New Orleans

We used our base on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a day trip into New Orleans.  We didn’t know where to park but then we remembered that there is a casino in downtown New Orleans so we figured we would just park there for free.  A great plan until we got there.  They had a height limit of 6 feet 6 inches.  We once loosely measured our car height to the top of our cargo carrier and Gary seemed to remember that it was 77 inches which even if he remembered correctly would only have allowed for 1 inch of clearance.  So no free parking for us and the lot that seemed to be advertising $8 a day was really $18 a day.

We hadn’t eaten breakfast at the motor home, so we headed off for a local delicacy, beignets and chicory coffee at Café du Monde.  Some describe beignets as rectangular donuts without holes (and tons of powdered sugar), but to us they had a bit more the taste of funnel cakes,  They were tasty in any event and a New Orleans institution.

A bit later it was lunch time and we took in another delicacy of New Orleans, the muffuletta sandwich.  The bread is round and somewhat like a focaccia.  It is split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, capicola, mortadella, salami, pepperoni, ham, swiss cheese and provolone.  Olives aren’t cajun or creole, so where does this one come from?  Apparently New Orleans had a significant wave of Italian immigration way back when and they brought the olives and olive oils with them and right there in New Orleans was created the muffuletta sandwich.

If you are thinking all we did in New Orleans was eat….. well, that was not quite the case.  We did a lot of walking along the riverfront and all through the French Quarter areas.