{"id":96,"date":"2014-10-21T04:26:25","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T04:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swirleyeyedsister.com\/site\/?p=96"},"modified":"2023-11-07T22:41:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T22:41:11","slug":"day-9-time-shared-a-stroll-down-bourbon-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/?p=96","title":{"rendered":"Day 9: Time Shared & a Stroll Down Bourbon Street"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bourbon<\/a>
Doing the Bourbon Street stroll<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We caved to the lure of a free steamboat ride and dinner and agreed to sign up for the sales pitch for Wyndham time shares (or “vacation ownership,” in ad exec language). Breakfast wasn’t bad, in fact the biscuits with sausage and gravy were tasty. Josue, our vacation agent, was a personable young man who showed us a photo of his two-year-old daughter and chatted about kids, web stuff (that I didn’t understand), and other pleasantries.<\/p>\n

Then we sat through the sales pitch by Josue’s friend and boss, another personable young man. He outlined the grave health risks (heart, stroke, stress) we faced if we did not take many vacations throughout the year (preferably at Wyndham facilities). By the time we reached the third personable young person (this time a woman), all had pretty much agreed that the $92,000 deal was not for us. We didn’t quite fit the mold: tenting, staying in AirBNBs, and driving from Maine were not within the Wyndham offerings. The “pride in ownership” concept they pitched just didn’t cut it with us after finally getting rid of said “pride of ownership” of our lovely house and triple decker in Biddeford.<\/p>\n

So we thanked all, collected our tickets for the riverboat dinner & cruise, and retreated to our room. We spent the rest of the morning doing laundry, swimming in the outdoor pool (warm enough even for me!), and relaxing after our hectic pace of the day before. We grabbed a late lunch at a local bar next to the hotel. Decent burgers. We opted to eat at the outside table, rather than sit at the bar next to the guy who had just spent all night at the casino and thought it was still morning.<\/p>\n

Following our usual mode of operation, we chose today to ride the trolleys around the city and view the sights. Only drawback was that the only trolley line operating was St. Charles, which runs by our hotel. Once we got downtown, we couldn’t find a trolley so we took a bus. Several local people aboard the bus tried to help us by explaining where we should go\u2014not to the cemeteries, where we were heading, because they were due to close in about 15 minutes at that point. We ended up getting off the bus, taking another, getting totally lost, and finally heading back to town, with more help from a funny guy who told us about the broken trolley system and showed us where to stand to catch the bus. He pointed out a cardboard, handwritten sign that said, “Due to temporary shutdown of the trolleys, this is the replacement bus stop.” He had just opened his container of coffee and said he usually had time to drink two cups while waiting when the bus showed up and we hopped aboard.<\/p>\n

At least we found out where to go to see the cemeteries and what to do if the trolleys are down again.<\/p>\n

In the evening we roamed around the French Quarter and stopped along Frenchmen Street, where the bars feature a wide range of music. We settled on the Maison, where a talented jazz trio (sax, bass, and drums) entertained us while we ate. I had forgotten that the last time I was in New Orleans, I could never get ginger ale in any of the restaurants or bars. I ended up with a “bartender’s ginger ale,” a mix of Sprite with a dash of Coke (where’s the ginger??). As before, the menu indicated only Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite for nonalcoholic drinks. But I spotted a mixed drink that used ginger beer in the concoction. So I ordered ginger beer. What a coup! Except that it cost a dollar more than John’s beer. Good though, and it complemented the delicious grilled portobello mushroom with tomatoes, pesto, and goat cheese I ordered. John enjoyed a sampling of alligator and crawfish balls along with a bowl of spicy jambalaya.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John and his chicken.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Flamingos\"<\/a>
John’s new friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During our wanderings, we encountered John’s dream store: it had all things bizarre including a giant chicken. Ever since he read in the Bloggess’s blog about her purchase of a giant chicken sculpture (with the aim of pissing off her husband), John has lusted after such a chicken of his own. This was a dream come true and a real bargain at $95.<\/p>\n

\"Things<\/a>
Things that go bump in the night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Such a shame that there is no room in the car for such a delightful item (whew!). He spent much time admiring all the other treasures in the store\u2014a mounted bat (my personal favorite), a mounted spider (surely, a winner in Colleen’s eyes), and an array of metal birds.<\/p>\n

After our shopping (and thankfully no buying) spree, it was late enough to take a stroll down Bourbon Street for the full New Orleans experience. We were among a very few walking in a straight line. John took the camera out to shoot a photo of Bourbon Street at night. Immediately, some guy with a “Huge Ass Beers” sign came up, handed him the sign, and snapped a couple of photos of us. Neither of us had a one dollar bill and we sure as heck didn’t want to pay for the lovely shots with a bigger bill. The guy spotted a $5 bill in John’s wallet and promised $3 back. He actually delivered, and now we have this lovely memento of our time on Bourbon Street!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The guy got two bucks and all we got was this photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We caved to the lure of a free steamboat ride and dinner and agreed to sign up for the sales pitch for Wyndham time shares (or “vacation ownership,” in ad exec language). Breakfast wasn’t bad, in fact the biscuits with Continue reading Day 9: Time Shared & a Stroll Down Bourbon Street<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vista-trip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}