Being out late on the town last night, we had a slow start to our day.
Lucy sleeping in !
Today was a day for touring the City but first we walked to Lafayette Park at the back of the hotel and had coffee at PJ’s. Then we went to Harris Casino to get on the Hop On and Hop Off City Tour Bus.
Whitney Wyndham Hotel
Bridge to downtown New Orleans
You can buy this high rise building in downtown New Orleans for $150,000. Wow what a good deal you say? The problem is that it is full of asbestos. The owners and the City don’t know what to do with it without creating an asbestos hazard. And so it stands abandoned until someone can figure out how to demolish it safely.
High Rise full of asbestos
New Orleans is famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations before the Catholic observance of Lent. The Mardi Gras parades are some of the most colourful and elaborate celebrations concentrated for about two weeks before and through Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French), the day before Ash Wednesday. Usually there is one major parade each day (weather permitting); many days have several large parades. On our bus tour they took us to the warehouse about the size of three or four airplane hangers where the floats are made and stored. They are already building the floats for the 2015 parades which run from February 6th to February 17th.
Mardi Gras floats in storage
This is one of the oldest cemeteries in downtown New Orleans and dates back to the 1700’s. But if you look closely at the photo you can see the tip of a pyramid style head stone built in 2000 which apparently belongs to Nicholas Cage who wants to be buried here.
Cemetery in New Orleans, LA