The Young and the Restless

The Big Easy

When I woke up this morning it felt like Christmas because I was so excited that I would finally get to see my kids! I hadn't seen them in 11 days and I had to wait until midnight that night before I would see them again. Our flight didn't leave until that evening so we were able to spend the day exploring New Orleans with our newly adpoted friends. I must say, New Orleans is one of those places you go to once to say you've been there but would never return. It is a dirty, dirty city in more ways than one, but it was also cool to see first hand all these places you hear about and see on tv. The garden district was a breath of fresh air, though. After being in AZ and seeing stucco and cinder block walls for as far as the eye can see, it was nice to see some beautiful homes with so much history. Our first stop was the Lower Ninth Ward which had been completely demolished by Hurricane Katrina. It was pretty surprising and sad to see that after about 3 years it still looked untouched. It was like a ghost town. All of the houses had different numbers painted on them to tell the date that they had gone in to assess it, how many people were found dead or alive, etc. It was a little eerie and so sad to think about what these people went through. There were some houses that had been rebuilt, but it would be depressing to be the only one living on a street that was filled with rotting houses knowing that your neighbors would never return. I don't think I would want to live there again and have the daily reminder of what they went through. The infamous convention center was right by the port and we couldn't help but remember all the things we had heard about that place on the news, with people dying in the hallways, rapes, gang fights, human feces everywhere, etc. It was hard to believe that all those things had happened there. We did find a ray of sunshine when we found the street with the houses that Brad Pitt designed. I was keeping my fingers crossed that he might be roaming around admiring his work, but we had no such luck. I'm sure the people that live there are probably so sick of tourists taking pictures, but I think it's only fair that if they get a free house designed by none other than Brad Pitt then they should have the patience to put up with annoying on lookers. But maybe that's just me.

Next we ate lunch at a cool little corner street Italian cafe then headed over to Bourbon street. I really wasn't a fan. I know I'm a little niave living in my Gilbert bubble, but the things I saw there put Vegas to shame. Jason had strict instructions to keep his eyes looking straight ahead. Once again, it was cool to see the French Quarter and hear all of the great jazz music, but I think I could have done without all the boobies.

I'm not quite sure why bead necklaces weren't being hurled our way

We saw some cool street performers before it started pouring rain then we, along with the entire state of Louisianna, ducked into the famous Cafe Du Monde to devour their french donuts with powdered sugar piled a foot high....mmmmm. It's a good thing we stopped at the trusty "family dollar" for all our umbrella needs before getting on the ship, especially since we forgot to bring it with us the two times it rained. We walked through a gorgeous cathedral where I decided that was where I would have wanted to get married if I were catholic. Then we dropped our friends off at their hotel and headed to the airport so that I could get there like 5 hours early. Jason hates sitting around the airport waiting and I hate rushing and barely making the plane, so traveling is sometimes a source of contention in our relationship. I won this time because I was not about to miss our flight and wait another day to see our kids. Besides, who knows when we'll ever get another chance to sit in peace and quiet for 5 long uninterrupted hours with nothing to do (okay, so maybe it really was only an hour). It was sad to see our amazing week come to an end, I loved every minute of it, but I was also so excited to go home and see my babies!