“N’Awlins”

Tom needed to go to New Orleans for a day long US Coast Guard “All Hands” so I rode along. We took off Friday after he got out of school and I drove while he read. We stopped someplace between Mississippi and Louisiana and purchased a pizza to go from a busy restaurant, ate on the way and crashed once we reached our hotel.

I dropped him off the next morning and went to meet an old friend from Utah. Tanner was the resident stage manager at Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) for about 7 years but moved to New Orleans (he grew up in Alabama) to help a brother in law with his construction company after Katrina wreaked havoc in the area and has lived there ever since. Tanner had run a breast cancer 5 K that morning so I met up with him soon after at a little coffee shop then he took me on a 2 hour tour of a city I’ve never set foot in. We had a great time reminiscing while he drove through the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, The City Park, The Audubon attractions, the gorgeous architecture, The World War II Museum, downtown and some regular but beautiful streets. The streets were crammed with people as it was election day (Saturday?) and they were passing out flyers, shaking hands and trying to get people to vote. One of the elections was for coroner. Really? Is the average Joe in a position to be choosing the coroner? Anyway, Tanner was a great tour guide. He shared a lot about the history of the city and all the European, African and Caribbean influences. Made me want to get a history book on the area. He was also very honest about the crime that continues and the homeless population that remains.

Tom and I went out that night feeling we really should see Bourbon street in it’s glory. Half an hour later I had seen enough. I’m not a good “crowd” person in the best of circumstances but you add a crowd who has been drinking, young girls in very little clothing, mostly tourists in for conventions or NFL games and you’ve got a street full of people who took me way out of my comfort zone. I guess I thought the bead-throwing and such only took place at Mardi Gras but apparently this is an on-going affair.

Tom could see I wasn’t much into the local scene so we walked up into town, headed toward the river then found our way back through the crowd (by then there was an ambulance and fire truck), and back to our car before heading home. Looked around a bit for a place to eat but I’m not a big Cajun fan and we decided we weren’t really hungry so we went back to our room, where Tom studied and I read. Hmmm, perhaps we’re (I'm) getting old.

We took off early the next morning after breakfast and traveled casually. We stopped when we felt like it to look around and went to the beach in Mississippi and took a long walk. That was my favorite part. Can’t go wrong on a beach!