New Orleans Trip 2026, Day 5

 Insects and Fish

Cactus longhorn beetle

As tends to happen along about this time during our vacations, vacation fatigue is setting in. I'm getting tired. It doesn't help that the people in the apartment above us get up every day at 5 am. They aren't overly loud, but their thumping makes it difficult for me to go back to sleep. Also, our perfect weather turned colder and breezier today and I've had a hard time keeping warm. However, Ward is sleeping through the morning noise and finds the breeze invigorating. He can be so annoying at times. 😄

But nevertheless, we continued to enjoy some of the sights and sounds that are available to us here. First up was a visit to the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium. Both were well done, but not as extensive as the National Aquarium in Baltimore that we visited recently. However, today we saw an exhibit that we've never encountered before in the various aquariums--mermaids who were swimming among the fishes!

Then we walked a couple of miles along the river front trying to get to where yesterday's accident happened. We really didn't think we would be able to get close, but we gave it a try anyway. We did get relatively near, but a large cruise ship was blocking any view we might have had.

After discussing several possibilities, we decided to leave downtown and head back to the suburbs where we are staying. Ward took the scenic way back to our Vrbo, and my goodness, there were throngs of people everywhere. That made driving interesting at times.

Following some down time, we went to Bobby Herbert's in Metairie for dinner where Ward had blackened redfish and I had a spicy chicken salad. Both were very good. One of Ward's goals on the trip was to have good seafood and he is accomplishing that.

Here are a few pictures from our day.

Giant cave cockroach

Tobacco hornworms

Postman butterfly

Look carefully at the orange dot. This one is labeled 206.

African penguin

Lionfish

Anemones

The mermaids were quite popular.

This cruise ship was similar to the one Ward was on last summer. We stopped for a while to watch them load supplies and people, and Ward explained how it all worked. Such a large, impressive operation.

On the way home, we drove to the lower 9th Ward to see the steamboat houses. They were mentioned on our cruise on Thursday, but we couldn't see them. There were two of them built in the early 1900s by Mr. Doullut for himself and his son.

Both are private residences.

Tomorrow should be another cool and breezy days when we visit the zoo.

Until next time...

New Orleans Trip 2026, Day 4

Over and Back Again

First, the breaking news in New Orleans today was that a tanker ship crashed into and capsized a riverboat. Thankfully, all on board have been accounted for. It just so happens that the crash occurred as we were going over the bridge it happened under. However, we didn't know anything about the accident until people started texting us to see if we were all right. Which we were. We did our cruising yesterday. I'm wishing all of the injured a speedy recovery.

Now, onto our activities of today. Our major goal of the day was to visit the West Bank where we used to live. The West Bank is on the other side of the river and Ward planned a route across two different bridges. (Bear with me as I include a few pictures that aren't interesting to anyone but Ward and me.)

Before we got started, we had to have coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. People love these messy donuts, and they are considered a must do during a visit. I could take them or leave them, but Ward is a big fan.

The first bridge we crossed was the Huey Long Bridge which took us from Elmwood to Bridge City.

We took a detour from our planned route when we found this park.
It was a pleasant place where we saw only one other person.

Then we spent a while driving up and down Whitney Avenue looking for our first apartment. Can you believe that they changed the color of the buildings from 40 years ago? I think it was just to confuse us.

Next, we found our first house where we lived for 5 years after the apartment. It looks like it's had some upgrades since we lived there.

But our oak tree-lined street looked the same.

Our house was one away from the Mississippi River levee. We had a nice walk along the top as we reminisced about the good old days.

And watched boat traffic on the river.

After driving around a bit more, it was back across the river to the East Bank. Little did we know that a disaster was happening under us.

We made our way to Mid City for a late lunch at Cafe Reconcile. Cafe Reconcile is a job training program for at risk youth. It has won many awards and is a popular lunchtime spot.

The walls were lined with student portraits that we found quite inspirational.

However the program wouldn't work if they didn't serve good food. Which they do. Ward had blackened catfish with crawfish topping. He said it was excellent. I had less adventuresome deviled eggs topped with bacon. They were just the way I like them.

After lunch, we made our way to the Garden District to take a walking tour of historic houses. 
This is Buckner Mansion which was built in 1856. The exterior was featured in the movie American Horror Story (which I've never seen.)

And while some of the houses had historical markers, they were all private mansions we were gawking at. However, they must be used to it because the area is listed in tour books.

They all had some kind of fence surrounding their property. This corn and morning glory fence was quite ornate.

