NO Adventure

Ever wonder what’s on the other side of the Mississippi River?
I know Magazine St. is really cool, but you may want to take an NOadventure to the other side of the river just to explore things like:

ALGIERS POINT – historic neighborhood older than the French Quarter.

Tip: go on your bike and take the ferry – it’s free.

Once you get off the Canal St. Ferry and set foot on the Westbank, you’ll walk down an old cobblestone street. In the old days, these stones were used as ballasts to weight down boats that came to the port of New Orleans to fill up on goods. The leftover stones made great pavers. Keep walking and you’ll end up at the Dry Dock(prime happy-hour spot) – right at the bottom of the hill.

The Crown and Anchor is an English Pub owned by a real authentic British dude. Their pub quiz on thursdays at 8pm can get crowded, but it’s crazy fun. They also have old mugs hanging from hooks on the ceiling rafters. Maybe if you are a super regular, you get to have your own mug? I’m not sure.

These little neighborhood bars rival Mid-City in their neighborhoodiness and they always seem to have good food.

Besides the pubs and the fresh air, Algiers Point is also the spot to watch fireworks on New Years Eve or July 4th. Crawl up on the levee and watch the show over the river whilst the New Orleans skyline twinkles.

Also: The ferry is great and FREE and everything, but can you believe we used to have this sky cable gondola across the river from the Warehouse District to Algiers Point?

Talk about AWESOME! They called this thing Mississippi Aerial River Transit or MART and built it for the 1984 World’s Fair. It’s red steel towers on opposite banks of the river were the tallest ever constructed for a gondola lift and the cars made the 4 minute ride 300 feet above the river.

Got this from WIKI: Built to showcase a form of non-polluting commuter transit, after the fair, the system was open for use by commuters. By April 1985, the system was shut down due to low ridership.

WHAT? Could you even imagine having that sucker now with yo-yoing gas prices and parking downtown? Tons off people would move to the westbank just BECAUSE of that thing. How great would it be just to have that as bonus attraction to our already unique city? Don’t even want to think about life without MART anymore. Moving on.

Go to Part 2 -Jean Lafitte National Park.