kevin_standlee | To the Cemetaries by Rail

We walked over to Mother's and had some of the best red beans and rice I've ever had. I could easily have eaten the large, but I was trying to think of an expected large dinner tonight and had the medium. Then we walked back to Canal Street and caught the first outbound streetcar, which turned out to be heading out the City Park line, which diverges from Canal Street. We rode out to the end and waited the fifteen minutes or so before it turned back. Cheryl took some pictures, which I'll have eventually -- possibly a new icon, if one of them turns out. We got off at a smoothie shop we'd spotted on the outbound trip and bought smoothies. You can't have food or drink on the streetcar, so we decided to walk on the parallel sidewalk back to the Canal Street line, where we turned right and followed the Cemetery line. As it happens, I didn't finish my smoothie until we were nearly at the end of the line, so we walked the rest of the way to the end of Canal Street. Of course the next inbound car left just as we got there, but that did give us fifteen minutes to look around the various cemeteries clustered around the streetcar terminal.

A little while later, another car arrived, which we boarded and rode clear down to the other terminal near the Casino (right next to the Doubletree hotel where SMOFCon was held years ago). I also wanted to ride the nearby Riverfront line to complete the "collection," so we walked to the nearest station. There were people who had been waiting a while. We waited another ten minutes or so before deciding something was wrong and gave up. Walking back to the Canal Street terminal, we boarded an outbound car; the motorman, when I asked, said that there had been a power failure on the Riverfront line and cars weren't running. It would have been nice if something had been done to get that information to the riders!

Although it was only about six blocks up to Bourbon/Carondolet where our hotel is, since the car was about to leave and we had day passes anyway, we rode back there. With over 9600 steps on the counter -- on hard pavement, not soft dirt trails -- our legs were starting to protest a little.

Now I need to go get cleaned up, for we have reservations for 9:15 at Arnaud's.