Some of you asked to see our pictures and hear our reflections from Emily’s and my recent trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Here goes…
(This will be relatively basic...some text, then some pictures, etc.)
Emily and I visited our once-hometown this past Mardi Gras in the spirit of two firsts: our first post-graduation visit as well as, of course, our first post-Katrina visit. Eager to see for ourselves the impact of the storm and the progress of the recovery (and excited about our favorite party of the year), we happily accepted an invitation from a good friend to stay at his place for a week to enjoy the Carnival season.
We departed DC on Wednesday afternoon, the week before Fat Tuesday. Connecting through Memphis, the second leg of our flight was completely full – a good sign for the economic impact of Mardi Gras. The airport was mostly deserted as we landed that evening, and then we had our first look at greater New Orleans.
After several hours of traveling without a meal, both Emily and I were starving – but soon found out that life in post-Katrina New Orleans did not include nearly as many late-night (it was about 9:00 p.m.) eateries as in the past. We stopped at the Sonic on Veterans’ Avenue (the BIG street in Metairie with EVERYTHING on it) where we learned you couldn’t pull into the spots like normal, but they did have a drive-through. In fact, as we would learn, most of Metairie was recovered physically, but finding workers for stores and restaurants was a continuing challenge, thus limiting the number of opening hours. We learned there were no 24-hour operations of anything left in the area – not even Wal-Mart. The only thing that came close was the Home Depot, at which business was booming! Dinner taken care of, we headed to Cade’s place on Broadway near campus and tucked in for the night.
The next day, Emily and I explored around campus and the University area. We walked all over campus, noting that it was looked almost exactly the same as it had. The only real evidence that it had been hit with over $150 million in damage were a charred house adjacent to campus, a still mostly washed out faux-“wetlands” that had been created my last year at school, and a partially-missing roof on the Social Work building (and of course the occasional backhoe or cherry-picker here and there). Otherwise, for the most part, it looked untouched and as pretty as ever – the azaleas were in bloom, the grass was green and the old stone buildings were clean.
We also used Thursday to, believe it or not, get haircuts (there never does seem to be time for that at home) and grab lunch at one of our favorite old burger joints – O’Henry’s. Sadly, though, just down the road, Camellia Grill sits empty and closed. My craving for pecan pie would have to wait until next trip. [For those of you unfamiliar with Camellia, make sure you make it there someday…incredible pecan waffles, shakes, burgers, cheese fries and, of course, pecan pie, which, after you order it, is reheated on the griddle with some extra butter thrown in. Incredible. But, it’s always got a line and they only take cash, so be prepared.]
Again, like campus, Uptown New Orleans was, by and large, up and running again. There was certainly evidence of damage, most notably the blue FEMA tarps covering many still-damaged roofs across the city and construction crews on just about every corner fixing something or another. Also, a number of the stoplights are still out of order, so stop signs take their place, which really snarls traffic a fair amount. Annoying, but certainly not debilitating.
Thursday night, we headed out to St. Charles Avenue to catch the Krewe of Chaos (satirical) and the Krewe of Muses (all women). It was a great re-introduction to the Carnival season, though, the throws weren’t quite as elaborate as years past. (We would later learn this was also a by-product of Katrina, as many of the Krewes were unable to order the goodies revelers had been used to in years past.)
Another interesting observations has to do with people called “Flambeauxs.” These are people who light the way of the night-time parades with fire. I actually didn’t get a picture of them this year, but you can find them online. Traditionally, they are African-American, very poor New Orleanians who actually line up the night of the parade to be chosen. They dance with their fire, and parade-goers throw money at them as a reward. Thus, they do this to make money. What was different this year was the striking number of Hispanics in the parade. It really shows the culture influx that is coming to New Orleans. And, it was evident in other ways, just walking and driving around the city as well. It will be interesting to see how that culture influences New Orleans in the years to come.
More... I'll split this up, since there are so many pictures...don't want to freeze up anyone's computer!
