NOLA

A weekend or two ago Andy and I went to New Orleans Louisiana. It was fun, exciting, tiring, HOT, STINKY, cool and a very different culture. Down town was up and running great. Stores, hotels, bars, and markets in perfect working conditions. You wouldn't have even known that a few short years ago the area was hit by floods from Katrina. We didn't go to the area by the levy which still needs a lot of work and was a lot more damaged. We did walk by and go to a bowling alley that was flooded by 5-7 feet of water and the stories we were told were truly touching, sad and amazing.

The first two days were spent walking up and down the streets in the French Quarters. We ate millions of oysters, some fried alligator, fried craw fish, turtle soup and then a delicious 2 lbs of steamed craw fish. We ate a lot. We took the ferry across the mighty Mississippi river. And found out that in New Orleans (at least downtown) you can smoke inside and drink outside. There were signs everywhere for "to go drinks". Very different culture. The first night we headed to bed rather early. I think I was asleep around 7pm. The second night was one of my favorites. After some tasty craw fish we walked around listening to music, which is constantly playing EVERYWHERE, I needed some fresh air. It stinks down town an extremely retched smell. So Andy took me into the Ritz Carlton, which has an amazing smell of clean and wealth, and we sat in their music room listening to music and watching dancers. I felt I was in a whole other world. We then called it a night and ended the night on a very good note.

The third day we had to get out of the French Quarter. We took the trolley to Uptown and walked around the huge old restored houses. We walked just around 4-5 miles in extreme humidity. So to me we walked around 8-9 miles. We were trying to make our way to see the cemeteries and didn't want to get back on the trolley so we kept walking. We had reached our limit, with Andy's shirt and top half of his shorts soaking wet from sweat, and where about to get on the trolley when we noticed we didn't have correct change. Now trolly's wont let you on with out correct change so we had to continue walking until we found a place to get change. After another 5 blocks we noticed a bar. We headed straight for it and when we walked in we were blown away by the air conditioner. To top off the cool refreshing atmosphere the bartender was the nicest girl in the whole state of Louisiana. She gave us two cups of ice tea and walked a way for one minute to return and find our cups completely empty she refilled them and left the pitcher with us. We talked with her and others in the Bar about fun attractions locals do. They mentioned the bowling alley we had already planned on going to and so that made us even more excited to go. After a few more refills, Andy buying a shirt and a picture with our very favorite bartender we headed back out into the heat. We made it to the Cemetery to find it closed half hour before we arrived. They close them because they are tombs/crypts that people can hid behind and rob or even hurt people because you can't see them. We made a mental note that it was open on Monday and decided to come back. We finally headed to the trolley to go back to the hotel.

It was time to head to the Rock N Bowl. We arrived by taxi and on the way there noticed quite a few buildings with water marks from when they were flooded and was really different to see that the marks were over our heads. From air views from the news is totally different then actually seeing the lines above you when you stand at a building. We walked into the bowling alley to find the workers and few other people dressed in evening gowns. They were having a CD release party for Ernie K-Doe (who is dead) for his song "Here come the Girls" that he produced in 1970. Now I can't really go into the details on this but feel free to search it. They had all the girls in dresses ( I borrowed one of our new friends scarfs and wrapped it around me) gather at the bottom of one of the bowling lanes and while they started the song we all got to walk up the lane dancing with smoke all around us. Everyone was singing and dancing it was so much fun. We meet some locals who sat with us and became our friends. We never actually got to bowl but I didn't mind and I can say this was another Great night in New Orleans!

Sunday we went to the New Orleans Aquarium. Very sad story: They had to ship off the penguins to Oakland during Katrina. After the storms the fish had all survived but the workers were evacuated so the government relief could use it for staging. Generators broke and fish were not fed. Most of the 10,000 fish died. But once it was back up and running in 2006 the penguins were flown home via FedEx special delivery. This was one of my favorite Aquariums, my oh my so many fish.

We then hit up all the markets and shops for presents for home and little things for ourselves. We dressed up to hit the city one last time. I needed a steak to help clean out all the fried stuff in my body. So we went to find somewhere that served beef. We walked up and down bourbon street one last time and then went back to the hotel. When you are with someone you love and you spend none stop time with them you will get into some quarrels. We got in one our last night and headed to bed earlier than we had both planned. But we woke up around 2am and talked for a couple hours making me realize how much I love my husband and know we can always talk things out.

We finally headed to the cemeteries Monday morning. Walked around and realized they were extremely smart to do their cemeteries the way they do. Very space saving and family oriented. Never mind that New Orleans is below sea level so digging a grave would be pointless. Still very interesting to see and sad to see how many plaques where missing due to Katrina.

We were now ready to get home. After a hour of waiting at the hotel and airports we made it home. We went straight to my mom and dad's to see and pick up our two precious little children. I missed them so much and have been trying to get back into the swing of things ever since.

I love Andy and thank him for taking me there. Sweetheart can our next trip/vacation be us sitting on the beach in the sun not walking anywhere?