New Orleans is...

---

New Orleans has always been a city that has captivated the imagination and taken the visitor over layers of the most fascinating episodes of New World history. Its history reads like a novel where the city does not serve only as the setting, it serves as its own protagonist. The town has so much character and is so confident in itself, it does not need to impress the visitor (parallels I drew with my beloved Chicago). It does not need to prove anything. You change to be a part of its story.

That, I realize, is what I love most about places I encounter.

New Orleans is …


Unique. Classic. Original.

Scent of musky rose seeps from the antique buildings

Soft jazz and gentle ragtime float from block after block of open bars

The French Quarter bustles with life in the day, illuminated by gas light during the entirety of the night

Hours fall away to exploration and wander

Stories about lovers, battles, pirates, conquests saturate every alley to every block

Music everywhere

Drinks pour from fountains

Laughter, yelling, singing carry on.

The dead mingle with living. The past is alive, and the visitor dances on the blurred edges of past and present

People find that raw element of themselves that they had been searching for so long

New Orleans is a community that pulled together in the wake of the most devastating natural disaster in recent memory. Its story continues

I wish I could read this book forever. I could live here

---

Photos

Rathbone Mansion c. 1850
We stayed at a mansion turned bed & breakfast, not before it was a bordello in the early 20th Century 0.0

Dinner
At Emeril's =)

Sausage Poboys
those were a bad idea... but other poboys were great!

Bourbon Street
It's awesome the first day, but you'll move on pretty quick... This town felt like a grown up Disneyland

French Quarter
Despite its name, most of the buildings are actually of Spanish Caribbean architecture. The French ceded the port to Spain in 1763.

watching the tour guide get away