We were meeting for breakfast at the Hotel at 7:00 this morning. I was out at 6:30 to get a walk in before the morning meal. It was already warm, in the high 70's but the streets were quiet. I walked down to the river and got some nice early morning photos.
In the above photo it was just good daylight and the river was beautiful from the bluff.
The photos below, taken about 15 minutes later shows the clouds clearing and river traffic beginning to pick up.
This is our hotel, the Natchez Grand Hotel on the left. It sits high on the Natchez Bluff and affords a beautiful view of the river.
We were on the road just before 8:00 AM on the way to our stop for the evening, Metairie, just outside New Orleans. It was an easy drive down highway 61 until Baton Rouge. Just outside the city, traffic picked up and traffic lights were plentiful. Staying true to our goal of driving the Great River Road, we elected to stay on Hwy 61 rather than the faster and easier I-10. Since our drive proceeded so quickly and we were going to reach our hotel by 11:30, we decided to try to take a diversion and do a swamp boat ride. It was only about a 7 mile deviation but when we arrived we found they were completely booked for the day. Since we were only half a mile from I-10, and it was actually as close to the river, we made the last 20 miles in about 15 minutes.
Surprisingly, our hotel room was ready when we arrived just before noon and we were able to check-in. We asked the desk clerk about good restaurants and she referred us to Acme Oyster House, just a 5 minute walk away. I looked up the reviews and found it was 4.7 STARS with over 4,000 reviews. Kay and I had seafood gumbo and Carl had jambalaya, both were excellent. Janet enjoyed a grilled chicken salad. I later found that the company has been serving since 1910. It has to be good!
After a brief rest in our room, we drove to Audubon Park, about 7 miles away on the river. Our intention was to just enjoy a walk along the river. It turned out to be a longer walk than we intended because several trails and roads were closed behind the Zoo and we had to make a large circle. I expect they were closed because of Covid.
One interesting thing we saw was the Tree of Life, almost 300 years old. A beautiful old tree.
After a couple of hours recovering from our walk, we thought we might go back to Acme Oyster House, but the wait line was beyond long. Instead, we decided to just grab a bite at the TGIF, just up the road. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the Oyster House...
A story I left out of yesterday's blog begged to be told. While driving down the Natchez Trace, I pulled over in a small rest area. There was one other car in the parking lot but no evidence of anyone. We were just going to stretch our legs for a few minutes but I noticed that there was a small stream down a steep bank through the woods. I scrambled down, through bushes and over logs to the stream's edge and heard someone. I looked upstream to a sandbar on the opposite shore and saw a pile of clothes and then noticed two heads sticking out of the middle of the stream. It appeared I caught a couple skinny dipping. I just waved and made my way back up the bank. I think we were both surprised!
Tomorrow we complete our journey. It is about 85 miles from where we are to the Venice at the mouth of the Mississippi. Our plans are to stop by Jackson Square in the morning, it being Sunday it should be a good time to walk around the area. We will then head to Venice, spend a little time, have lunch and then travel back to our timeshare in the French Quarter for two nights.
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