New Orleans by kayak
Only in New Orleans could an urban kayak trip run across both ghosts and voodoo, said Spud Hilton in the San Francisco Chronicle. Bayou St. John may be little known outside Louisiana, but the slow-moving stream played a big part in the city’s settlement. Today, the bayou is a shallow, 4-mile-long canal that provides “natural air conditioning” for joggers and cuts through areas that few tourists see. After renting a boat from Bayou Kayaks, I chose against paddling south into the French Quarter, where the canal’s tea-colored water is allegedly haunted by the ghost of a woman dragged under a paddle wheel a century ago. I instead headed north, toward Lake Pontchartrain, passing handsome homes and ducking under highway bridges as I went. Eventually, I came to City Park and a green stretch of canal bank where Marie Laveau once bought herbs from native tribes and conducted voodoo rituals. The quiet impressed me.
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