Arriving in New Orleans

I arrived late last night and met up with Katherine when she landed this morning. We had a few issues with the rental car, the spot they assigned us to had a small compact car in it. That might have worked for a the 2 of us but it would have been a little tight when the rest of the group arrived. We had to go back in to the office to get the situation straighted out. Katherine made the mistake of making eye contact with a strange women in line behind us who spent the next 10 minutes telling us all about her problems with renting a car and her credit rating. She kept telling us her sob story even after we were up at the counter and were trying to get the car situation worked out. She must have struck out with Hertz too because when they pulled our Sienna around we saw her getting back in to her cab to head off to another rental car company. She seemed crazy to me so I certainly wouldn't have rented to her if I was the Herzt rep.

We headed off to Walmart of pick up our lunch supplies for the week. Either we didn't follow the directions right or Google Maps lied because we had a little trouble getting to Walmart. We got to see some of the wetlands and put a lot of miles on the car but we weren't working on a schedule so it was ok. Eventually we made it to Walmart and were able to make all of our purchases, then it was off to the hotel to check in and get settled.

Our hotel, Country Inn and Suites, is really nice especially compared to the places the group has stayed the last couple years. The only thing I'm worried about is how far away it is from Mango Mango. We'll have to figure something out with that. After getting settled in the hotel Katherine and I headed out for a late lunch. We ended up at Gumbo Shop and as usual it was great! It was so nice to be able to enjoy sitting in the courtyard with the sun shinning on us! We walked around the quarter a little then headed back to the hotel to rest a little. We intended to go back out later but it had been a long day so we ended up staying in, it was going to be an early day the next day! I can't wait to see all the changes on Ferry Place from a year ago!