This is John Goodman's house. They appeared to be getting ready for a party. We heard a band warming up and all kinds of people rushing around getting things in place. We also passed by Sandra Bullock's house but didn't know it at the time. She could easily walk to John's party. :)
<Ward here - I had to fact check this. John  Goodman sold this property in September 2025 for $4 million. He still lives somewhere in the city.>

We made it back to our Vrbo where we had dinner. Our can of soup was not as interesting as our lunch, but it worked.

Fishes and bugs are on the agenda for tomorrow.

Until next time...

New Orleans Trip 2026, Day 3

 The Vieux Carre

Today, we visited the French Quarter or the Vieux Carre as it was originally called. And it was every thing we remembered. Music, raunchiness, great food, and interesting architecture. The only thing missing was the pee smell wafting up from the hot sidewalks. Once again, we had great weather, so no problems there. And to be fair, our visit was maybe too early in the day to experience that special smell. 

Here are a few of the things we saw as we walked around the French Quarter before our visit to the New Orleans (NO) School of Cooking this morning.

The classic NO picture, St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. 

Many of the buildings have a distinctive look, but are a blend of influences: Spanish, French, Creole, Victorian, and American. Most people say they look European.

A lot of the streets were barricaded to make them pedestrian malls.
There, we saw three different groups playing Dixie Land Jazz...

We also saw dancers...

And painters/artists.
And many other clever people trying in various ways to earn some money from tourists.

There were no shortages of weird and/or risque shops.

There were also restaurants galore of every shape and size, but we didn't visit any of those because we had signed up for a class at the NO School of Cooking. There were various options, but we went to the 2 1/2 hour demonstration class. We had been there a couple of times when we lived here and this was one of the things we wanted to revisit. 

And it did not disappoint. Along with the cooking demo making crab and corn bisque, shrimp creole, pralines, and bananas foster, we got a very entertaining history of New Orleans and the surrounding area. And did I forget to mention that we got to eat everything that was cooked? They certainly know how to flavor their foods here.

There was a mirror above the stove so we could see what was going on in the pots.

After the cooking school lunch, we did a 2 hour riverboat cruise. It was interesting seeing the barges, ships, and wharves in and along the Mississippi River. BTW, the last time we were on a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi we learned that a hurricane had changed its path and was headed for New Orleans. We had to hurry home and start preparing. We got a lot of wind and rain, but not the devastation that could have happened.

We rode on the City of New Orleans. The boat can hold 1000 passengers, but I don't think we had quite that many.

New Orleans is an important port, and we saw barges...

and ships...

and working factories and wharves.

On the way home, we drove down the street we used to work on and saw more high rises than before. However, the building I worked in is still the highest one in the city with 51 stories.

It was a long, but good day.

Until next time...

New Orleans trip, 2026. Day 2

A Lake, Gardens, and Good Friends

Lake Pontchartrain's shoreline is nicely developed.

We had a leisurely morning at the Vrbo before we went exploring the lake area of New Orleans.  New Orleans is bordered on the north by Lake Pontchartrain, a large body of water approximately 40 x 24 miles in size. (Actually, it is an estuary not a lake with a very small inlet to the ocean.) This is not an area we frequented much when we lived here, so Ward wanted to explore it. Exploring new places is one of his favorite activities, and I am happy to go along for the ride (well, most of the time).

We eventually made our way to our destination--New Orleans Botanical Gardens in City Park. We had a beautiful day with mild temperatures and a gentle breeze to stroll among the plants. Adjacent to the botanical gardens was the sculpture garden associated with the New Orleans Museum of Art where we saw some interesting sculptures nestled in beautiful gardens. We really enjoyed our visit to these gardens in City Park. 

Later we met friends for dinner at Katie's Restaurant in Mid City for dinner.We had fun catching up and laughing about old times. The food was delicious and Ward said that he had the best steak he ever remembers.

Here are some of the many pictures I took today. I'm including more than usual, so feel free to scroll as quickly as your finger will take you.

Adam and Eve back when things were still good.

This bench was made by WPA workers in the 1930s. There are ones like it scattered throughout the park, and I was impressed that they were all still in good shape almost 100 years later.

One of the walls in the conservatory was filled plant fossils. I took a picture of this sign because we have some of these fossils in our basement.

Ward didn't get to ride a train today, but he did get to see a big model train set-up.

The train ran through models of different New Orleans neighborhood models with explanations of how trains affected them throughout time. It was the most interesting train display I've ever seen.

The gardens were getting ready for their Christmas display.

Sophia Loren as the Muse of Antiquity 

Look closely to see monkeys turning into humans. Or is it humans turning into monkeys?

Next we're off to the French Quarter.

Until next time...