It was an insane idea, but we carried through with it anyway. We drove from North Salt Lake to New Orleans and back (that's 30 hours of driving--ONE WAY). And if anyone wonders why we would embark on such an endeavor--it's all because of the fanatic BYU fan I married. He loves to follow that team wherever they go.
Let's just say the first part of the trip was pretty pathetic. We got a very late start getting out of here--after dinner on Tuesday evening. Driving in the dark is definitely not my idea of fun because I can't read a book and we can't see anything beyond the road. It's just plain booooring.
We stopped that first night at a hotel, but the second night we drove straight through. And I didn't have any good meals to look forward to because the best we got was McDonald's. YUCK! At least it was a WiFi restaurant/trucker McD stop so Glen could hook up both his computers to do some work and to try and find us a hotel.
He found a hotel within walking distance of the basketball arena and also close enough to the other tourist hot spots. We checked out Bourbon and Canal Streets in the French Quarter during the daylight hours. There was not much going on during the day, but we did come upon a hippie street music show.
We ate lunch at Sammy's Steak and Lobster Restaurant and that is when things started getting better in the food department of our trip.
This is a park where jazz music is played at night.
Glen printing out the ball game tickets that he got on line. Nice March Madness wall theme going on behind the computer.
We got to the New Orleans Arena on Thursday plenty early.
Our seats.
Our view of the court.
The players taking the court as they were announced.
The ending of the game was so sad we took no more pictures. But, a great season of basketball BYU had and Glen was happy to be a part of the season and all the March Madness.
At least the loss ruled out the need for us to do another road trip to Texas the following week...
Okay, now on for the touristy party of our trip. We ate breakfast Friday morning at the Checkered Parrot.
We saw many stores that sold t-shirts, boas, beads, masks, etc.
Jackson Square was very beautiful with a large statue of Major General Andrew Jackson and the big, beautiful St. Louis Cathedral.
A view of Jackson Square from across the street, near the Riverfront, and looking down the street from the Square.
The New Orleans Riverfront overlooking the Mississippi River.
We took a trolley to the end of the Riverfront area and got off at Market Square where we walked through the market looking at all the stuff being sold and ended up at the Market Cafe for lunch.
Our afternoon bus tour was very informative as we rode around the city and learned some interesting things about New Orleans. This clarinet painting on the side of the Holiday Inn is very cool because it looks so real.
In the rich part of town, the residents all like their homes to look unique and different from their neighbors. Sometimes they have one style of decor on the lower level and another style on the upper level. The second home is owned by Sandra Bullock.
The cemeteries were interesting to learn about. Since a lot of New Orleans is below sea level, they can't bury the dead underground because the water will push the caskets up out of the ground. So, what they do is put the caskets in above-ground tombs.
Some of the tombs or crypts are very ornate. Usually a family will own a crypt that is able to hold several caskets. If someone dies and the tomb is already full, they remove one casket, break up the bones, put the bones in a bag and store the bag in the area under the caskets in what is known as the dead space. The casket is then destroyed because it's against the law to reuse the casket.
There is also a law that you can't open up the crypt until at least one year and one day passes. So, if a family member dies within a year and a day of someone in the family, that body is put in a vault in the wall and bricked in so no one can remove the body. After the legal time limit is up, the crypt is able to be opened, and the newly-deceased is put to rest with the other family members in the tomb.
Our tour guide showing us the tomb where lots and lots and lots and lots of dead Nuns are laid to rest. The names on the front and sides of the tomb show how many of them are in that relatively small place.
We stopped at a park where we were able to get an ice cream treat and use the restroom and, most important, pay our guide for his tour services that day.
Glen got some popcorn for a treat to eat on the bus while finishing up our tour.
It was very sobering to drive through the area where hurricane Katrina had caused so much damage and destruction. The markings on the homes showed the date the house was checked by emergency personnel, the organization that had gone through the home and the number of dead people found in the home.
A sad story was one family had gone up into their attic to try and get away from the water and the water had gotten too high and there was no escape out onto the roof and so they were all found dead in the attic. Some homes are now being rebuilt with escape hatches from the attic to the roof.
Some homes were left standing, others were leveled.
This apartment complex is uninhabitable and all those families had to be relocated and it's now still unfixed, unoccupied and has become a prime place for graffiti.The cement slabs in the front are where homes used to stand.
Along with water damage, there was lots of wind damage.
One of the new homes that has been rebuilt. We learned Brad Pitt has an organization that has been working to build energy-efficient homes for the people who were displaced by Katrina. The homes are painted bright, cheerful colors to give the people a feeling of hope and happiness to their neighborhoods.
Interesting handmade street sign. No matter the devastation these people suffered, they still consider the area their home.
We wanted to spend our last evening on Bourbon Street.
We ate a delicious steak dinner at Embers Bourbon House Restaurant.
This is our view of the street from our dinner table on the balcony.
There were mounted, uniformed police officers patrolling the street for crowd control. Actually, it wasn't all that crowded when we were there. Apparently, it gets extremely wild, crazy and unruly during Mardi Gras.
We saw our fair share of what goes on on Bourbon Street. Enough to make us never want to be there during the raucous, crowd-filled times. We sure saw plenty of what the world thinks is a fun time.
There was an interesting view as we looked down one side street--a shadow of Christ on the side of a cathedral.
The following two days found us in the car driving and driving and driving and driving until we reached our destination -- home!!
My final comment on the trip...
THAT WAS A LOT OF DRIVING!!!!!
