New Orleans on foot and by streetcar

It was a shock to swap the natural awe inspiring sight of The Grand Canyon for the city madness of Phoenix. Our navigation skills and marital status weren't even challenged thanks to Google maps. Until our last week with Doug and Jerry-Lee we were driven everywhere, so it was about time we exercised our independence. Before we left their fantastic hospitality Doug took us to his pistol shooting range. We made short work of the balloons, but the bull's eye was a little more challenging.

After overnighting in Phoenix we took an early flight to New Orleans and straight to our digs in the French quarter. Indeed live music isn't an event in New Orleans,....it is what the people breathe and is therefore part of the city soundscape! Never too young to start!

We soon learnt that the French quarter was more than the infamous Bourbon Street and we couldn't get enough of the elegantly aged buildings, the old iron lamps and the verandah gardens.

Ten years after cyclone Katrina,  New Orleans is far from healed. It wasn't the natural disaster that affected them, but rather an infrastructure failure, as their levees couldn't control the swollen waterway surges. The maintenance and restoration of many buildings has had to give way to fixing the groundwork.

There is no room for prudism or peity in New Orleans, especially on Bourbon Street at night.

Of course it provides a great people watching opportunity. Topless, trannies and tramps live side by side in a happy haze of marijuana (law softened on use a few months ago!!:) It is indeed a party city. Americans go nuts over Halloween. New Orleans goes crazy! It doesn't celebrate it for a day. It celebrates it for a week! Shops are full of costumes and houses are already decorated.

Yesterday we decided to stretch our boundaries beyond the city centre and explore the surrounding suburbs by streetcar. Our favourite was the St Charles line that took us down grand avenues past a superb collection of historical mansions belonging to the rich, if not famous. Somehow this area is connected with the film "A streetcar named Desire".

Tomorrow we will head up the Mississippi. Hopefully we will take the music and the cuisine with us. Having said that I can't believe how people queue for the famous beignet. Fried donut mix smothered with icing sugar is definitely not worth lining up for. We will however continue to enjoy jambalaya and seafood gumbo when we return home. New Orleans is definitely a place we will return to,.....if we have the energy!