New Orleans Part 3

 Time to check out the hotel! The Layfayette was built in 1916 and was the first “poured in place” concrete building in New Orleans. I’m not 100% sure what that means, but it was mentioned constantly, so it must mean something. Poured by hand (cement mixer?) as opposed to having cement blocks brought in I guess. In any case, what a great place! Very museum-y and antique-y, my sort of place for sure. I wanted 2 things in our hotel; NOT a Hilton/Sheraton/Marriott sort of place (you can be anywhere in the world in one of those) and a location that was easy to walk to both the convention centre (where the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction was being held) and the French Quarter. This was both. And actually, once we started walking around, everything is pretty much within walking distance anyhow, and if not, the streetcars are easy to utilize. 

    Above: the smallish bed. I had hoped for king size, but this was what I got. However, below you can see we had a separate room with a desk, couch, chairs, coffee corner, a beautiful suite. Notice the old pillars. 

The hallway outside our room. I sort of expected to see the little girls from “The Shining” standing at the end of it when I went out there at night. (Above)

    Nice little seating area outside our door. (Above)

    The outside of the hotel, you can see the St Charles streetcar rails on the road. The stop was directly outside the hotel, very handy. (Above)

The view from our window, the trees in Layfayette Park. There was also a pigeon who lived on that ledge and would peer at me every morning when I opened the curtains. I’m not sure if he was annoyed at being woken so early, or if he was just sociable. 

There was not a breakfast place in the hotel, but as I mentioned earlier, there was one not a 2 minute walk away. We walked further inside our Vegas hotel to get to a coffee spot than the quick walk to Cafe on the Square.

Anyhow, once we were settled, we decided to take a walk and see exactly where the Convention Centre was so that we wouldn't be hopelessly lost tomorrow morning. As it turns out, it was a much shorter walk than it appeared to be on the map. I also discovered (I know, I’m late to the game) that Google Maps can tell you how long an average walk is. And it even knew that there was a street car option as well! Ahh….technology. We tended to be much quicker than Google had anticipated. We found the main doors of the Convention Centre easily, so we knew where to head in the morning. The Centre is right by an area called The Riverfront which has a huge mall and food court, as well as a beautiful walk right by the river. We walked down and strolled around the outdoor promenade. Didn’t go into the mall, other than to peek at the food court, the mall stores are the same as anywhere, and I’m not a shopper. 

  

Thank goodness for shade and trees as it was HOT!

                 Below: the Crescent City Connection Bridge. 

All of a sudden, right before our eyes, was:

I’m always up for a visit to a casino, plus we knew there would be clean bathrooms and air-conditioning. We stopped in, stayed for about half an hour, lost $20 or so and continued on our way. And all of a sudden we were on Canal Street (which is the street that sort of divides the city into the Central Business District and the French Quarter). We walked up a few blocks, heard some noise, hung a right, and were on Bourbon Street. 

What a place. I mean, what a place! Even early in the evening on a Wednesday it was hopping with noise, laughter, music, tourists, locals, and unusual characters. It makes Fremont St look like a children’s playground. 

We walked a long distance down on one side of the street and then did the return walk on the other side. We stopped at Cafe Beignet and listened to some jazz and had the requisite Frozen Hurricane drink. It’s “the” place to have a beignet too, but neither of us were hungry at all. The giant sandwich that we had hours ago was still satisfying. 

This cafe was a great retreat from the hustle and bustle and craziness of the street. We relaxed a bit, cooled down, and then headed out again. There was a Beyoncé concert in the city this night, and her fans are nothing less than loyal! I have never seen so much silver and glitter and sparkly outfits in my life. Gaggles of women (and men) dressed to the nines in every conceivable type of silver clothing you could imagine. It was awesome! (Apparently Beyoncé asked her fans to wear silver for this tour so that she would be surrounded by a shimmering disco ball. I almost wish I was at that concert! Almost)

By this time we were pretty tired, so we headed back to our hotel and weren’t we lucky enough to see a second line parade! By the time I fumbled out my camera, most of it had passed by. It made me feel like I was truly in New Orleans!