New Orleans Visit

I keep saying to myself, I need to post my pictures from New Orleans, and then it slips my mind again. I know this has nothing to do with our wedding, or our family, but since the wedding isn't taking up any of my time to plan, I guess no more posts about the wedding. (Although, I'm getting my wedding dress on Wednesday, so maybe I'll take a few pictures when it's on and post those).

Anyway, I went to New Orleans the first week of February to go visit our clients and the campuses there. It was actually the week Mardi Gras started and the week before the Saints were in their first-ever Super Bowl, so it was a pretty great week for me to be there. It was so alive with Saints pride and everywhere you looked there were Saints figures in windows, on house balconies and in front yards. I was happy to cheer for the Saints the next week and see them win the Super Bowl since I was lucky enough to have visited there.

While I was in town, I wanted to take advantage of me being there and might not get back any time soon, so I wanted to drive through the 9th Ward because you can still see the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. Yes, I was scared to drive down there because it was supposedly the "ghetto" but I talked to plenty of locals about going down there and I took their advice before I headed down (they told me where to go, where to avoid, and to only go during the day time). So a few hours before I was heading to the airport I drove through the French Quarter and went shopping down there at the most wonderful boutique store I've ever been in. Designer dresses, shoes, clothes and handbags all for about 25% of their actual cost! I got a beautiful designer silk dress that will just be perfect for dinner in Hawaii on our honeymoon. It was originally $395 and I only paid $80!

But, I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about New Orleans and the 9th Ward. Well, before I get to the devastating part, I have to post some pictures about the beautiful parts of New Orleans, LA. (From here on out, I'm just going to abbreviate it to NOLA - that's what the locals call it). :-) So, here are some pictures of the most beautiful parts of NOLA and what is truly Southern class and Southern style!

Okay, so here is a picture of the street my hotel was on. I would drive down this road every day when I was heading out in the morning, and I just loved! the trees that line the streets. I don't know if you can tell, the tree branches cover the streets like you're driving through a tunnel, and then they connect to the trees that are on the left side of the street so it's just this gorgeous passageway you're driving down. This is St. Charles Avenue just a few miles from Tulane and Loyola University.

Here's a better shot of the street, from farther away, so you can actually see how the trees start on the right side of the street and the branches reach all the way to the left side and then join the other trees.

Here's another picture of St. Charles. I'll try to explain this. So, when you're driving Southbound, the only way you can get to the Northbound traffic is you have to take a sharp left turn through the grass, which is also where the bus travels, so if you're not careful or paying attention, you can cut off a bus and cause problems for them and really mess up traffic! I got close a few times, me not being familiar with the roads AT ALL, it was pretty scary. You're turning left and avoiding joggers and buses at the same time. It was all too much for me...

So, driving down St. Charles, there are some MASSIVE homes, well, mansions, really, and I can't tell if these are buildings where business is conducted or actual homes! But either way, they're gorgeous! I was naive going to New Orleans because all you hear about is the destruction that was caused by Katrina and I didn't realize there is a part of NOLA that is so far away from the 9th Ward that has a ton of history still and a ton of money! So don't think that ALL of NOLA was devastated. The 9th Ward was really a small neighborhood in a very large town!

So, now for the sad and devastating parts of NOLA. I had heard from some of the locals that the most devastating part about Katrina was the fact that many parts of the 9th Ward were just starting to be rehabilitated when the hurricane hit. Many of the people were getting out of the "slums" and making more money, had better jobs, getting their educations, and they were starting to see a new growth and new life in the 9th Ward. There were even brand new townhomes that had gone up in the neighborhood for some of the families that could afford them and had earned them. And then not much later Katrina hit and just knocked those families down that had worked so hard to get where they were. They had barely been in their brand new homes and then found themselves homeless again. Here is a row of Townhomes I found and it was just soooo eery to drive into the parking lot and have it be deserted, but yet, they were so new. And they were so cute too! I felt so bad for those people at that time. It made me very grateful for my cushy life.

For me, the most humbling part of my whole trip was seeing the spray paint on the sides of the homes. The spray paint indicated how many survivors or bodies were found inside. I saw one house that had "1 Dog Inside" spray painted on the front of the house, but then around the side of the house you could see "Rescued" and the date of the rescue. Obviously made me think of my own dog and how devastated I would be if I had to leave my dog behind. It was emotional, but again, made me so grateful for my beautiful home and my beautiful life that was waiting for me back in Irvine. Unfortunately, a lot of these people never made it back to their homes and had to start fresh somewhere else. Some may never have even found out if their dogs made it out alive.