Day Five and Six: NEW ORLEANS

This will be a picture safari of our trip to New Orleans.

I went to New Orleans, not knowing what to expect. My first impression was that it was very run-down, why would anyone want to come here. But as we walked around I started to think that this city is a mix of Italy and downtown Portland and then something all of it's own. I actually really enjoyed it and it felt like we were in a different world.

I really liked all of the gardens growing on and out of the buildings.

We also drove around a bunch of Plantations. We didn't have time to purchase tickets to go inside the plantation and tour, but we will have to leave that to our next New Orleans adventure. This Plantation is called Oak Alley where they grew sugar cane, this is also the Plantation that has been used in many movies.

We also walked around a Cemetery. There are many cemeteries in New Orleans and they were huge! All of the bodies are buried above ground, which I believe is due to water pushing up dead bodies and even some grave stones.

You can see just how big the cemtaries are. This photo is of just one aisle in a cemetary of about 100+ aisles. We probably only walked a quarter of the cemetary and we were there for about an hour.

The graves were of all different styles and sizes. I would bet that some of the graves were as big as our apartment in Las Vegas.

Lastly, we drove around the 9th ward, where Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the hardest. I was amazed, because after three years there is still no improvement in this area. I would guess about 50% of the homes have been demolished, 2% are being rebuilt and repaired and the rest just sit there abandoned. I was amazed at how the vegitation was thriving. Some of the homes you could only see the roof because plants had grown around the house to the height of the house. The roads also had huge pot holes. Dan (a friend we were there with) mentioned that the people who lived here during the hurricane were directed to go to the Super Dome for shelter and that the people in this neigborhood were mostly poor with no vehicle. The Super Dome was very far from the 9th ward and probably would take us 20 minutes to drive there let alone walk.

~ Nicole