Chilepepper

bkluvsNola,

Thank you for writing about the boat tour. When we go in August I will make sure that our Airboat Tour is first thing in the AM. Although, if you don't like the weather in NOLA, just wait 5 minutes, right?
Well, generally anyway.

bkluvsNola

Shilepepper,

I think the 5 minute rule applies anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains

One of the things in South Louisiana that amazes me is that it will be blue skies in the morning, without a cloud in the sky, almost every day of the summer (except if a tropical system is entering). Then, the heating of the day evaporates a lot of that water in the swamp, and clouds start to form in the early afternoon. By late afternoon, thunderstorms can form at any time. They are quick, intense, and then clear out. By 10 PM you can see the moon again and the night is clear. However, some days they never form. You generally have a 20% chance every day, so you'll get hit on average once every 5 days, which was about the case with J_Correa.

BayouGal

What a great trip you had, J! Glad to hear you had such a wonderful time, and thanks for posting such an informative trip report!

I was so glad to read that you made it to Cafe Des Amis and Breaux Bridge. I knew you wouldn't be disappointed there.

J_Correa

bk - I had originally wanted to do the morning tour for those exact reasons, better weather, cooler temperatures, and more animal activity, but Alligator Bayou wasn't running morning tours. So we decided to chance it - my husband really wanted to go to this place in particular. It didn't work out as planned, but we had a heck of a good time anyway

Another reason for wanting a morning tour was photography - although sunset light is great, it isn't great when shooting from a boat because of the low light and movement.

I didn't include it in the report, forgot to add it in, but after we got out of the rain, the guides brought some animals out for us to see, including a 2-3 foot long gator. My husband got to hold it, which pretty much made his vacation - LOL.

Bayou - I saved Cafe Des Amis for the last night because I knew we would be starting to get bummed out about our vacation ending and having a special meal would be the perfect way to cap off the trip with something extra good

ronin

thanks for bringing back a funny memory from some years back about Tujaques - which was closed during our entire stay during Jazzfest in '06 - we ordered 2 brisquet sandwiches for my wife & myself, and after everyone at the bar stopped laughing, the local cabdriver standing next to us advised us to scale the order down to a single sandwich... which we still didn't finish. Good to see they've reopened and appear to be doing well.

J_Correa

Yes, we got the same advice about sharing 1 sandwich - LOL. They even cut it in 1/3 and 2/3 sections rather than right down the middle. That was perfect.

overbuget

We did the same swamp tour with Butch at the end of June....he is a wonderful guide. We ate at Mulates in Breau Bridge...great food and great music.

J_Correa

Butch's tour was definitely great. We had so much fun and really learned a ton. I definitely recommend his tour to anyone going through that area.

Mulates had been on our list of places to eat, but we didn't get to it.

Postal

Thanks for a great report! I was in NOLA earlier this month for the first time since I was stationed there in the Navy in 1991 - and I finally stayed at Place d'Armes, which I've wanted to do since then.

I really liked Place d"Armes but never bothered with the breakfast since Cafe du Monde is about 100 yards away.

And I was thrilled to hear the Dry Dock is still open, as it was our daily hangout back in 1991.

Bourbon Street was completely dead when I was there, with everyone out in the street holding 3 for 1 drink signs up in my face, which got a little annoying. I was very surprised it was so empty but the music still sounds great.

I gave my daughter a choice of Muriel's (next to Place d'Armes), Redfish Grill, or the Gumbo Shop, and she picked the Gumbo Shop. It was good except that the seafood gumbo had very little seafood in it. Her chicken andouille gumbo was better. I wish we'd gone to Muriel's.

I hate to say this, but actually the trip was very depressing for me. As we drove in from the east, I was shocked at all the boarded up apartment complexes and homes along
I-10. I had read that less than 20% of the complexes were open, but it was still shocking to see miles and miles of boarded up places. Two years later! I've read the restaurant and hotel industry is begging for their employees to come back, but there's nowhere for them to stay. One of the FEMA shirts read FEMA=Find Every Mexican Around.

So it was a bittersweet trip for me. I kept looking for the NOLA I knew back in 1991, and I just didn't find it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to look again when things are better.

J_Correa

We didn't go out to any of the damaged areas - I saw it about 3 months after Katrina and have been keeping up with news of the rebuilding since then. I knew that after almost 2 years, going to see the lack of progress would definitely be depressing.

You were there on a Sunday night right? When we were there, Sunday was definitely less busy than Friday or Saturday on Bourbon, and I imagine since summer is in full swing now, tourism in general has just dropped off.

Chilepepper

J_Correa,

It's too bad to hear that Postal's experience was not great. Did you get any of those vibes when you were there?

I'll be there Thurs - Sun, and I'm not expecting a big crowd for August, but hopefully it is still busy. Last time I went for Easter of '05, and it was not real busy until the Easter Parade, but it was kind of nice that way.

No worries. :0)

J_Correa

We didn't find New Orleans to be depressing - part of it could have been the days of the week and time of year we were there and part of it could be expectations. We expected it to be pretty quiet and were pleasantly surprised at how lively it was.

It was still mid-June when we went, so tourism hadn't dropped off yet and the weather was pretty good that week, so there were plenty of people out and about.

We were there Thursday through Tuesday, so we had Friday and Saturday nights when things were busiest, although not nearly as busy as when we were there pre-Katrina. Sunday and Monday were much much more subdued, whereas pre-Katrina even Monday night was pretty busy.

Additionally, the last time I was in New Orleans was 3 months after Katrina when the French Quarter had a real post-apocalyptic feel to it. It was literally an island in the middle of distruction. The place was pretty empty and everyone that was there was pretty shell-shocked. I was really pleased to see all the people that were there this time, having a good time, relaxing, dancing in the street, etc.

Chilepepper

Thanks, J. I just can't imagine having a bad time in New Orleans! :0)

Elevation12Feet

J_Correa,

I so glad your trip was a success. YEA for Morvant's burgers and your kind words about my home area.

I moved from Louisiana in July which is why I'm late with this reply. It takes a while to settle in, find internet service in the boon-docks, etc. I talk to my mother several times a week and she quite often tells me she had a burger from Morvant's for lunch. They might not have fresh brewed tea but those burgers go pretty well with a cold bottle of beer ;-) Makes my mouth water.

I hope you get to visit again and see the attractions that you weren't able to fit in.

J_Correa

Elevation - we are so glad that we decided to go out to cajun country. We had a really fun time there.

We live in the SF Bay Area now, but I was born in sort of an out of the way place and spent my holidays and summer vacations there visiting family when I was a kid. Running around in cajun country reminded me of that time. Only where I am from, there aren't any alligators, so you can pretty much go swimming any time you want - just find a creek with a good swimming hole or a nice lake and jump in. That was the only drawback of cajun country - it was hot and we couldn't just pull off and take a dip - LOL.

J_Correa

Topping for Bertorelli.