On Monday, after a final breakfast in the hotel lobby (including some wicked sticky cinnamon buns with pecans), we checked out of the hotel and started our drive to Savannah. We drove south out of Charleston, to the islands which were cut off from the mainland by inlets and tidal marshes. It was a beautiful clear day in contrast to the snow the day before.
It was a short drive to Johns Island, where we paid a short visit to the Angel Oak, a Southern live oak estimated to be 300-400 years old, standing 65 feet (20 metres) tall, measuring 28 feet (8.5 metres) in circumference, and covering an area of 17,000 square feet (1,600 square metres) with its canopy.
Our next stop was Wadmawlaw Island, where we paid a brief visit to the Charleston Tea Plantation. Unlike the other tea plantations that we had visited on this trip, the tea plantation was on flat ground, there seemed to be no gaps between the tea bushes, and the bushes were a uniform height with perfectly flat tops. Inside the Visitor Centre we found out that the tea was harvested mechanically. We went to the viewing gallery in the Visitor's Centre where we could see the spotlessly clean factory and tea processing machinery. After a brief look at the gift shop, we were on our way again.
We stopped at Beaufort (pronounced "byoo-furt") for lunch. After lunch we walked to the water's edge and then had a short walk along the town streets lined with antebellum homes and magnolias draped in Spanish moss. It was really cold so we were pretty keen to get back in the car for our next leg to Savannah.
It took us a little over an hour to drive to Savannah from Beaufort. On the outskirts of the town we stopped to check out the rooms at a brand new Hampton Inn. The room was really nice and because it was new, the price was really good too. The only downside was that it wasn't within walking distance of the Historic Centre. We drove on into town, checking out another couple of options along the way, but they were more expensive and not as clean and nice. We climbed down a couple of flights of stairs to River Street, had a short walk along the riverfront, and then decided to have dinner and go back to the Hampton Inn.
After breakfast on Tuesday, we drove to the city. We parked in the Visitor's Centre and walked around town from square to square. The historical centre had a small green square every few blocks and each one had either a fountain or a monument in the centre of an area of grass dotted with large shady oak trees festooned with Spanish moss. It was very picturesque in the sunshine and each square offered a couple of good photographs from the monument, fountain or sculpture to the impressive surrounding buildings with shutters, iron work, Greek/Roman columns and capitals, and antebellum architecture. We walked to the edge of the Historic District where we found the large Forsyth Park with a beautiful fountain next to a great Civil War monument. It was so cold that there was ice hanging off the white sculptures in the fountain.
We stopped for lunch and then continued walking to River Street, the historic cobblestone street along the Savannah River. In the daylight we could see that River Street was at least two storeys lower than the rest of the streets in town. There we saw the riverside and converted cotton warehouses in the daylight. The street was lined with sweet and souvenir shops targeted at tourists and there were also tourist river boats offering cruises on the Savannah River. We saw an old pirate's tavern which supposedly inspired Robert Louis Stevenson in the writing of Treasure Island and the First African Baptist Church (which was closed) before we stopped at Mabel Francis Potter's Cupcake Emporium for afternoon tea of a red velvet cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting.
We arrived back at the car having enjoyed walking around Savannah's historic squares immensely, and drove past our hotel on Abercorn Street to a shopping centre where we did a bit of window shopping before having dinner, followed by a warm cinnamon bun with icing and pecans (unbelievable) from Cinnabon. Afterwards we watched a guy making the "Cinnabons". He spread copious amounts of butter onto a big rectangle of pastry, dumped a mountain of cinnamon sugar on it, rolled it up and then cut it. They went into the oven with icing to be added afterwards. No wonder they tasted so great!
We drove back to the hotel and collapsed into bed earlier than normal because we wanted to get an early start for the drive to Mobile, Alabama.
On Wednesday we hit the road after breakfast. We drove out of Savannah on Interstate Highway 95 until for the first hour or so and then we headed inland on a couple of lesser highways. We had to keep slowing down as we drove through small towns. This was the most interesting part of our journey. We drove past more trees draped with Spanish moss, marshland, pine plantations, vultures foraging on the side of the road, lots of Baptist and Gospel Churches and some dilapidated mobile homes in trailer parks.
We stopped for lunch at Granddaddy's BBQ at Thomasville. We tried fried green tomatoes, smoked chicken salad, pulled pork with tasty house BBQ sauce, and fried okra followed by pumpkin pie. It was all really delicious and our first taste of eating at a real home-style BBQ as opposed to a chain restaurant.
