NEW ORLEANS DAY 1

We made it! New Orleans! Our first impressions of this city are…traffic and honking horns, lots of tourists (two cruise ships in)…smelly Bourbon Street…so many restaurants…so much colour…beads strewn everywhere…narrow streets…beautiful old architecture.

After we checked into our hotel, the desk clerk was able to get us on an afternoon city tour. So we went to a little restaurant down the street called Oceana and had some brunch. I had a poboy with fried shrimp and Trish had a cheeseburger. We certainly didn’t leave the table hungry. Neither of us was able to do the Remoulade sauce that is so much a staple sauce in New Orleans. Some of the ingredients are: Creole mustard, chili sauce, hot sauce, mayonnaise, Worcestershire, garlic and just in case the insides of your mouth aren’t quite seared completely off…horse radish and lots of it. I think my delicate palate is just that – delicate! I wish I could enjoy all the flavours, but it ain’t gonna happen!

Our city tour was unique. Bernadine was an excellent tour guide and told us so many things about the different parts of the city. We learned that the levies here were built to withstand a category 3 hurricane, but Katrina was category 5. We learned that New Orleans is shaped like a bowl and is on average 8 feet below sea level. So when the waters came over the 33 foot levy, there was no where for it to go. The rebuilding that has already happened is amazing….however, there is still a lot to be done IF it ever will be. I am more proud than ever that one of my amazing nieces was able to come down here to help with this a few years ago.

We toured the garden district and have now seen more mansions than I ever expected to see anywhere! Beautiful antebellum mansions (which means built before the civil war) are too numerous to count. The other noticeable thing about lots of the houses here is that they are built quilt long and very narrow.

We toured a cemetery and learned that when a person dies, they are put on the top shelf and the tomb is sealed and cannot be opened for 1 year. If someone in the same family dies in the meantime, they are buried in a rental tomb. After the year has passed, the tomb can be opened and remains of body #1 are moved down to the second shelf and the most recent dearly departed is placed on the top shelf. And the process is repeated with the oldest remains being placed in a 3 foot hole that is under every tomb. As the temperature reaches 600 degrees farenheit, it is a slow cremation that goes on in the tombs, so I guess it isn’t quite as gross as it sounds – and after a year of those high temps…I am hoping there wouldn’t be much more than ash left. Either way – I’m not applying for the job of opening and moving the remains around!

We came back and had dinner at a German restaurant right across the street. We understood this food and it wasn’t spicy – and it was very delicious! A great way to end our first day.

So we did walk around a bit – but tomorrow will be a day of adventure – so definitely stop in again and I will try to find some more interesting bits for you!