"Laissez les bon temps rouler" - "Let the good times role"

And they are rolling.

Day 2 in Nawlins. I'm in a bit of history stupor really. I had no idea the amount of history that lives and breaths here. But today we have been bombarded with history.

Yesterday we wandered down Bourbon Street. Not so impressed. Twenty years ago it would have been a blast, but now it was a bit annoying. Part of the street (more toward our condo) it's quite and interesting. Then you cross into the bizarre, bars, and questionable establishments. To give you an idea, we walked past a "bar" which had a young lady hanging out the door in what I can only describe as a string bikini and she was missing some strings, if you know what I mean? She wasn't "officially" for sale, but I bet you could talk her into it...

I'm absolutely loving the architecture. The iron balconies are just beautiful. I've not yet taken a good photo of any, but tomorrow morning I'm heading out early with the camera to do my photo walk about.

Today the fam (minus dad who preferred to stay behind) hopped into a mule drawn carriage and took a ride through the French Quarter.

(Front seat: Me and Seattle SIL, behind us: Mom and BigBro, behind them: BigSis and Hubby, and finally Jack and Suzie).

We started at Jackson Square - named after Andrew Jackson. Its the heart of the French Quarter and dates back to 1791. Beautiful St. Louis Cathedral stands proud in the middle of the square.

And of course we had to stop at Cafe Du Monde to have our beignets (ban yeas). I will be going back to get me some more of that. OH man they are good. The chickory coffee was good in an interesting sorta way.

In the afternoon, we took a van tour that took us throughout New Orleans. He focused a good part of the trip in the Lower 9th Ward which was under 15 feet of water for days and days. The devastation that still exists is truly humbling. People forced out of their homes and they lost everything. Many never returned. Their houses still sit boarded up, sitting empty reminding the area of what happened. We saw several that still were "marked" from the rescue teams. Thankfully I didn't see any that indicated how many were dead in the house. Still, a shocking scene. Most interesting of the whole trip was to see the upper crust area who were "on high ground" who were also flooded out. The news didn't show that area. According to our tour guide the main reason was seeing the wealthy under water doesn't pull at the heart strings as much as seeing the less fortunate. Sad, but true. Overall, most interesting. Our tour guide was a victim as well and took him 2 months from when he evacuated before he could return to his house.

Tomorrow, as I said, I'll be heading out on my own with my camera in the morning. After that, we'll be hopping on the trolley to take us to one of the most famous cemeteries around. I can't wait. We got a taste of one of the old cemeteries today and I could have stayed there all day.