Big Easy Tourists
We were in a site we didn't want, at a campground we didn't want to be in, exhausted, sick, and sticky from humidity. This was not how we wanted to start our westward blitz across the country, but that's RV Life. A piece of advice I like to follow is, just because a bad thing happens, doesn't mean the whole day has to be bad. There's a popular social media post going around that says, divide your day into quarters. That way, if the first quarter goes south, you can think about the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. That's kind of how I viewed our visit to Louisiana. The first quarter brought a lot of turmoil, and the second quarter consisted mainly of us recovering. But it was only half-time, and so there was still time to leave the state with some happy memories.
After a long week, we finally recovered enough to venture into New Orleans on our last day. When visiting a new city, we do as the tourists do, usually rather shamelessly. We understand that it only allows us to scratch the surface of a city, but we've gotta start somewhere! So, we did what we always do: Buy hop-on/hop-off bus tour tickets!
This time, though, we had even more reasons to book the tour. For starters, we needed a convenient way to get around that wasn't on foot. Even though we were perky enough to explore, walking was still very fatiguing. We also find that in big cities that we don't know, it's often safer to stick to the main districts, and New Orleans is a city that has a high crime rate. We never want the crime stats to deter us from visiting such a vibrant, cultured city, but we also want to make sure we're not finding ourselves in risky situations because we didn't do our research. It's about striking a balance between ignorance and paranoia. Nevertheless, sticking to the tourist districts in the daytime meant we could get our bearings and still have the safety net of the bus tour.
On the subject of crime, one thing we did do was opt to rent a car to drive into the city instead of bringing our truck. Auto thefts have been rampant in New Orleans as of late, with a staggering 728 vehicles stolen in January alone. We more worry about all the stuff in our truck than the truck itself, though with no Clyde, Buggy wouldn't be able to move, so that is a problem. But we have a lot of our belongings in our truck, due to the lack of outdoor storage space in our trailer. Between that and the truck being giant, we figured it was worth the money to rent a car for the day and be able to drive the city streets, park it easily, and not need to worry about losing half of our home. We ended up really loving our small car for the day. We drive Clyde because it's necessary, not because we're truck lovers. So now we'll definitely consider small car rentals for future city excursions, if the price is right.
Now for the city itself. It's pretty sad to see how many RVers are quick to comment on the forums how much crime there is and how we need to be "very careful" traveling there, because the city really is a must-visit. Do you research, have your wits about you, and don't let fear steer you away from this place. I had wanted to go for a very long time and was so happy we were feeling well enough to make the drive in. The culture is so unique and rich. The history of blended backgrounds shines through, with the city streets lined with French, Spanish, American, and Caribbean influences. There is great food, music, and nightlife. When we went, the small local parades were starting as a pre-Carnival bash. The big Mardi Gras festivities would begin the following weekend, so we actually hit the city on a "slow week," as our tour guide said. Fine with us; there was no way we were healthy enough for Mardi Gras level hype. But we still got to walk all the shops with their flags and vibrant colors, see some parade floats preparing for their big moment, and feel the energy of the locals and tourists as they anticipated the upcoming weeks.
We got great advice on Instagram to park in the Basin Lot on St. Louis Street, which was only $5 for 10 hours and $10 for a full day, had tons of parking, and even allows RVs for $50! The actual inner city RV park is up the street. This parking lot also happened to be recommended by the City Sightseeing Tours, and our hop-on/hop-off tour had a ticket agent and pick-up spot right across the street. We got on and took the bus - a double decker with an open-air top - two stops to the Riverwalk. This area has ferries and boat cruises along the Mississippi, outlet stores, the Harrah's Casino (soon to be Caesars...you heard it here first), and the walk itself along the riverbank. We went for a different reason: Vue Orleans. I had been getting endless NOLA-related ads since arriving to the area, which is weird because usually my ad content is about 3 weeks behind the location I'm actually in. Granted, I was still getting Myrtle Beach ads too, but clearly the NOLA ones were way more useful. Anyway, Vue Orleans came up and I thought it looked cool. I read a couple of things on the website and determined that it was an observatory on the 33rd floor of one of the hotels, and it had exhibits with information about the city. My initial research didn't do this place justice. There are 3 floors of exhibits, and they're all modern, interactive multimedia presentations. On the first floor, you learn about the famous people who make up the history of the city, and there is also a board to learn about the most essential parts of the city - buildings, landmarks, celebrations, and more. All the interactions are touchless. You just gesture to the screen and it picks up your motion. Also on the first floor are exhibits on costumes (where we got to virtually dress ourselves), food, and music. Down the hall was a theater area that showed a film on a 270-degree screen, surrounding us on the left, front, and right sides.
