Let me start off by saying that I didn’t get any photos of PEOPLE. Well, okay. I got one. But it’s out-of-focus and not well-lit (despite featuring two of my favorites):
I started my weekend by getting a cup of Starbucks (Thanksgiving blend with gingerbread syrup – THE BEST) and driving down to the gulf with Kat. We wanted to see water! We also saw cats.
Palm trees and…tree trees. (I’m not a biologist. Maybe they’re called temperate trees?)
This feels very New Orleans.
Palm trees and Christmas wreaths. (We stayed in the Astor!)
The wildlife in NOLA.
We spent a lot of time in a cemetery. It sounds weird, but it was really neat. I promise.
Since New Orleans is below sea level, caskets buried underground would uproot from the ground and float down the streets during heavy rain. So – the tombs are all above ground. (I found this website when searching for what they are called. Apparently there are a lot of different terms for each kind.)
Plants were growing out of every crevice of the tombs.
The name plate on this tomb was bowed out. Thick stone. Crazy, man.
I mean, it’s pretty, right?
I am pretty concerned about where exactly the caskets from this empty tomb are.
Backwards Louisiana stained glass at coffee shop in the Garden District (which had the tiniest bathroom known to woman.)
There are beads in New Orleans. LOTS of beads.
French! I love the French!
This is why I came to New Orleans, baby.
This is where we ate dinner Saturday night. The balcony had a fantastic view of the street below with carriages and horses and bands and crazy drivers.
Wherever we were at this point (I am not good at directions) was gorgeous. Little corners with beautiful paintings, lush courtyards tucked at the end of narrow alleyways.
Hey dude. Are you disgusted by me or is that just your face?
Can you imagine how fun it’d be to sit on that balcony and view the madness below?
I try. (Sign in a shop – we window-shopped since we’re all short on suitcase space and desire for knic knacks).
Well, I have THREE sisters, but sister signs always remind me of them. <3
This band was straight out of O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
After a quick breakfast and very few goodbyes (I REGRET not hugging EVERYONE goodbye), we drove from New Orleans to Birmingham, which looked like this for a while:
I got to see Mississippi for the first time!
AND Alabama!
And that was my weekend New Orleans. Also, this:
(Photo stolen from Amy.)
Looks like so much fun. I adore New Orleans but can never go back in the spring or summer because I DIIIIE.
That is wonderful that you did that trip! And the food looks amazing! I would gain ten pounds and love all ten of them.
Your pics of the gulf look like they are actually of Lake Ponchartrain but I could be wrong. The guitar dude probably WAS disgusted with you if you took his picture before dropping any cash in his bucket. The street players in the Quarter are like that. I avoid them at all costs!
I agree with you on the cemetaries, they are beautiful. Many of the caskets were floating down the streets after Katrina and then again after Isaac. The French Quarter though . . . I think parts of it are pretty (like St Louis Cathedral) but most of it is nasty. I used to go for the beignets but now Cafe du Monde is everywhere, all over the suburbs. The last time I went to a social work convention there was a shooting outside the McDonalds on Canal Street that was in the same block as the hotel we were in. That just about did it for the French Quarter for me.
Beautiful pics!
I heard the cemeteries are set up with caskets above ground because of the French influence, not because of the water level issue. If you go to Pere lachaise or other French cemeteries they’re set up that way as well. Love these photos especially :)
So fun! I loved NOLA minus the insanely hot, hot, hot temperatures (I was there in July once upon a time). How does one get in on the Blathering in the future if one is interested? I don’t know much about it!
Do you think I could buy a print of the photo from the French Quarter, right below the Tujagues shot? I love it and would love to hang that in my house.
Kat, like Kat from TN who comes to the Farm every year?? Did I know of this connection? Crazy, small world. Man…what have I become? A commenter? I’ve really graduated from lurker.