Thoughts on New Orleans

I'm going to make this blog a short one, mainly because I feel like there is not much to say.

Alex and I went to N'Awelins, LA.  I really didn't warm up to it as much as a thought I would.  This is kind of morbid, but my favorite part of New Orleans was touring one of their cemeteries.  HaHa!  I normally don't enjoy going to cemeteries, but it was actually a really pretty cemetery.  Almost all the graves were fancy mausoleums.  Many of the mausoleums had beautiful stained glass art.  In New Orleans the dead have to buried above ground because of some law.  It actually serves a purpose though; the ground is very saturated and if the caskets are buried underground then, it is likely that they will float up to the surface, so I was told.  I don't know how likely that is because we saw some graves with standard tombstones, but the tombstones appeared as though they were actually sinking into the ground.  That's quite the opposite of floating.

I think I may have had a better time in New Orleans if Alex didn't become so paranoid about the amount of crime in the city.

When we first arrived to New Orleans we stopped at a really cute little coffee shop about a mile from the very touristy French Quarter.  The people in the area were very bohemian and earthy types.  On our way into the coffee shop we were even offered a little Mary Jane, but we declined.  The coffee shop was surrounded by beautiful old Victorian style homes and huge hundred year old trees.  The area reminded me a little of Midtown Sacramento, but just a little more congested.  So, as we were relaxing and sipping on our coffee, Alex decides to look up on his computer good and bad neighborhoods in New Orleans.  Well, that was not such a good idea, because basically he read that all neighborhoods are bad there.  So, from then on out Alex was concerned for our safety.  I'm not saying that being safe is a bad idea, but Alex was a little overly concerned.  For instance, after walking around the French Quarter, we were at Walmart in the parking lot chilling in the van and I needed to use the bathroom, and Alex asks if he should go with me. He has never asked to go with me to the bathroom, and then he says, "Well, You'll probably be okay." ?????  We weren't even in a bad area!  Also, when trying to find parking in the French Quarter he insisted only parking on a main street, even though there was open parking in other places.  Actually, maybe that was a good idea, because the French Quarter did look a little shady.

The French Quarter is the oldest part of New Orleans, and one of the only parts that wasn't devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  I think it would have a little more charm if the buildings were fixed up a little better and if the streets didn't smell so bad. It smelled like pee and B.O. in most of the areas. Right now New Orleans is getting ready for Mardi Gras, and we thought about staying until the weekend which is when the Marti Gras celebrating starts, but we just would have spent more money than we would have liked. The streets were already decorated, the restaurants and bars were playing music and handing out Mardi Gras beads, so it kind of already felt like we experienced what Mardi Gras is like there. I'm not disappointed that we didn't stay.

Here is a video of Alex enjoying a Beignet at Caffe Du Monde in New Orleans; the best place to get a Beignet.

We zipped through Mississippi and are now in Alabama. We have almost made it across the country! We are so close!