April 1 - Day 16: New Orleans Day 2

The dawn brings us a lovely Easter morning in the Big Easy! Amy wakes up a little earlier than I, as usual, and is off toward the Mississippi River to explore while running. I get up a little later, get organized and cleaned up and am excited to face the day in this most exciting city!

Amy returns back to our room at the Maison de Ville with lovely news from the ground floor: We have Mimosas in the Lobby! Now that is the way to start an Easter Sunday! We get dressed and head out for one of our favorite places, Cafe du Monde. This being Easter morning, there is a long line. We join in, but it isn't too long before we have a nice table in the sunshine to enjoy our Coffee with Chickory and Beignets.

Cafe du Monde

After this stop, we take a stroll around Jackson Square and the French Quarter. The biggest thing different for this visit is the Easter Bonnets. Not only are they large, but here in NO, they are of all colors and of all composition. We even saw one made of fast-food establishment serving accessories (McDonald's burger wrappers, Taco Bell napkins, etc.).

Cathedral St. Louis on Jackson Square

We noticed before we left our hotel that there were empty parade floats lined up on the street under our balcony, waiting to be loaded. It must be some sort of parade, so we decide to grab some take-out from Willie's Chicken Shack to eat on the balcony while observing what's happening. We return home and as we eat lunch, we notice increased activity. Parades in New Orleans consist of people getting into the floats which are then hauled along the route, and then the riders toss goodies out to the people watching the parade.

We are at the tail of the floats, so we decide to head toward the supposed front of the parade. We walk to the start, which is several blocks away at the corner of Conti & Royal. While waiting for the the parade to begin, we have a nice conversation with some native New Orleanians. The Parade starts and it is all good fun. Some nice music, some very loud dune buggies, some dancers and a bunch of things thrown from the dozen or so floats that pass by. These include beads, stuffed animals, carrots (?!?), as well as other knick-knacks.

Parade over, we return to our room to rest. After a while, we head out to buy Amy some replacement headphones, as hers are fraying at the plug. Mission accomplished, we stop by the Kilwin's on Peters Street to celebrate with some Ice Cream. We then stroll around the Vieux Carre again. We are rerouted twice by more parades.

Back to the room to recover and then head out to dinner at The Palace on Canal Street. Amy has the Grilled Fish (Mahi Mahi) and I have the Filet Mignon. Stuffed, we head back to the room after a good day of fun.