April 21: New Orleans, LA

A pretty momentous day, as this was the first day where we wouldn't be traveling. It felt good to wake up and not be thinking about another long drive. Our first stop on the day was the Lafayette Cemetery. Why would one visit a cemetery? 1. Alfred's love for the macabre. 2. It seems to be thing to do in New Orleans (the tour we went on later took us to another cemetery). The above-ground cemeteries are unique, and some of them looked amazing. They have above-ground cemeteries in New Orleans because water under the soil has a tendency to push coffins up out of the ground.



After a full morning of grave robbing, it was time for lunch. Stephanie found this place on Yelp.


Doesn't look like much from the outside right? Wrong. The interior was actually very nice, and we all felt under-dressed. We had the lunch buffet which included red beans and rice, sausages, liver and onions, jambalaya, chicken, and peach cobbler for dessert. The sausage and peach cobbler were really good, but the liver and onions managed to kill Stephanie and Alfred's appetites temporarily. No pictures because we already felt awkward there.

After lunch it was back to the French Quarter. We wandered around for a while, stopping in at Peaches Records, where I found this.


Don't let the tape collection fool you, it's actually a cool store and I ended up buying two books. In the spur of the moment, we decided to take a bus tour of the city. It started in and around the French Quarter, showing us Louis Armstrong park, etc.


Then things got real. The tour took us to the 9th ward as our guide talked about how Katrina affected and continues to affect the city. She told us about trying to evacuate with her sick son and getting 70 miles in 9 hours. People without the money or means to leave, or with nowhere else to go, dying in their homes or in the street. Even now, almost 5 years later, there are so many houses sitting abandoned. Some of the owners died, some had left and still didn't know if they were ever coming back.

Sculpture made from driftwood recovered after Katrina

It was a powerful, sobering experience, one that I won't soon forget. But in the midst of this, there are still people working to rebuild the most ravaged areas.

These houses were built by Brad Pitt's Make it Right project.

Anyway, the rest of the tour took us to another cemetery, the Garden District, and City Park, the 6th largest urban park in the U.S.

Archie Manning's house

Afterward, we went to dinner at Pat O'Brien's to get some more Louisiana goodness. I had a muffaletta, which was ok. Stephanie and Alfred got some gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and some crawfish thing. I tried some crawfish, and I'm a fan. They also had what Stephanie described as "the best chocolate cake ever."

Other things we saw wandering Bourbon Street: a transvestite in the street dancing for passers-by, and a hand grenade!

Hopefully all the Katrina stuff didn't bring the mood down too much, but it had to be done. Tomorrow we head for Atlanta.