Early this morning as I read my emails the sad news about the demise of a friend and supporter of MIM expedition came across through Ikmal. It was so unexpected as Capt Yusof Ahmad seemed healthy and going gung ho on his Blog especially on the subject of KPA mismanagement. When I heard further that he had died in his sleep, I felt better for it though. May his soul rest in peace.

At 11am we left for the French Quarter and it took us only 15 minutes to get there from the hotel on a street car and it was virtually a door to door service. As it was still early in the day although there were quite a few people on the street leading to the French Quarter, some of the outlets were not opened as yet. But as we proceeded down the Bourbon Street there were more outlets opened and opening up .

I needed a rest and of all places sat in front of the Jazz Funeral outlet where they played great music while selling all sorts of frightening and weird gifts. It is a place where no one cares what you do and I thought I would dance in the pathway and true enough nobody bat an eyelid with the exception of Alison feeling a bit shy looking at her old man making a fool of himself! Adrian came and tried to shove me to move ahead and I finally relented.

We walked to the Louis Armstrong Park but by the time we reached there I was grumbling wanting to go to the loo and there was none around. And by this time too, Adrian wanted to be carried and Alison said the wrong thing about us pair giving her problems. That made me loose my temper but as usual I cooled down very quickly.

We ended up for lunch at the outlet quite well known for its food called the Two Sisters but I guess we went to the wrong section to dine as Alison's Jambalaya didn't look quite as she expected it to be. I didn't know what a Po-Boy was in the first place, so I couldn't complain and ate what I was served. It just tasted like any French loaf with beef fillings with a variation of chilli sauce used on the salad.

Our next stop was at the Music Legends where a live band called Steamboat Willie was playing and had iced coffee and thoroughly enjoyed the jazz being played. So much so we bought a compact disc for ourselves, our contribution to the band. After listening to he CD I thought the live session sounded better than the recording.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was already 5pm and we intended to go out for a drive after a short rest. We bought Wendy's nuggets for Adrian and headed for the river front only to find that there wasn't any to drive by. Alison asked if I wanted to walk instead but after this morning I didn't fancy walking any further. We crossed the Mississippi Bridge just to get a glimpse of the River and proceeded to the cemetery where Louis Armstrong was buried.

On the way back I felt a little hungry and asked Alison to get me corn on the cob which I enjoyed very much without having to share with Adrian. That was about all New Orleans could offer and the only thing we missed was the ride on the Mississippi river boat.