We wanted restaurant breakfast but they didn't open till 8 and we had to leave at 8:30 so we walked down to McDonalds. Surprisingly they had armed guards at the door. Today is going to be serious! We talked with some parade campers - they were lined up in front of the barriers along St Charles for a parade that doesn't start until 1 PM. They were a nice friendly family and fun to talk with. They do this every year with their kids, a giant party on the street.
We left the hotel with the group at 8:30 for the bike tour and had a lovely walk through the French Quarter on Royal. Loved the buildings at this time of the morning. We started our tour at a park, Washington Square. We had a fantastic tour guide, Casey. He was well educated in NO history and told it in a humorous almost stand up style way. We learned about the various switching of the ownership of NO. Casey was laid back whatever kind of guy, probably typical of New Orleans locals. We had a fantastic tour even with a stop for Bloody Mary's at Marie's Bar. They were great. i would love to do this again sometime and take more photos of the beautiful small homes in the area. We waalked back down Royal and ended up on Decatur looking for lunch with live music. We found BB Kings place with a Blues band. We split a shrimp Po Boy and a couple of beers. We even got up to dance to a few songs. Perfect lunch with cold beer, good music and good food and a few dances. To go home we had to cut over to Harrahs Casino before crossing the parade route and walk down side streets.
We rested up in the afternoon then got dressed to leave at 5:50 in our tux and gowns. Everyone looked fine. We ended up walking about 4 blocks to get to the bus and had an easy ride to the Superdome. Inside we had a nice buffet dinner of pulled pork, andouille sausage gumbo with rice, spinach dip and catfish bites which were really nice. There was an open bar where I had a martini then a glass of wine which was difficult because I went to get free tumblers and when I got back the wine was cleared from the table. I got another wine and headed downstairs to find the group in the arena seats. I ended up on the floor of the superdome. The place was crowded but I enjoyed the many beautiful woman in evening wear. Eventually I found the group in section 114. The noise was too much to take for me. Making it worse was the stupid band kept playing loud music when the bands were coming in and the awful announcer's voice was even louder. His voice was louder than the bands. After the first float arrived, fireworks went off and the sound was unbearable. I ran out of that place and met up with Cathy and Blake who said it wasn't their cup of tea either. Google was showing it was only a 14 minute walk so we joined them in the escape. The walk back wasn't too bad. It was such a relief to get outside into the night air and only hear the sounds of the city. I fell right to sleep after a very nice day despite the disaster at the Superdome.