Today is Jody's birthday, and I won't mention which one, other than to say it is a milestone birthday! All she really wanted for her birthday was to be able to relax and sleep late. She got it, she didn't even wake up until after 9:00! After coffee in the room, we contemplated what to do for breakfast. This hotel doesn't come with a free breakfast, and rather than go for the overpriced hotel breakfast, we would rather go into town and have an overpriced breakfast there.
     So we ended up walking toward the shops on Decatur St near Jackson Square and wandered into the Gumbo Pot for breakfast . The breakfast was great - spicy, Cajun and delicious! After breakfast, we wandered in and out of the various shops and the open air market. Looked at lots of stuff, even bought a few things, but mostly just soaking up the local ambiance. New Orleans is always the bad boy of large cities. It's dirty, smells bad, it's full of seedy characters, and street hustlers and homeless people on every street corner. You never really feel safe while you're here like in San Francisco or Seattle.   But it's fun to walk around and check everything out. It's not quite as bad during the daytime, so we just kept wandering. Unfortunately, there was a light rain most of the morning, and there wasn't any sign of it letting up any time soon.
      So we dropped off the stuff we had bought back at the hotel, and looked for something indoors to do for the afternoon. We decided to head on down to the Audubon Aquarium. It was either there or the World War 2 Museum, and we decided on the more lighthearted entertainment . This one was kind of small, but they did have sea otters and penguins. We got there just as they were getting ready to feed some of the fish in the big tank, and there were a couple of scuba divers in the tank with the fish. One was feeding the stingrays broccoli. Who knew that stingrays eat broccoli! We managed to get some great pictures.
     After the aquarium, the rain seemed to let up a little, so we headed up Canal Street checking out more of the shops. There's a lot of t-shirt and bead shops that all sell the same souvenirs. But there are also a lot of galleries and antique stores. Some of the galleries had some interesting art. We were also keeping an eye out for restaurants along the way. If there's one thing that's great about New Orleans, it's the food!
      Tonight we decided to try the Royal House for dinner. What a great place! The interior is the typical old unfinished brick with those really high double door to the outside along the wall.   I had my favorite Blackened Shrimp Jambalaya and Jody had a Seafood Pescatore . Both were delicious! Since it was Jody's birthday, we even had the Brownie ala Mode for dessert.
     After dinner, we decided to take one last pass down Bourbon Street to walk off our dessert. As it gets later, they block off Bourbon Street to traffic, and the crazies really start to come out. We even saw one guy, asleep on the sidewalk, holding on to the last remnants of his bottle of whiskey. As the night goes on, it just gets crazier and crazier. There was a time when we'd be right in the middle of it, hanging with the craziest of the bunch. Now we just watch, and head back to the hotel before it gets too late. We must be getting old!
     Tomorrow we took the advice of the concierge at the hotel and booked a swamp tour. They pick us up at the hotel, and we're off to ride an air boat! It should be fun!

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19,197.7 miles total

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458.160 gallons total