New Orleans

One of Filipe's old co-workers invited us to his wedding this past Saturday night in New Orleans. This happened to coincide with my mom's visit to Texas (okay, okay, we begged her to come down so we could escape for the weekend). So Saturday afternoon, she dropped us off at the airport, on the way home from our church's camp-out (more on that in another post) and away we flew.

We went through some really beautiful clouds... I wish I had the equipment or the know-how to capture it better, but I guess there's only so much you can do out the window of an airplane. They looked like they were just boiling up, white ones starkly contrasted with gray, irritable ones. Very beautiful.

Here's swampy Louisiana:Here's the view from our hotel: downtown New Orleans.The wedding itself was very traditional. Very New Orleans traditional, that is! Instead of your standard organ or even piano playing your traditional wedding march, we got this guy, playing something that doesn't have written music, playing the jumbo-trumpet (I know there's an actual name for this instrument, but I'm at a loss as to what it might be, so jumbo-trumpet it is). It was actually very cool. And the reception featured a live, rockin' New Orleans jazz band. It was very dark & very LOUD, so it was difficult to get a good video clip, so this is the best I've got right now:

You can also tell by the wedding cake how "New Orleans" the wedding was--they even decorated it with the fleur de lis!Sunday morning we drove around downtown New Orleans, and of course Bourbon St. Man, is that place a haven for sins of all flavors! We even found a venue where you could go to watch "Love Acts." Eww. But it was kind of neat to see the places that I've seen in movies & stuff. I almost expected to see Ashley Judd hanging around (I love Double Jeopardy). But I don't really have any pictures of this part, because it was raining like, uh....... well, it was raining a lot.

On Sunday afternoon we went to the Nineth Ward, one of the places that got hit the worst by Hurricane Katrina. Now, I know this place was no beauty before hand, but it was really strange how it felt as thought the hurricane was there just a short time ago. Most of the uninhabited houses (and there were lots--I wish I knew the percentage of occupied to vacant houses. I'm guessing 1-4) were obviously incredibly damaged, but also still retained the X markings from directly after the hurricane, indicating when the building was searched for survivors, and if there were any casualties in the house. You can see it on the left side of this blue house, including a "R.I.P" marking next to it. Pretty sobering.

Lots of houses & lots were just completely overgrown, like this one:

But there were also several newly-built homes, right next to the abandoned ones. Kind of a strange juxtaposition:

Not only are there abandoned houses, which I'm sure contain extremely unhealthy levels of mold, mildew, and who the heck knows what else, but some houses even have methane warnings still posted on them:

Eventually the rain let up, so we decided to return for a stroll through the French district. They were having a nice little Farmer's Market/Swap Meet. Such lovely produce, but.........Me like the candy store!

We also went to the St.-Someone-Famous-But-I-Can't-Remember-Who Cathederal. See the ominous sky?

Also met Andrew Jackson:

Loved this banana tree, with the flowers half banana-ed. I will admit Filipe made fun of me for finding this interesting!

We had a little bit of afternoon left, so we decided to head about an hour out of town to visit some plantations we saw advertised in a brocure. On the way, we were driving about sixty on a nice little two-lane highway, when I glanced out my window at the edge of the marsh next to the road. "There was an aligator!!" I exclaimed to Filipe. Surprise! He didn't believe me. I had been teasing him ever since we were on the plane that I would find an aligator on this trip, so he was sure that I was pulling his leg. I tried to express how seriously honest I was being, but it took a bit of convicing for him to turn the car around. We drove back to the spot where I was sure I'd seen a gator, and, Hello! There was the gator, not 20 feet from the car. Filipe tried to make me get out of the car to get a picture, but I think my camera has a satisfactory zoom!!

So we drove for about 1 1/2 hours, and finally found the plantation we were looking for. We walked up to the ticket counter. We read "$15 per person." We turned around and walked back to the car, and headed 1 1/2 hours back into town. I'm so cheap. So here is a picture (from the gate) of the plantation we never went to. Lovely, isn't it?

We had such a great time just hanging out, no stress (okay, well, not too much) doing the tourist thing. Last year we went to Charleston, this year it was New Orleans. I think we may try the Florida Keys next year. That is, if Grandma's up to another round with our kids! WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA!!