We hit the road again after lunch and at Tallahassie (capital of Florida), we turned onto Interstate Highway 10 on which we drove all the way to Mobile, Alabama. On the way into Mobile, we drove past an enormous car dealership containing seventeen acres of brand new Honda, Toyota and Hyundai vehicles. After ten hours of driving and one time change (the clock went back an hour), we arrived at Mobile at a little after 6.00 pm. We had decided that we were going to push on to New Orleans the next day so we drove out of town a little way to check out some accommodation options. After checking out a few places we went back to the Hampton Inn, where Jennifer the friendly receptionist dropped the room rate by $30 and then unasked, gave us an upgrade to a suite. After checking in, at Jennifer's suggestion we went to Carrabba's Italian Grill where we had a delicious meal washed down with some lovely red wine. It was a great end to a long and tiring day on the road.
As it was only a short drive to New Orleans, we slept in on Thursday, and had a leisurely breakfast before checking out of the hotel and hitting the road. We drove out of Alabama and through Mississippi to Louisiana. Just after we drove into Louisiana, we stopped at a Tourist Information Centre where a helpful lady gave us a map of New Orleans, some helpful tips and recommended a Best Western hotel a little way out of town because all the down town hotels were either fully occupied or prohibitively expensive because of New Year and the huge Sugarbowl football game. We checked into the hotel and dropped off our luggage before driving into town.
We stopped "Uptown" and had a delicious lunch at a tiny little cafe called The Milk Bar. It was owned by Inta (from Australia) and Kevin (from the UK) who were really friendly and eager to chat when they found out that we were from Australia. Inta was really helpful and went out of her way to suggest some jazz clubs and places to eat around town. After lunch, we spent a couple of hours browsing at the nearby Borders bookstore because we had some discount coupons to use.
Then we drove to the French Quarter where we had some difficulty finding somewhere to park as the roads were really busy and all the parking lots were full. Finally we found a metered parking space near the French Market, parked the car and went for a walk. We walked along Decatur Street looking for the Information Centre only to find that it was closed. We had a quick look at the Mississippi River before heading into the middle of the French Quarter to Bourbon Street, a historic tourist –trap street spanning the entire quarter. The upper end was home to bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and strip clubs. As soon as we walked on to Bourbon Street, we were accosted by a charming hustler and before we knew it we had donated $20 to Food for Life and we were each sporting a New Orleans baseball cap! We walked along Bourbon Street, past all the flashing neon signs, bars blaring loud music (jazz and cover bands), restaurant spruikers, strippers having cigarette breaks, beggars and street entertainers to the much quieter and less touristy neighbourhood of Fauborg Marigny. We walked along Frenchmen Street which had a number of live jazz bars, cafes and restaurants. We had a delicious dinner at the Middle Eastern Mona's Cafe and then drove back to the hotel.
New Orleans had a very different feel from anywhere we had already been in the USA. It was much warmer and humid, much like Brisbane and was the first place where we didn't need our coats. It was extremely wet and low lying and driving over the massive highway bridge to New Orleans made it feel like an island (although it is in fact on a thin strip of land between the Mississippi River and the huge Lake Pontchartrain). There was a very Bohemian undercurrent – there were many strange people around and lots of evident poverty. For example a lady was begging for money (panhandling) inside the Borders store. There was a strong musical element also visible everywhere in the street with bars and buskers producing music.
On Friday, we had to rush to breakfast before it finished at 9.00 am. Outside it was raining, so we decided to have a lazy morning reading and sending emails and go into town later. At 2.00 pm we were collected by the Triple J minibus organised by the hotel to take us into town and the French Quarter. Our driver's name was James and the Triple J was named for Jesus, Joan (after his late wife) and James. James dropped us off at Bourbon Street which already had a festive feel about it. We walked to the edge of the French Quarter to Port of Call which James said had the best burgers in New Orleans. Other people obviously thought so too because it was full inside and there was a big queue outside. Luckily, because we were happy to sit at the bar rather than wait for a table, we were able jump the queue and place our orders in a relatively short time. The food was really delicious – our burgers were perfectly cooked and instead of the usual fries, they came with a baked potato so we didn't feel too guilty.
After lunch we spent a few hours wandering around the French Quarter. We paid a visit to the National Park Visitor Centre on Decatur Street. There we found that as there was no parkland, the park rangers were actually jazz musicians and there was a schedule of free concerts that they performed.
We stopped at the Cafe du Monde (a New Orleans institution) for cafe au lait and beignets (a square doughnut coated liberally with icing sugar). The Lonely Planet had suggested it was overrated and we had been put off earlier by the lengthy queues, however to our surprise, we really enjoyed the experience especially as we were entertained by a talented street jazz band while we were there.
We walked to Jackson Square which was all lit up and surrounded by tarot card and palm readers. Then we continued walking around the Quarter for a couple more hours before joining the queue outside Coop's Place for dinner. While we were in the queue we met some locals and some Texans who were all very friendly. By the time we were allocated a table, we had a list of restaurants to go to and things to eat in New Orleans, Austin and Dallas. Coop's was a no-nonsense Cajun country shack with wobbly garden furniture and plastic cups but the food was delicious. We shared a Cajun taster plate which included seafood gumbo, rabbit and sausage jambalaya, red beans and rice, spicy shrimp Creole and fried chicken with a bottle of 2008 Tercos Malbec from Mendoza.
