Have you ever been to Bourbon Street in New Orleans during the day and in the evening too. Let me tell you, there is a big difference between the two. I had gone early in the morning. During the day you will see the family setting. Families with kids walking around, in and out of shops, buying all kinds of trinkets, clothes and souvenirs. You see clowns all over the place doing tricks, blowing up balloons and twisting them into all kinds of shapes, or juggling bowling pins. There are mimes all over the place that will do their little dance or movements for money. They do their thing and then stand still until you deposit money in their little basket on the ground. Once you put money in they do their thing again. You talk to them and they stand still and won't respond. That is a good mime. Make jokes and they don't crack a smile, but reach down and try to take their coins out of the basket, they turn from a mime to a human. Then you got your different band that plays in the park or on the street corner. You hear everything from Jazz to rock. Great music for just walking around. And very entertaining. The restaurants are crowded with families. I don't think I found one that wasn't crowded there. And they do have quite a few of them. But one thing I can say, the food was great. They even had a mini flea market. Of course it was all new items. A lot of them had to do with New Orleans and Bourbon Street. You have to check that out too, especially if you are taking home souvenirs. You can get a lot of stuff cheaper there. Then you got your Palm Readers there too and their special potions. I didn't visit them. I don't want to know my future. I leave that up to the great one, Our Father, God. He knows what he has in store for all of us. Time passes quickly. You see the setting changing from family day to party night, right before your eyes, and can't believe it. All the families with children are gone and you see nothing but adults around you or older teens. The music goes up in all the bars and the party is out in the street. People are more for the booze then the shops. You see the different venders on the street corners but they are just sitting there watch the people walk by, it isn't like earlier. The family crowd would stop and get your child's picture drawn, or listen to the group playing their favorite song. Before you know it, the streets are crowded and everyone in sight has a drink in their hand and you start to see New Orleans finest come by on their horse or walking the beat, warning loud and out of control kids to calm it down or their will be hauled away. Not only do you have that, but you also have the pick pockets down there. They wait for someone to get sloppy drunk and then pick their pocket . And of course you have your drug pushers there too, they can get lost in the crowd and not get caught. I have seen both sides of Bourbon Street and had fun at both. But if I had kids at home, I would diffidently pick the daylight hours to take them there. And if I was a college kid, I would pick the night life to go visit Bourbon Street. |
