Saturday 17 February New Orleans 2007

We walked down Canal Street; it was absolutely freezing so we stopped to buy me a purple Mardi Gras sweatshirt. We walked along the water front and bought tickets for the Natchez paddle steamer's lunchtime cruise. We sat and had a beer watching a lady play the steam organ on the roof of the Natchez, this organ became unbearably loud once we boarded, but thankfully stopped as we paddled up the river. We really enjoyed our trip down the Mississippi, I have always had a thing about paddle steamers. Our lunch onboard was Southern; red beans, sausage jambalaya, fried chicken and bread pudding. Off the boat we walked back towards our hotel for the evening parade down Canal Street. We collected lots of bling - the main aim apparently - so many crowds all fighting to grab the beads being thrown by folks in the carnival floats. Later we went back down Canal Street to catch a tram along the front, it was dark by then. We got off the tram at the terminus and set off to explore east side of the French quarter. This side was a lot quieter away from the parades and craziness. We went into a bar for a beer, and then explored the area whilst looking for a good place for food. We found a nice Cajun restaurant called Pere Antonio where I tried the house cocktail of the same name, Andrew had a beer and we ordered a shared sampler of Jambalaya, Creole shrimp, chicken and sausage gumbo and the local hot bread pudding to finish. We stopped on the way back to the hotel, and bought some New Orleans t shirts, Cats for me and skeleton jazz for Andrew and some wine to drink at hotel in bed.