New Orleans - part 5

Well, I woke up Monday and headed over to the hotel to start sewing. Nope, just dreamed it. Yup, I dreamed that I was still sewing. It took me a few minutes to get over it, then I was able to wake up stress free!

We took a walk down to the (newly discovered) pancake house, where I had the best blueberry pancakes I've ever had. They didn't have blueberries cooked right in, but were folded in half with kind of a blueberry jam in the middle. YUM! The restaurant was called Betsy's Pancake House on Canal St., just so you know :)

Brian and Julia had to leave for the airport in a few hours, so the four of us took the streetcar down to the waterfront to check out Riverwalk. We saw some cool boats, one of which had a helicopter landing pad on it!

Then they left to take the streetcar back to the guest house to check out, and Chris and I headed to the Mom's hotel to hang out by the pool for a bit.

Bye, Julia & Brian!:


Then Chris, the Mom and I did some sightseeing. I was very glad to have an extra day after the wedding to kind of decompress, and we saw a lot of the French Quarter that we hadn't been to yet.




Then Monday evening, the Mom, Dad, Kathleen, Dorice, Chris and I went out for dinner to celebrate his birthday, which was the previous Monday. We ate at the Red Fish Grill, and most definitely the best part of the meal was their signature dessert, chocolate bread pudding...mmmmmm.

We didn't really have any plans for the night, so Mom, Kathleen, Dorice, Chris and I decided to do the New Orleans Ghost Tour. Our tour guide was Scary Mary, a wonderful little old lady who reminded me a lot of Maude from Harold and Maude. We got lots of little tidbits of history as well, and again saw some sights we hadn't yet seen.




After the ghost tour, we went for a drink in the lounge at the Royal Sonesta, which (other than the girl in the silver bikini outside the front door) was so classy I couldn't believe we were on Bourbon St :)

The next morning, there wasn't much time to do anything before heading to the airport, so it was back to the gas station for more muffins and milk. We took a cab to the airport, and the cabbie took us off the highway and through the Lakeview neighbourhood to see some of Katrina's devistation. I kind of felt weird taking pictures of this part, but here's one of the water line on a house:


It's incredible that if you only went to the French Quarter, you might not even know that there are still areas that are nowhere near back to normal. The guest house had about 4 feet of water, but they were able to recover fairly soon after the hurricane since they're on the second floor. We saw so many homes that were abandoned, still with broken windows and trees down. Our cab driver had a nice story, even though he is still living in a trailer on his lawn. He went to stay with his daughter in Minnesota for 3 months after the hurricane, and her church got together and donated a van for him to use for his cab so he could go back and start working again.

So, that was our trip to New Orleans! The hospitality we received was amazing, from the guest house owners to the (numerous!) cab drivers, to just friendly people who say "hi" when you're walking down the street. The sprit of the city is amazing, and it was such a suitable place for Gill and Grant to get married. It was so much fun, and so wonderful that I still can't stop thinking about things that happened there! I swear, I look at my pictures every day:)
Here's the link again, and there are lots more photos than I've posted here:
photos

I also want to give a HUGE thanks to my Mom (THE Mom), who helped me sooo much finishing off the bridesmaids dresses. This was, by far, the biggest project I've taken on, and even though I thought I was all set before I left, there were so many unexpected changes to be made. If it wasn't for the Mom, Jen B's strap would have been all twisty, Mairead's bust would have been too loose, and Jen H's dress might have fallen right off :) You took out so much of your time in New Orleans to help me out, thank you so so so much.
Also, thank you to Nicole in Toronto for seriously coming through on very short notice to do Julia's alterations. She did such a great job, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Well, I think that's it! If you notice any spelling errors, PLEASE let me know, I'd hate to look stupid on the internet :)
Thanks for reading!
m.

Oh yeah, and now that I'm back I can't wait to get going on some projects for me! But first I've got to catch up on all the birthday, wedding and Mother's Day gifts that I've missed/will-miss-if-I-don't-send-out-today!