Leah: Nola - Day Four

Sunday served as our last full day in New Orleans. We were all feeling the effects of our stay away from home. Leah and myself did not want to leave anytime soon. Pretty sure Matt was content with heading back home. Louis is just happy being outside so I don't think he cared either way.

We spent the day walking down to the Riverwalk. We spent some time walking around and had some Sno-Balls, a New Orleans treat. Sno-Balls may look a bit like Sno-Cones but the ice is different. It is shaved much like fallen snow. I especially like my with condensed milk. We got ours with various syrups. They were refreshing and very good.

Matt and Leah walked down past the barrier to the sands onto the Mississippi River.

We then walked down to the French Market and picked up some more souvenirs for family.

The night before at one of the parades we were entertained by this great marching band, the 'Get A Life Marching Band' from Portland, Oregon. They were absolutely wonderful. We saw them again during our travels in and around the Jackson Square/French Market. They are great musicians, hilarious and so much fun to watch.

This is the synopsis of the band's first trip to New Orleans.

Portland's best traveled all-adult marching band recently augmented its string of national performances with its first New Orleans Mardi Gras parade. Over 100 members of the band hit the streets to laissez les bon temps rouler in the Knights of Sparta parade on the evening of February 26. The four-mile parade, dubbed "the best parade of the first weekend" by New Orleans Magazine, followed the traditional Uptown route along St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street with hundreds of thousands of spectators.
On the day following the parade, GAL performed an hour-long show at Washington Artillery Park, just across the street from New Orleans' renowned Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral, followed by a performance at the French Market stage on behalf of New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park. (Yes, we actually got to play a national park!)

This guy has been down in Jackson Square for so many years now. He comes and goes throughout the years because he's in the Army.

We loved the street performers/artists in New Orleans. I think this one right here was one of our favorites.

Leah in front of the many art pieces in New Orleans.

This guy cracks me up every time I see him (and the other guy who does the same bit). Go by him, give him a tip and just watch what happens.

He'll likely scare the crap out of you.

Then back to normal.

We headed up to Decatur and then stopped to watch part of the Barkus Parade. The Krewe of Barkus is made of canine friends. They get dressed up and their owners walk with them through a 15 block portion of the French Quarter area.