Day 24 - New Orleans

We have a couple of things on the agenda today.  We want to find Frenchmans Street where the locals go to listen to Jazz and Blues, visit the New Orleans Museum of Art where there is a photography exhibition and we are booked to go on the Natchez Steam Boat dinner jazz cruise.
First Frenchman Street.  The concierge gave us directions and off we headed after breakfast.  It was about a 10 block walk but it felt good to walk.  We arrived into Frenchman Street about 10am but nothing opens before 11am so we just wandered along the two blocks and checked out the upcoming music. We found the renowned Spotted Cat Music Club.  Almost missed it as it is such a small building. Not at all what we expected.

The very unimpressive Frenchman Street where the "real" music happens

The Spotted Cat Music Club

We ambled our way back to the nearest tram station via the French Markets, and then boarded the tram to take us to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).

The French Quarter Markets

I just want to mention here how friendly the people of New Orleans are.  Everybody you pass either nods their head, smiles or says "how y'all".  One young fellow passed us and said "How y'all mum and dad"!  If you are looking at a map to find your way around someone stops to help.  The tram drivers go out of their way to be helpful also and there are people wandering the streets just with the simple job of helping tourists.  It is such a great city.  

On the tram ride to NOMA we got talking to a lady sitting across for us who suggested that we first go and have coffee and beignet (donuts) at the Morning Call restaurant and then wander through the sculpture garden before heading inside NOMA. So that's what we did and aren't we pleased we did!

This sculpture was titled "Karma"

We got a little lost trying to find the restaurant but once again one of the locals came to our aid.  The donuts where just as good as Cafe Du Monde and the Iced Coffee was just right - not too sweet.  The sculpture garden was a beautiful peaceful place and I thought to myself how lucky the residents in this area are to have such a lovely place to visit.

The New Orleans Museum of Art was awesome.  The beautiful building housed many exhibitions and you could spend many days wandering the three levels but I was only interested in the photography exhibition that was titled "Obstruction".  The photography showed just how an obstruction in a photo (that I would probably delete) can actually make an ordinary photo into something really interesting.  Here are a couple of examples.....

The pole in the middle of the photo is an obstruction but somehow makes this photo great

The backside of this gentleman also is another example of obstruction making a photo great

The foyer of NOMA

By the time we finished looking around this part of town it was almost two o'clock so we dropped into the Hard Rock Cafe New Orleans, that is only two blocks from our Hotel, and had Ceasar Salads and (giant!) onion rings.

Hard Rock Cafe New Orleans

We went back to our room for a rest before preparing for the river cruise.  Boarding started at 6.00pm and we set sail at 7.00 pm for a two hour cruise along the Mighty Mississippi.  The cruise was great and while I did some photography Philip went downstairs to the steam room to see how these mighty vessels ran.  He loved it.

Back home again in our hotel room we sat on our balcony for a little while to watch the floorshow below us on Bourbon Streeet.  There is always something going on!