Then we took the elevator up to the 33rd floor, which was the lower observatory level. This level also had fun exhibits, including one where we had to try and steer a barge down the Mississippi River and dock it without crashing it. We're RVers, so not crashing was pretty easy. Neither of us were able to dock our barge in the correct spot, however. Hmm, kind of like trying to back our RV into a site!
This level gave us great views of the river and nearby city buildings. Then finally we had the top floor, 34, which was the upper level observatory, and also the open-air level. We didn't stay up there long because it was extremely windy and the plexiglass didn't offer a very clear view anyways, but if you want to stay longer on that floor, there is a small café that's inside by the elevators.
Truthfully, the interactive exhibits were the best part of Vue Orleans and the view from the upper floors was just a cherry on top. We learned a ton about the city and would recommend that even locals go if they want an overview of the history of New Orleans. Some of the exhibits were funny and lighthearted, while others were poignant and educational.
After Vue, we spent some time walking around Canal Street and the outlets. We decided to get our beignet fix at the Café du Monde on the Riverwalk instead of waiting until we were at the original location in the French Quarter. Our first New Orleans official beignet experience was interesting. We've had a lot of beignets and similar foods, and they've always been light and fluffy dough. These beignets were quite dense. They were delicious nonetheless, but we were perplexed because we always assumed they were supposed to be like pillows. Was it this location, this particular batch of dough, or are traditional beignets actually less fluffy than we expected? One thing we did expect, though, was the explosive amount of powdered sugar sprinkled on top.
Once we finished at Riverwalk, we tried to hop back on the bus, but we waited outside our stop and a bus never came. We saw at least 3 of the double deckers going the other direction, making their way to the later stops on the route, but none came by us. This was disappointing. We were hoping to ride most of the stops without getting off, so we could hear the informational part of the tour. We also didn't want to have to walk because we still weren't feeling great, but after a 35-minute wait and no buses in sight, we walked to the French Quarter. Once there, we walked through the French Market, where we popped into a couple of shops. By this point I couldn't really walk anymore without feeling sick, but it was getting late in the day and we didn't know if we'd be able to catch a bus at all, because they'd be stopping their rounds soon. There was a possibility we'd need to either walk back to our car or find some other means of transportation. We began slowly making the walk out of the Market, and that's when I spotted the last bus, which hadn't yet left the French Quarter stop. We made it before they pulled away, and they agreed to bring us to the stop closest to our car. On the way, we got some brief information from the tour guide, who pointed out a couple of landmarks as we drove through town, but this was nothing like the hop-on/hop-off tours we know and love. When we finished for the day, we only had the chance to ride for 6 stops out of 19. That's a lot of ground we weren't able to cover, and we don't know why our bus never showed up when it was supposed to. By the time we got back to the Visitor's Center, it was closed and there was no one to ask. These tours are pretty expensive, so we like to get our bang for our buck and ride as much of the loop as possible. This was the first time we had any real issues, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time, because any other time we'd be fine just walking, but this time it was a struggle.
Despite being wiped out from our busy day, there was one more stop we needed to make before leaving the city. This is where we left the mainstream tourist area and drove a little out of the way, for an off-the-beaten-path but still famous restaurant that we heard makes the best Louisiana fried chicken in the city - or as some say, the best anywhere. To know me is to know my love for fried chicken, so we had to go try this place out. To be fair, I can't actually pinpoint the best fried chicken I've had anywhere. There have been a few really good ones. This was also really good. Perfect texture, nice and tender. Worth a little detour on our way out of the city. Despite staying off the tourist stretch of NOLA, evidently this place has opened up more locations, including in Los Angeles, where it won a James Beard award. I wonder if the chicken is consistent among all locations.
We know we barely scratched the surface of what New Orleans has to offer, but considering we didn't know if we'd be able to go at all, we're happy we got a taste of what this amazing city is all about. It certainly helped brighten up our gloomy week, and now we can leave Louisiana feeling better than when we arrived.