The first “official” function today was “check-in” with the local Road Scholar coordinator at 4:00 this afternoon.  That left much of the day “free” for us to explore.

We started the day by, well, not starting the day.  We slept in.  However, we did get up and out the door in time to walk 3 blocks over to Canal Street (the historical boundary between the “French/Creole” section and the “American” section) and wander a bit thru the French Quarter

before arriving at the House of Blues for their weekly Gospel Brunch.  We had been to one of these at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, but (my opinion) the Las Vegas version was a little like the Las Vegas version of everything else – artfully designed plastic (more on that later).  This was the real deal.  Cheryl’s take was a little different.  She pointed out that it was much easier to hear the lyrics in Las Vegas.  I’ll give her that, but I still think this was a much more authentic experience.

From the entrance:

To the bar:

to the stage:

and the band:

The Evangelist Linda Wright and the The Heartbeats of Praise let us thru an hour+ of high energy gospel and heartfelt testimony.  The food was good too.  And the mimosas were plentiful.

Suitably nourished (physically and spiritually) we walked down to the river

in search of the Mardi Gras world.

This is actually a business that specializes in building floats for many of the 71 parades that take place between Epiphany and Fat Tuesday.  Our cameras went kind-of nuts during our visit so it will get its own post.

Following our tour there we hopped the (free) shuttle bus back to canal street and returned to the hotel for a short rest before reporting for duty.

We checked in and did the orientation to the program (introducing ourselves, here’s what’s happening when, standard rules of engagement for the week, etc.).

Then it was off to dinner (hotel buffet – above the standard with a local flair) and back to the conference room for the evening program.

The evening program was a talk by a local expert.  She reviewed “don’t miss these” restaurants with her recommendations for specific specialties at each) and walked us thru a slide presentation of a walking tour of the French Quarter.  They’ve discovered that providing this overview early in the program will give us much better information about what to look for before we have the formal historical architecture lecture later in the week.  The presenter was a crack-up!  Quick wit and great stories.  If the rest of the week goes like this we’ll leave happy and informed.

Now it’s back to the room to write this up, read a little and get ready for our 7:15 breakfast call.