By the time we finished dinner, there were a lot more people in the streets and Bourbon Street was crammed full with revellers drinking in the streets (legal in New Orleans) out of large plastic novelty drinking vessels. Some of the drinks were notorious for their potency – in particular the "Hurricane" (a fruit punch and rum drink) and the "Hand Grenade" (ingredients unknown, but billed as New Orleans' strongest drink) served in a long plastic tube shaped like a hand grenade. There was a real carnival atmosphere. Almost everyone was wearing strings of shiny plastic beads (bling) which were being thrown from the balconies of the bars lining Bourbon Street, and some people were wearing carnival style masks, crowns and headbands with feathers. Adding to the chaos were the thousands of young fans who were in town for the Sugar Bowl (a game between two top ranking college football teams) on Sunday.
We'd had enough by this time and we called James from Triple J. He collected us and we arrived back at the hotel just in time to see the fireworks going off at midnight on the TV in the lobby. We'd had a really good day. Despite the rain in the morning, it only rained intermittently during the day and we had managed to walk around without being rained on.
The sky was grey and it was raining when we woke up on Saturday morning. After breakfast we drove into town and parked on Carondelet Street just outside the French Quarter. On the map this is in the CBD but the place was absolutely deserted and a bit eerie. There were rows of buildings with for sale signs on them and everything looked a bit rundown. We had been surprised by the appearance of some suburbs from the freeway. Many houses were still in a state of disrepair and looked like they had been bombed! Apparently when Hurricane Katrina struck many people had either no insurance or insufficient insurance. Most people who were able to recover money from the insurers left and never came back. This meant that rates collection revenue to the city council dived and services were severely cut back. Hence many of these houses are still ruined and deteriorating today.
We walked up to Mother's restaurant near Canal Street but there was a huge queue so we walked into the French Quarter and joined the shorter line outside the Camellia Grill. It was a large diner with extremely professional staff. Our waiter Will barked out orders to the grill chef a few metres away and the food flew out.
After lunch we walked through the French Market and then along the "Moon Walk" – a little path way along the Mississippi River. Unlike previous days it was quite cold and windy. We were only wearing light t-shirts and were unprepared for this, so we were pretty happy to retreat into a shopping centre on the edge of the French Quarter. After doing some window shopping, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.
Later on we drove around in the area near our hotel looking for somewhere to eat. Unfortunately all that we could find were fast food outlets. All of the staff at both these outlets and all of the customers were black.
We woke up earlier on Sunday morning and drove into town after breakfast. It was a much nicer day with sunny clear skies but outside there was a chilly wind. We parked at a parking station that was much closer to the French Quarter. Then we walked into the French Quarter to begin the Lonely Planet walking tour. The walking tour was quite short and took us through streets that we had already walked along, but on the way we saw buildings and architectural features that we hadn't noticed before and took some detours down a couple of interesting side alleys.
We started the tour at Jackson square which led on to the Ursuline Convent, the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley, and then to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop where legendary pirate Jean Lafitte ran his tavern (which was purportedly a front for his illegal slave trading activities). We walked along Royal Street enjoying the bright coloured eighteenth century Spanish colonial architecture and fabulous wrought ironwork, stopping to peek through the windows of antiques galleries. We walked past a couple of literary haunts such as Faulkner House, the home of William Faulkner where he wrote his first novel "Soldier's Pay" and Avart-Peretti House where Tennessee Williams wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire". We finished the walk in about two hours and decided to make our way to the Croissant D'Or for an early lunch.
After lunch we walked to Canal Street to catch the historic St Charles Avenue streetcar which took us on a long journey with lots of stops (including Loyola and Tulane Universities) to Audubon Park. We walked one mile through Audubon Park to the Audubon Zoo. It was well set out with lots of great information boards and all the animals looked in great condition. There were some fantastic exhibits including the Asian Domain (with replica Indian temples and sculptures), Reptile Encounter, African Savannah, Louisiana Swamp and Jaguar Jungle (with replica Mayan ruins). We spent three hours there and only left when they closed for the day. One of the highlights was all the wild waterbirds which flock to the zoo to get fed, from pelicans to herons to ducks. Other highlights were the white alligators, bobcats, Cape hunting dogs, Amur leopards, white Bengal tigers, porcupines, white rhinos, various colourful frogs and a giant sloth trying to find a tree to climb up.
We caught the streetcar back and got off just before we reached the French Quarter. We walked to Mother's Restaurant where we shared seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee with cabbage and turnip greens and a side order of the restaurant's famous baked ham. We had a slice of pecan pie for dessert and bought a couple of cookies to take back to the hotel.
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