Only a couple more days of pics to share ... hope you're enjoying them!

Wed, June 9

This morning was our city tour, a mini bus picked us up from our hotel off we went for about 3+ hours. Well worth the time, we did enjoy ourselves. Most of my pics are through the van window, so not the best. Oh well. One of the highlights for me was the stop at an older cemetery. Because of the high water table, above ground tombs were built. They are amazing!
Some people still wanted to be buried, so they brought in dirt for their plots
The coffins go on the top 'shelf', and because of the heat/humidity, the tombs are like ovens and within a year all that is left are bones. So when another family member dies, the bones are removed from the coffin and put in bags below the shelf. If the family pays, the tombs are maintained forever - but if they don't pay, then they are eventually torn down and the space sold to someone else.

The cemetery walls are surrounded by brick wall vaults were mostly used by people who couldn't afford tombs.

We also drove through Ninth Ward and Lower Ninth Ward, where the damage from Katrina was so bad. What struck me was the lack of rebuilding - after almost 4 years, I would have expected people to have come back to their homes. It really is sad and I don't understand why that is.

Here is the new levee, there used to be houses in front of it. I'm such an idiot, I didn't realize the levee was just a concrete wall. Around here, our levees are dirt, at least the ones I've seen. Anyway, imagine before Katrina - I think there were several thousand homes, and now you see one or two. Sad.


This art sculpture shows how high the water was (the blue columns). Anyone else think it odd that money would be spent for this instead of housing?

I only saw 2 FEMA trailers, more proof that people have just gone away, and probably will never return.

But it isn't all hopeless ... Bratt Pitt is building 150 homes, all at his expense. Well, he's attempting to build them, the city is blocking his building permits. He's probably not paying off the right people, lol. The houses are 'green' with solar panels on the roof, are storm resistant and I think look really cool



And Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, along with Habitat for Humanity, have built an amazing neighborhood called Musicians Village. They want to make sure that the musicians come back to New Orleans and I think they have built 72 homes. I love all the bright colors of the houses.

We finished the tour by driving through the Garden District. I loved seeing all the beautiful homes and the big old trees.

This was used for the film Benjamin Button

John Goodman's home (apparently his wife really hates that the tour buses come by, lol.)
Anne Rice's home - for sale, she lives in California now
They paint their porch ceilings blue, the keep the birds from building nests (supposedly).
I loved the "gingerbread" style of this house, and all the cast iron.