Happy Birthday, Lorrie!
During the night there was a thunderstorm and actual tornadoes in the area, but by morning it was bright, clear and warm again. After breakfast at the hotel we had to hustle to the 1850 House to join a walking tour of the French Quarter. It was an interesting review of the history, geography and architecture of the Vieux Carré and environs.
The guide, whose house was destroyed in Katrina, has spent his entire life here and now lives in the Quarter. He told us a lot about the destruction and recovery efforts. It’s clear that it’ll be a long time before New Orleans is normal again, and it sounds like the population is unlikely to get back to 2005 levels. Even in the areas that were less affected about half the people have left.
[Even though there is no evidence of the hurricane in the French Quarter ] it’s clear that business is struggling with finding staff, finding supplies and finding customers. But we still hear jazz everywhere and see artists and fortune tellers at work. After lunch in our room and time for our feet to cool, we set out to look more closely at the cathedral ( whose bells we hear ), Decateur St for souvenirs and a stop for café au lait and beignets, and Royal St for classier shopping. We came home twice to drop off purchases. Man!! I hope it all fits in the van! [ which we haven’t seen for a couple of days ] . We also checked out several restaurants for dinner and decided on the one in the same building as our hotel. It was a terrific meal and afterwards we strolled
Bourbon Street again. [ lots of wildness ]
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