New Orleans to Baton Rouge
The next morning, we slept till 11 and the drove back into New Orleans. We parked the car and walked around the French Quarter. We ate at a New Orleans style restaurant where Jake tried alligator meat. It started pouring as we walked towards the St. Louis Cathedral and the guy approached us and tried to get us to buy hats for Meals on Wheels. We gave him a small donation instead and he gave Jake a book about George Harrison. The rain ended about and hour later and we decided to spend the night in town. We booked a hotel, left the car and took a streetcar to the beautiful Garden District. The contrast from neightborhood to neightborhood is vert stark in this city. The French Quarter seems noisy but pretty safe but right outside the area got sketchy, then we get to the garden distirct and the million dollar houses are breathtaking. We saw an all-girls private school where a science teacher was raising three ducks and I kept thinking how unusual it must feel to live in this town.! The streets are lined with men giving tourists beads and then asking for money. The cemeteries are above ground to prevent the graves from flooding. They look quite haunting this way.
We spent the night on Bourbon street again. This time we drank (the hurricane was quite tasty and the hand grenade was too strong) and by then the city was growing on me. We got to our hotel quite late, aching everywhere from all the walking and collapsed in bed.
We're now back on the road to Baton Rouge, taking the scenic route 18 right along the Mississippi River. The Eggers book was too uninteresting for Jake so we've moved on to Neuromancer and plan to watch the Matrix somewhere in Loiusiana tonight. When you're a geek, you're a geek all the way.
Gas: $10.09@1.33 in Lousiana
Miles on the car: 3538
Lodging: Hotel Provencial in the French Quarter @$93 including parking
States: LA
Sites: the French Quarter and the Garden District in New Orleans, Baton Rouge
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