We made an early start, getting the bus into town with the locals, so that we could take in the Insectarium before picking up a hire car and heading out for a plantation tour.
It was an excellent morning, with everything we could want to know about arthropods of all kinds. Definitely skewed towards the kids, they loved it - but so did Ruth & I. There were lots of friendly and knowledgeable entomologists who were fascinated to compare notes with our Australian experiences.
The visit culminates in a Japanese garden full of butterflies, which may obviously decide to come and land on you. The boys were aware of this and had worn red t-shirts in the belief that the butterflies would be attracted to the bright colour, but they seemed to prefer my green one. I'd worn one of my two Breaking Bad shirts - the 'Better Call Saul' one rather than the 'Vamanos Pest' one, fortunately...
So after that we went off to pick up our hire car with the intention of driving out to one of the plantations for a tour. We'd discovered (too late) with the swamp one that they charge you through the nose for taking you out there, and worked out it would be cheaper to hire a car for all four of us, especially as we could then use it to get to the airport tomorrow (to pick up our other hire car!), rather than getting a cab. However, when we got to HERTZ at the allotted, they advised us that they didn't have any cars and didn't know when they would. Even though we'd booked one? Yes, sir.
Grabbed some lunch (I had a decent jambalaya) in the Warehouse District while we waited for a bit to see if they could sort out their mess, but they couldn't so we abandoned the plan and jumped on a streetcar into the Garden District instead. This is the other side of town from where we're staying, and is quite distinct from the Creole and French areas, architecturally (and socio-economically, I assume). This area was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, and was plantation land until then, I believe. The houses are on a whole other scale...
Various of the houses were decorated for Hallowe'en, as we've also seen in the French Quarter. Seems a bit previous to me - it's not for another four weeks, nearly - but apparently it's a really big deal here.
Hopped off the streetcar next to Audubon Park, a very nice and quite famous park which gives its name to the area. After an ice cream we jumped on another streetcar back down St Charles Street to the FQ, then got the bus back to our 'hood.
The weather has got hotter while we've been here, so we were pretty sweaty and tired by this time. Grabbed a cool beer and chilled for a while, before preparing the (now four) bikes to take us out for dinner.
As we were heading out of the gate, our neighbours - two girls from Melbourne who have AirBNB'd the other side of our semi - came out to say, "There's something going on in the street outside, just a block up - gunshots, cops...not sure. Just be careful!" At this, Ruth commented that, "Oh, yeah - I thought I heard something earlier. Thought it was just a car back-firing." Everyone was delightfully casual - almost British - about it, and we sauntered out onto the street and cycled off in the opposite direction from the flashing police car and gathered crowd, about 20 yards up the street...
We hadn't been able to decide where to go for dinner on our last night in New Orleans. The food has generally been so outstanding - with a couple of exceptions - and we were torn between returning to somewhere we knew was going to be good, or trying somewhere new. The two local recommendations our AirBNB host had made didn't grab us - one was rather pricey and posh-sounding, and the other was more Italian than Cajun, and we definitely wanted something authentically Louisiana.
So we ended up returning to where we'd eaten last night - The Joint on Mazant Street, Bywater. It's a limited, meat-heavy menu. but bloody delicious, really good value, very down-to-earth and with Sierra Nevada on tap. So we cycled down there on the four ropey bikes, stuffed ourselves stupid again and then rolled out into the park opposite, on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. The boys had a quick swing on some proper swings - not your lame regular kids' swings, but 20-footers strung from a massive oak tree. I fancied a go but felt my dinner might make an unwelcome reappearance.
Tottered back home on the fearsome machines with no sign of the POPO in the area, and packed up our gear ready for another early start tomorrow. We've arranged to pick up the hire car earlier than originally planned so that we can squeeze in the plantation tour before heading to Alabama...
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