My Trip to Central America- Part Tres.1

Day 2 of New Orleans started out beautiful and sunny as expected. We were allowed to board the boat at any time between 10am and 5pm. We opted to spend as much time in New Orleans as we could and wanted to actually see the city as opposed to just Bourbon St and the bars. We had gathered a ton of information on city tours the day before from our hotel Concierge and decided on the walking History tour. The tour departed at 10am, a block from our hotel so we got up early and had breakfast in the restaurant. We were able to see the morning routine for the City of New Orleans workers- which includes washing the streets with a huge spray truck. The solution smells like a mixture of bleach and toothpaste (and you all know to me that "clean and disinfected" smells like heaven to me) and foams up on the streets and sidewalks. They clean the streets like this every morning. The city looks- and smells- like a completely different place than the night before!

We reached our tour group and met our tour guide- Leon. He has been retired for 12 years and is an actually certified tour guide from the State of Louisiana. He was AMAZING. His knowledge on not only the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans but history in general and his funny jokes throughout the 2.5 hour tour made it fun and interesting all at the same time. He really new his stuff and Missy and I both agreed that we were happy we chose that tour. Below are a few pictures from our tour.

This was our hotel- The Inn on Bourbon. Once the Opera House that burnt down in the early 1900's.

Street Performer & The Cabildo- Site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer in 1803

The Moonwalk (not Michael Jackson's) along the Mississippi River and the corn fence

Private residence courtyard- that made me wish it was mine and I was retired!

The Ursuline Convent- the oldest building in New Orleans and still functioning.

I could go on for pages and pages with pictures that I took during the tour, but won't bore you. I was in a constant state of euphoria on this tour since I have such an obsession with architecture. I have LOTS of pictures of random New Orleans houses and buildings.

One place that we did stop along our tour that was absolutely amazing was the Art Studio of Craig Tracy. His canvas is actually the human body and you must see his work to believe and appreciate. View his website here.
Here is a sneak peek at some of his work.

My favorite piece is not on his website but if and when I ever become wealthy- I will own a piece of his work!

Stay tuned for My Trip to Central America- Part Tres.2- Getting on the boat