We forgot to head down rue des Urselines to the croissant d'or, as we headed out this morning. Can you imagine, the Grampies bypassed a boulangerie. Anyone who knows us well should start worrying about our mental condition!
Still, we cycled down Royal Ave, for one last "nostalgic" look and listen to musicians. We followed Royal out to famous Canal St., the first street of the modern city on our route which would take us up river. After we cleared the main downtown area, we had a sort of twilight zone until the famous Garden District.This zone was interesting, because not being really a tourist area it still had Praline and Voodoo references on signs. This tells us that these things may truly be part of the city's pschye and not just a tourist act.
The Garden District features about 10 km of gorgeous large classic houses. There should be a gallery of shots just below, if I have managed to do all the uploads by the time you read this.
The next eight or so photos show houses in the Garden District
We had a lovely invitation from Dave and Marieanne, the couple we met in Florida and who brought us to Mulate's last night, to stay at their place tonight. It's just 30 km or so to their place, so we had some time. That really worked out for us, because in our path lay the Audubon Zoo. Grampies love zoos, or at least they love the San Diego zoo. San Diego has a beautiful landscaped environment, and the animals well cared for in naturalistic enclosures. In Grampies Go Coastal we walked the zoo for two days!
This exercise group in audubon park had someone pulling a wagon with a beat box doing rap music. The someone also had a whistle. Periodically the group would pause for some kind of dance moves.
We could only visit the Audubon here if there was a way to stash our bikes. To our joy, Security was more than accommodating, and had us put the bikes in an inside office. We were thereby free to explore every inch of the zoo, and we did! Mainly for the benefit of the kids, I guess(and us!), here is a gallery of what we saw:
Parents, if you are showing kids these many animal shots you will mostly be on your own in identifying them. Amelia and Evee - hang in there, gators are coming, including the special white ones!
The Zoo is phenomenally great for having immersive environments of a cajun swamp. mayan jungle, and south american river. Most zoos have sections named for different parts of the world, but here the human economy is also represented, making you feel like you are really there.
From the zoo we needed to cross the large Huey P. Long bridge to get to David and Marieanne's side of the river. This was one of the now familiar nerve wracking sorties into a land made only for cars. David had checked with the police and got a sort of lukewarm agreement that bike were not exactly barred. So up we went!
Clearly, we survived, and were warmly welcomed at David and Marieanne's place. That included a supper of crawfish etouffee. Even Dodie, who is not so hot on seafood thought it was great. We are spending the remainder of the evening learning more about New Orleans and Lousiana. As natives and people interested in local history and culture, David and Marieanne are fascinating to grill, and then to listen to. We have been incredibly lucky in making contact with local people. I will quit typing now - I am missing the stories!
After leaving the zoo, our first spotting of a Mississippi River Trail sign.
