Day 1 - Friday 9/18

Well, clearly it's going to take me a while to get caught up! So we will begin at the beginning, for that is a very good place to start . . .


Our plane was scheduled to leave SLC at 8:50 am. Not a bad time, not too early. Just as I was returning to the gate from my last minute potty trip, my phone rang and it was our neighbor letting me know that he had found Addie in a heap in front of his driveway. She apparently was very excited about walking to school, started to run and skip as little girls are prone to do, and fell down. He said that she was bleeding pretty badly from a cut on her head, so he had scooped her up and was calling me on his way to the ER with her. This is not what I need to hear as I was starting my vacation! We had left a copy of the insurance card and a signed consent for treatment at home, so Lane called Grandma Wilson who went and fetched it and took it to Joe at the hospital. Addie ended up with 8 stitches in her head and a huge bandage on her knee. Grandma took her home and kept her there because Addie didn't want to go to school all banged up. She also scratched up the lenses of her glasses badly enough that they will need to be replaced. I felt just horrible that I wasn't there to comfort her when she is so afraid of hospitals and such. We spoke to her by phone that evening and she seemed to be doing much better.


So we got to New Orleans (via Chicago) around 5:00 local time. Calvin, Angie, Troy and Marie were already there. We got settled into our rooms, which were nicely situated on St. Charles Avenue, right next to a street car stop, in the Garden District. Once we all had a chance to wash up and rest for a minute, we hopped on the street car for a quick little drive to the French Quarter. The hotel staff had recommended a restaurant called The Oceana, right off of Bourbon Street. We got off the street car at Bourbon and Canal. Canal Street is a wide, modern street, like a State Street here. Bourbon Street was quite unexpected in that it is EXTREMELY narrow and kind of. . . um . . . can't think of a good euphemism. . . well, let's just say it was different from anything this innocent little Mormon girl from Utah has ever seen. I've seen Mardi Gras enough times on the news and such that I recognized the landmark buildings and such. The buildings were pretty much all 2 or 3 stories and have those ornate balconies that are so associated with Mardi Gras, and beads were everywhere! There were bars after bars after more bars, interspersed here and there with Larry Flint "establishments" and other similar adult businesses, that had pictures on the front of the buildings so explicit I'm not sure what you would need to go in for! So we found the restaurant and it was nice, and the waiter was extremely friendly. Everyone ordered seafood, of course, but since I don't like seafood I ordered ribs. They were really good, but too much to eat. Someone ordered some crab cakes as a starter and everyone raved about how good they were. Lane got some red beans and rice and jumbalaya that he grew to love during his mission. After dinner, we walked back down Burboun Street. It was dark by then and all the businesses were lit up. The police blocked off the road for several blocks, but I don't know why they needed to. The road is so narrow it would be hard enough to drive a car down it. There were several street entertainers that were good, and finally a band playing some good old jazz when we got back down to the intersection with Canal Street, where we got back on the street car and went back to our hotel. We noticed that in all the trees along the sidewalks and roads, beads were hanging. Our hotel had a big bowl of beads to take, so I took a few as a souvenir and wore them around most of the next day.




This is Bourbon Street before it got very dark.The angle of the photo makes the road look much wider than it actually is.

These were some dancers who said they were on America's Got Talent, or some show like that, but didn't win. They were really good and the crowd loved them.

This is my parents at the corner of Rue d'Orleans and Rue de Bourbon.

This is a second story balcony on Bourbon Street. The balcony railing is covered with beads.

Seedy - Morally degraded.

September 18, 2009

Although New Orleans was never on my list of places I wanted to go, I am glad I went. The Garden district was as beautiful as the French District (well, Bourbon Street anyway) was raunchy. Everyone that we talked to was so very friendly. But if I ever go back, I think I'll stick with the Garden District and leave the French District for the Mardi Gras folks.