New Orleans Days 3 & 4

Though Monday didn't go quite according to plan, it was still very enjoyable... but lesson learned: for the most part, the Big Easy takes Mondays off.  Brooke and I planned to spend the day in the Garden District and Uptown and later City Park.  We soon learned, however, that most of shops on Magazine Street were closed.  After deciding to save it for Tuesday we hopped on the Canal St. streetcar to City Park to look at art at the museum and take a break from the sun.  Our plans were again spoiled when the museum was locked up.  Nevertheless, we took a lovely stroll through its sculpture garden...

New Orleans Days 1 & 2

Nick and I are celebrating our anniversary in New Orleans, and we are having a great time! Here's a little recap of what we've done so far:
Day 1 was travel day - we rode for our first time a real passenger train from the humble Amtrak stop in Birmingham to New Orleans!

Day 2 we hopped on the St. Charles street car right outside our hotel and went down to explore the French Quarter. Before we even knew it we were walking down Bourbon Street, and I have one word for it - funk, as in the smell. But we quickly found our way over to Jackson Square which was packed with tourists and local artists. We walked around the Quarter and Warehouse District all day checking out the fun galleries and shops. We also stumbled across Cafe Beignet which was a delight...

...It was so quaint and quiet as compared to Cafe du Monde that had a line down the street to even get in. For dinner we ate at a cafe in Jackson Square and sampled gumbo, red beans and rice, and jambalaya!