New Orleans (part 2)

Location: Bayou Segnette State Park (El. ?); Westwego, Louisiana

all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone
(click pictures to enlarge)

There is a nice walkway along the river that runs from the point where the Ferry lands at Canal Street to a point downstream about 1 mile. There are plenty of benches to sit and watch at the river makes it way to the Gulf of Mexico. 

At the southern end is the French Market. 

Main Entrance

It is about 5 blocks of produce, crafts and eating places. It sits on about the same location as an old Indian Trading Post dating back to 1791. A lot of it was more of a flea market type place. 

Inside the flea market end

I'm sure there are some great things at great prices in amongst the junk, but I didn't have the time or inclination to find it. Liberty doesn't need to carry any more weight. 

I did get a sandwich that sounded good on the menu, but the bread was so hard I couldn't eat it. The inside was good though. I should have went to the place selling Jambalaya, but they were very busy with a long line.

At the very end of the French Market is the Cafe du Monde with their world famous beignets. I got a small order of beignets which comes 3 in a bag with plenty of powered sugar in the bottom for only $2.73. By the way, think of beignets as flat donuts without a hole. 

This view was to my back as I ate
my beignets along the river. It is the
St. Louis Cathedral and it is the
oldest catholic cathedral in
continual use in the U.S.

I got a coffee to wash them down and headed to a bench along the river. The beignets were really good and fresh, almost too hot to eat at first. The coffee seemed to have a lot of chicory in it and that ruined the taste for me as I threw half of it away. 

This was also behind me to my right.
It is the old Jax Beer Brewery. It
definitely is a fancy building for make
beer.

On the way to the bench, at least 4 different "hey Joe's" tried to stop me by saying they could tell me where and when I bought my shoes. I was curious but blew them off by saying I got them at Walmart. One of these days I'll

That is the front view of the Jax
building. Notice the tents of
the homeless people down my
the railroad tracks.

have to find out what their game was about the shoes. 










After I finished the beignets, I sat for a while and watched the people. There were plenty of tourists but also natives and a surprisingly large number of homeless people, both male and female. You can spot them because they are carrying all of their belongings with them as opposed to the beggars which were not and the 'Hey Joe's' which were better dressed. As I was leaving my bench, I noticed a young guy in his late 20's. He had a backpack, wore dreadlocks and walked with a confident air about him. He was carrying a bag of beignets and would stop now and then to give half of one of them to a homeless person. I walked faster than normal to keep him in sight and saw him give away 4 halves which left him with one for himself. As he went into a restroom, I caught my breath and waited for him. After he came out, I caught up with him and told him that I had seen what he had done. Before I could finish talking, he offered me his last beignet. I politely said no as I reached in my pocket and gave him a 10 dollar bill and told him the next beignets he bought would be on me. He thanked me, said God was good and off he went. I stood and watched him for as long as I could see him and sure enough, he gave his last beignet away to a guy that had been sleeping on a bench. As he threw his empty bag away, I got a feeling that at least in that man's world, all was right. It is the small things like giving beignets away that affect so many people and not only the ones receiving them but also the ones that witness it, like I did. I should have thanked him, but didn't think of it. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.