After spending a week in Soutwest Missouri visiting family and friends, we picked up our rental car in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a long, but uneventul drive to New Orleans (except for a brief chat with a member of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol-just a warning). We checked into our hotel just about the time that the first large parade of the Mardi Gras season was ending in the French Quarter, which was somewhat of a letdown.

The next morning, we went on a walking tour of the French Quarter, down Bourbon Street, Royal Street and along the riverfront. We stopped in Central Grocery and split a muffaletta for lunch, a New Orleans tradition. Unrelated to the sandwich, about this time Abi started feeling weak and came down with a bad cold, which kept her in the hotel room for most of the next two days.

After tucking Abi into bed, I went for another walk, hoping to visit St. Louis Cemetary. Due to the marshy land and high water table, the cemetaries in New Orleans consist of above ground tombs, in which several family members are buried. Unfortunately, this cemetary had closed about 30 minutes prior to my arrival. I decided to head to the D-Day museum (which was going to close about 10 minutes after I arrived) so I skipped it that day.

On Monday morning, Abi still wasn't ready to go out, so I stopped in Walgreen's and loaded up on orange juice, chicken soup and cold medicine for her. I hopped on the Charles Street street car and rode it through the Garden District, Uptown and to Loyola University. It was very scenic with all the mansions and victorian homes along the route. I took a brief walking tour of Loyola and Tulane and stopped for awhile in Audobon Park. The next few hours were spent on a walking tour of the residential and antique areas of the Garden District, and working my way back to the D-Day museum.

New Orleans was more low key than I had expected, but I enjoyed the historical aspects and wish that Abi would have felt well enough to share them with me (although three hours in the D-Day museum may have been more than she would have liked). On Tuesday morning, we packed our bags and made our way to the airport after having a quick breakfast at Cafe du Monde with their well known beignets (french doughnuts).