New Orleans Part 10

 After the cemetery tour, we walked back over to the ticket office and saw a few of the Hop-On Hop-Off buses parked there, as that is where they originate from each day. The thought of walking back to the hotel in this heat just seemed like an exhausting idea, so we decided to buy tickets for the bus and take the full tour. 

We found a shady spot up top, and it was such a treat to just sit back and enjoy the narrative and see some new sights. It’s an hour and half for the complete tour and takes you to quite a few places, and the guide was extremely interesting to listen to. Some of the places we had already walked to and/or seen on the streetcar, but it also drove through Marigny-Bywater, Treme, all down Magazine Street, through the Superdome area and through the Riverfront/French Market/Jackson Square area. It was really fun. There are 19 stops in all. The driver said that one restaurant he recommended was The American Sector, by the WW2 museum, and once we did the whole route, we just stayed on for another half circuit and then got off at the museum for a lunch.

It was a very cool place (literally and figuratively), set up cafe-style and filled with a lot of men who you could tell were veterans. The service was top notch (honestly, is no one ever cranky in this city?). I had a shrimp po’boy which was completely different than the one I had at Bourbon House, but equally delicious. (As did Steven)

The bill came with 4 Tootsie Roll candies, and the note explained why (above) (which I did not know)

You know, every single thing I read about the WW2 Museum and every single person I talked to said “Go!” “Go!! It’s unbelievable” “Worth every penny”. I ran into a German woman in the bathroom of the American Sector, and she desperately urged me to go. She said she cried through most of it. (She told me she was German, her father was in the war, on the other side I’m assuming, we didn't get into details) and she hadn’t been sure she would be comfortable in there, but she said everyone should go. Everyone. I just didn’t know if I wanted to or not. I do love museums, but…I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling it. We walked inside the admission area and I was so undecided, and we decided to pass. 

On the way out, who did we run into but Todd and Colleen..the couple that we spent time with at the Barrett-Jackson auction! What are the chances? We had a little visit with them, and then the Hop-On Hop-Off came down the road, so we hopped on and headed back to the hotel for a freshen-up. 

We decided to walk down to the riverfront to see where the boats for the evening jazz & dinner cruise left from, and to see if we could find a restaurant called “Coterie” that a local had told us was worth eating at. 

The docking area was easy to find (for tomorrow’s adventure) and the Coterie was only about a 10-15 minute walk from there. I had a bowl of seafood gumbo, and Steven had shrimp & Tasso pasta. My server brought me salted crackers and told me that I must put them in it, and I really didn’t want to….crackers in soup are abhorrent to me (ugh…gobs of sogginess) but he was watching me anxiously. So I did, and of course he was right and I was wrong and it was delicious! All these wasted years….

After this, we were full and tired, and decided to just walk home. There was a cooking school just up the street where they were making pralines , so we stopped there for a bit and checked out the spices and cooking goodies, then “surprise”…we were back on Bourbon Street. It’s like it’s seducing us! We people watched a bit and headed home in the darkness. I sure like this place.