New Orleans

The first time we drove through New Orleans it was POURING rain so we didn't stop. We punched straight through to Mississippi. Now on our way back west, it was still pouring rain in Louisiana and even with the wipers going full speed we could hardly see outside the windshield. We stayed in NOLA (yes, I learned a local term) for 3 days so we managed to find a couple sunny days. Our host was a single Italian man in his 40's who knew anything and everything about his city so he was happy to show us around town. He took us Zydeco dancing our first night which was a lot of fun. I wish I could have snapped a picture of Jake dancing with a huge smile on his face. I like zydeco music, but you never need to own more than one record. We also became very familiar with the French Quarter and had a lot of fun riding the street cars.

One day we went on a walking tour and took way too many pictures of cool, old houses. Despite the hurricane, a lot of historic homes were able to be saved. Where our hosts home resides, the water level came up 3 feet 9 inches but his house was already raised to 4 feet. Some other homes weren't so lucky. We took a trip to the 9th ward which was pretty depressing. We were told that even three years after the storm, huge pieces of debris were still sitting in the middle of the streets. Everything was clean when we saw it, but desolate. Some Brad Pitt homes looked spacey and out of place, and there wasn't much of anything else going on in the 9th ward.

We were also able to see TONS of live music. Everywhere we went somebody was playing music on the street. We did NOT enjoy the infamous Bourbon Street. There were just a lot of dirty bars, but one street over on Royal you could find fortune tellers and magic shows and all sorts of talent. Some of these musicians looked like they were ditching middle school to make a few bucks on the street. Many times the performers verbalized, "Remember folks, applause is nice but it don't buy red beans and rice." Mmmhmm. We did eat us some good red beans and rice in Nola. Our host also took us to the best Poboy deli in existence. Pounds upon pounds of steamy shrimp, catfish and oysters. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, sorry. But President Obama was said to enjoy a sandwich here when he visited New Orleans.

I'm not so sure how I feel about the rest of Louisiana, but New Orleans was definitely awesome. There were a bunch of crazy trees and crazy sidewalks, and of course, a creepy cemetery. I've become so fascinated with cemeteries on this trip. People just like you and me were walking around New Orleans or Miami or wherever hundreds of years ago, and their headstone is the only thing I know about them. A lot of these headstones in New Orleans have fallen out of the family wall and stay broken in pieces on the ground for a long time. Eventually the caretaker will tend to it, but since some of these graves are many centuries old, I have a feeling there aren't a lot of family members around to keep close tabs on it or to pay for a new engraving. I wonder what my headstone will say one day. I guess I could have it all planned out, but I'd rather hear somebody else's take on it.