A grey morning gave way to constant rain. We headed into the city & checked out down by the mighty Mississippi or as they call it, with good cause, the big muddy. It really is massive, it's not often you see a river that can take full sized ships.
We weren't there long before the rain came down big time so, as would all good reef nuts when faced with a rainy day, we headed for the local aquarium. We tried the same trick we'd pulled a few times, any discount for ex military? And showed Pete's Aussie card. Most times they've said sure & given us a couple of dollars off, here they said sure & it was free for Pete! Bargain!! It was surprisingly good :-) not a lot of live coral but interesting displays all the same. A cute puffer put on a great display for us which Pete caught on vid, he was a very cool dude lol
We grabbed an umbrella from the gift shop and set off in the rain complete with sheet lightening to the French quarter, wandered the shops a little before hitting the corner oyster bar for lunch. We finally tried gumbo & jambalaya, both awesome as were the fried chicken wings starter :-)
Another small wander in the rain left us feeling we could do with a break from the wet so we went back to the hotel for a rest, did a bit of laundry & planned our route for tomorrow when we head through Alabama to Florida.
The rain finally gave up early evening so it was time to head back to NOLA & hit Bourbon St. What a wild place, we loved every bit of it. We wandered along til we heard the best music & settled into the Funky Pirate Blues Bar and there we stayed for several hours enjoying the band, the general atmosphere and quite a few bevvies. The only thing that drove us out was hunger, they didn't serve food there so we hit a nearby chicken place before heading back for a couple more drinks & to take in some more of the excellent blues music.
With midnight fast approaching, very aware of the big drive we're facing tomorrow we decided to head home. Along the way we came across some mounted police, good guys who happily posed with me for pics when asked. Also along the way back to the car we came across all sorts of drunks, semi naked women and, for the most part, lots of people, just like us having a great time. We decided Bourbon St is a bit like Thailand with a jazz twist.