Alligator, Raccoon and Beaver

Last night we celebrated Old New Orleans. First, we went to a jazz show at Preservation Hall featuring their house band. They played traditional New Orleans jazz and threw in a lot of corny jokes.

Once the set was over, we walked over to Galatoire’s. It’s a classic NO restaurant with a dress code. The restaurant has a rack of men’s sport coats at the entrance, so Greg and Ari each found ones that almost fit! The restaurant had all the classic NO foods. Ari loved all the foods he tried. Amy wanted a non-alcoholic beverage, so she ordered a Tropical Disturbance, a perfect name for a non-alcoholic Hurricane. We all walked away from dinner stuffed.

This morning we left town for two excursions. Our car and trailer are parked at an RV park outside of the city. Parking at our hotel is $55 per night. It’s cheaper for us to keep the car with the trailer and take an Uber to it.

We grabbed the car and headed to a swamp tour of the Honey Island Swamp. The plan was to see the wildlife in the swamp. We made a couple of errors with this tour. First, it’s the wrong time of year to see alligators. They brumate in the winter. That is like hibernation but for cold blooded animals. The larger alligators were hidden away this time of year. The second mistake was to take an early tour. The cold weather meant the smaller alligators did not come out. We managed to see two small alligators but they were scared away by a few raccoons.

The raccoons were attracted to the boat because the guide fed them these pellets made of fish. They were used to being fed, which as we know from the Junior Ranger programs isn’t good for the animals. A fed raccoon is a dead raccoon, or something like that.

Most of the wildlife that we saw were birds. Especially Egrets and Heron. We were struck by the similarities between the animals in the swamp and those in Mercer Slough.

We passed by the Whiskey Tree, which was the largest tree left in the swamp after it was logged. It was used as a meeting point during prohibition, hence the name. According to our guide, Disney people came by for inspiration for the Princess and the Frog. Disney changed the name to the Wishing Tree to make it more family-friendly.

Once we finished the tour, we headed to our next stop. It will probably come as no surprise that we had to introduce Ari to Buc-ee’s. There is a new location in Mississippi, about a half hour beyond the swamp tour. Bonus points that Ari was able to check a new state off his list. He has now visited 37 states!

We returned to New Orleans and headed to the Parkway Bakery for Po Boys, off a recommendation of a friend of Ari’s. Amy and Greg were underwhelmed. We took an Uber back and our driver was a real character. His name is Oz, although he was not All Mighty and Powerful. But he was formerly a chef in NO and knew his way around the restaurant scene. He agreed with Amy and Greg that Parkway was overrated and gave us suggestions for his favorite places to eat.

Then we headed to New Orleans Jazz Market for another night of jazz, featuring the John Pizzarelli Trio. Amy liked his line that he got his first gig at an Italian restaurant because his name has pizza in it! Greg loved that they closed the show with ”Duke’s Place”.