March 17, 2011 – New Orleans

This morning we booked a cruise on the steamboat “Natchez”:

 

Scenes from the cruise:

They are unloading raw sugar:

We were able to tour the engine room – notice the names on the boilers – Thelma and Louise – :-):

  

Our ferry ride to Algiers:

What a great little cruise on the mighty Mississippi.   What I found interesting is that the Gulf is about 100 river miles away from here but the first bridge to cross the Mississippi is here in New Orleans.   There are ferry crossings but no bridge could be built because of the instability of the river bed.  WOW!.

We did some more exploring after our cruise.  There are so many street shows going on.  This guy was standing very still – looked like a statue. 

And the music – oh my!

 

And statues:

This is the famous Canal Street:

We had a late lunch at Deana’s and tried a shrimp Po-Boy.   We did not know what they were  - turns out it is like a sub sandwich.   Not too bad.

One thing we noticed was that many of the levees are being raised.   This is one at the campground in Westwego:

Tomorrow we are headed to Alabama so stay tuned!