Vacation running in New Orleans

We drove with some friends to New Orleans from Parsippany, N.J., earlier this month to celebrate my friend aLi's 40th birthday in a big way. But the first thing Gloria and I did after spending 22 hours in the car was go for a run.

OK, that's not entirely true.  First, we were greeted by the rest of the gang who had flown from Jersey, then we had a celebratory drink, and then we went for our runs.

Long run that ended up being 11 miles on March 11 in New Orleans

I randomly decided to run east from our French Quarter hotel and the goal was to not get lost, so I stayed as close to the Mississippi River as possible, first through the very crowded Woldenberg Park and then through the spacious Crescent Park (which involved going up a long flight of stairs to a pedestrian overpass). Back on the road at Chartres Street, I hooked around Poland Avenue, past Bacchanal Wine and Spirits (where we would end up on Tuesday afternoon for wine and cheese) and turned right on St. Claude Avenue, which seemed like the main drag through the Bywater section.  I love running over bridges, so to do so over a little inlet from the river was fun, especially because it had a separated pedestrian part. The bridge placed me into the region of the Lower Ninth Ward and Holy Cross sections.  Sadly, these areas seemed to be a bit depressed, but turning toward the river into the town of Arabi, the neighborhood reminded me of sections of Cape Coral and Fort Myers, Fla. That was when the rain started - when I was at my farthest point in the run - and it came down in buckets, so the return trip was not pleasant at all.  But with temperatures in the 60s, at least it was not that kind of rain that chills you to the bone.  I got a little lost going through the French Quarter, looking for our hotel, so it ended up being 11 miles total.

Quick three-miler on March 12 in New Orleans...after the big party night

On Monday, I headed southwest for a quick three-miler that took me through what I suppose is downtown, past Canal Street and along Camp and Coliseum streets, into a peaceful residential section.

Eight-mile run on March 13 through the Greater NOLA area on the other side of the Mississippi.

Tuesday's eight-miler was the best.  On Monday afternoon, we had taken a ferry across the Mississippi River to Algiers Point and the first thing I noticed from the terminal was the pedestrian path along the river.  Gloria and I immediately knew we had to return for our runs the next day, so I am happy to say that I did my eight-miler along the lovely (and blessedly flat) trail, where I had a beautiful view of the river and the city, saw folks walking their dogs, ran under the Route 90 bridge and passed a few other runners. What a treat, though in retrospect, we should have run the opposite direction for more trail and better scenery.

A mostly uninteresting four-mile run in New Orleans on March 14

For my last run in NOLA, I went northwest from the French Quarter through the urban residential areas along Orleans Avenue.  Not much to see there, but good enough for four quick miles on my last day in town.

Gloria and I probably could have partied a little more and stayed up a little later each night if we had decided to skip our runs for the sake of vacation, but now that I am a dozen years into it, the running itself has inevitably become an exciting part of every trip.  To see new places and traverse the landscape on foot brings a unique aspect to traveling. No amount of boozing it up on Bourbon Street can compare to that.