August 25: I Will Rise

Today's post is dedicated to the people of NOLA (New Orleans Louisiana) who are very welcoming - tourism is their largest source of revenue - and helpful, as well as resilient. We were stopped soo many times to talk about the dogs, especially Jean-Luc. Many people thought I had a wof on a leash. I could have put out a collection plate for people to take pictures or pet the wolf. Haha. But really - these wonderful people have survived Katrina, poverty, and most recently the pandemic. And now another Hurricane, Ida. So sad. This is going to create even more homeless in this city.

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Khalil Gibran

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." - Rootsofaction.com

Waiting on the bus

First Cemetery

Just one of the interesting shops in the French Quarter

Second Cemetery

The list of people already buried here

Henry

Goofing around in our Hotel Robes

Brass and drum band

lightning

Vending machine shirts at the police station

We don't support the confederacy

Yummy violet drinks

Tarot card and palm reader

We bought these masks for Leila and Aria

Cafe Du Monde

The water from Hurricane Katrina was up to the diamond on this house

We didn't hear any bells

Yvette

My friend who was singing to just me. Haha

Today we got up a bit earlier and went to a little placed called, Avenue Cafe for some breakfast. The Chai Latte was better than Starbucks - less sweet, served in a glass. We decided to drive down to Canal Street today and park the truck. We did a lot of shopping for our family and friends. We stumbled upon Jackson Square - dedicated to Colonel Andrew Jackson for the Confederacy. We went to Cafe Du Monde to get beignets and lattes. We listened to music performed by an older man who had a speaker, a microphone, and his cell phone., He played music from his phone through the speaker and read the words to each song on his phone as he sang. He did do one Blues song, Mannish by Muddy Waters. He wasn't on key, but his heart was in it. On our way back to the car we happened upon a brass and drum group of young men who were playing for the crowd. They were really really good. They didn't just play the music, they performed. Super entertaining to watch. We had to get going back to the care before our meter ran out. But before that we reserved a spot on the night time cemetery, ghost tour, which left the French Quarter at 8:00 P.M.

So we took the dogs back to the hotel and then headed back to catch our bus tour. We took an Uber, which was my first ever. The bus filled up quickly. Our driver and tour guide was named Henry. We visited two cemeteries. The first was considered for the rich. We learned that they use grave sites for generations of family members. There are three types of burials. Because the water table is quite high in New Orleans, to dig a six foot underground grave site would many times result in the site filling with water. That's why they bury their dead above ground. They also don't embalm. They just wrap them like mummies then a year and a day later they turn the soil if they are in the soil, which is like a raised planter or if they are in a crypt they push the remains to the back of the crypt with a pole that has a wide flat attachment on the end. This is where the saying comes from: I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. The last way that they bury is in mausoleums, which really are for the rich. Many of them have a key and door hinges where they can open up and put a different family member in as needed. Another saying comes from the way the dead is buried in New Orleans. During the pandemic of Scarlet Fever some people would fall into comas and wake later, so they put a bell on the foot of the dead. Then it was up to cemetery workers to listen for bells. If they heard one they would quickly open the tomb and take the person out. Thus they were, Saved by the Bell.

The second cemetery was called, Charity Hospital Cemetery. In this cemetery the children of an orphanage that burned down are buried. Whenever the water level rises they have to keep reburying these children. There is also a memorial here to the 128 people who were never claimed by a family member a year after Hurricane Katrina. So sad, but I can see where there would be at least that many homeless people unclaimed because I've seen at least that many homeless on the streets of New Orleans. During our tour we also stopped for coffee and beignets at an all night cafe. So while in NOLA we had three different beignets. They were all unique. The first ones were big and doughy - my favorite and also the favorite of Jean-Luc and Bobby. The second was from Cafe Du Monde, which is supposed to be the best, but they were just okay. The boys actually spit them out. Then, the ones from the all night cafe were very thin, almost like a sopapilla. These were Yvette's favorite.

We took another Uber back to the hotel. We are some snacks, took our showers and then we took silly pictures and drank some alcoholic beverages in our pink Hotel Pontchartrain robes. And we laughed a lot, which was good for my soul.