that it was closed and a parade was passing - so we jumped in and started hollering "Throw me something!".  The gals got a lot of swag.

This picture of Ronna was not taken at the end of the parade.  By that time, she had so many beads on that she was weighted down.  Women and babies attract beads - it's some kind of physics thing.  And young, beautiful women attract the most!

The parade finally came to an end and we were able to get back to the hotel, loaded with beads.  It's impossible to not get into the spirit of Mardi Gras. 

Our New Orleans adventure continues here