New Orleans/ Bay St. Louis Day 1/2
Day 1:
Bryce is my travel buddy for the trip, so when I say we, I mean him and me. Anyways, so we started our adventures at 8:30 am pst. After some delay in getting out the door, we easily made it to the airport, had a relaxing stroll to our gate and then a rather pleasant flight to Houston, Texas. It was fun and I enjoyed travelling with someone since I usually travel by myself. During the flight I watched friends and slept for most of it. However, the plane got in 15 minutes late so we literally power walked to our next flight and by the time we sat in our seats, they closed the doors. That was a very quick flight and we were at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, LA in no time. By this time though, it was about 7pm CST. We spent the next 4 hours waiting for other peoples planes to arrive. It was incredibly dull and frustrating because the airport pretty much closes at 8pm. Not to mention that I was tired and hungry. During the wait, we had dinner at Sonic. I had never been to a sit down Sonic before. The cashier was the most rude and uninterested person I had encountered in a while. I got a few grunts to acknowledge my requests and a couple of snappy denials of my request. I do understand that it was the end of the work day and she must have been tired, but customer service is a hard job that she agreed to take on. It was not a pleasant first experience. The next thing I noticed walking though the airport was the lack of cleanliness. Most public places are rather dirty but this was noticeably more so. It was at that point that I decided to not care so much if I was clean or not. After finally getting to the hotel, it was about 11:30 pm and I was starving. Dinner at a local diner was sweet. I got the largest strawberry pancake I had ever seen in my life. It was delicious. It was fun to meet some of the people I would be spending the next week with too. After that was bedtime. I roomed with Hope and Melissa which was fantastic!!
Day 2:
The next morning we woke up early ready to explore New Orleans. We got 4 hours to ourselves to wander around and do what we wanted. I saw a museum that had an exhibit from Katrina and Mardi Gras. The Katrina exhibit was really powerful and interesting to learn everything about the storm. Mardi Gras had lots of fun costumes. The city was still litered of beads from the past week Mardi Gras so we were able to see some of it. Of course St. Patricks Day is coming up which is just another reason to party. There were already crazy people dressed up and ready. Then we saw a historical museum from when New Orleans originated. Don't ask me anything because I only spent about 5 minutes in there before realizing the city itself would be much more interesting. I found the city of New Orleans (or at least the French Quarter) to be simply dirty. There was trash everywhere and it smelled like a horses butt. However, above all the dirt and grim, there were also some very beautiful displays of life. Peoples balconies were decorated and the buildings were brightly colored. Despite the dirt, I liked the city and all the culture it contained. There were a collection of local artists selling their art on the street (I bought some) and there were local musicians playing for money. It was very enjoyable. For lunch, I had a shrimp po-boy. They are quite popular here and it was rather good. There is lots of fried food here and sweet tea. I also got to try a beignet which was delicious!! I wish we had them in Colorado. Next the whole group headed down to the lower 9th ward, which is the area that was drastically hit and flooded by Katrina. We saw the levies that had broken and were rebuilt and the neighborhood that was trying to become a place of homes again. Right now, people with more money are building there, with large, more hurricane proof houses. It was once a very poor area, but now there is interesting architecture. There are still lots of houses with the X on them, which identified houses that were searched. It must have been very scary. I couldn't imagine seeing how destroyed my house ended up. There were a few remaining and abandoned houses that lay borded up. The feeling there was intense. Then it was time to head to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. We got our rooms in the all boys catholic school, unpacked, had dinner and an orientation, made a Walmart run, then we to sleep. It was a long day and there would be so much to do tomorrow.
Bryce is my travel buddy for the trip, so when I say we, I mean him and me. Anyways, so we started our adventures at 8:30 am pst. After some delay in getting out the door, we easily made it to the airport, had a relaxing stroll to our gate and then a rather pleasant flight to Houston, Texas. It was fun and I enjoyed travelling with someone since I usually travel by myself. During the flight I watched friends and slept for most of it. However, the plane got in 15 minutes late so we literally power walked to our next flight and by the time we sat in our seats, they closed the doors. That was a very quick flight and we were at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, LA in no time. By this time though, it was about 7pm CST. We spent the next 4 hours waiting for other peoples planes to arrive. It was incredibly dull and frustrating because the airport pretty much closes at 8pm. Not to mention that I was tired and hungry. During the wait, we had dinner at Sonic. I had never been to a sit down Sonic before. The cashier was the most rude and uninterested person I had encountered in a while. I got a few grunts to acknowledge my requests and a couple of snappy denials of my request. I do understand that it was the end of the work day and she must have been tired, but customer service is a hard job that she agreed to take on. It was not a pleasant first experience. The next thing I noticed walking though the airport was the lack of cleanliness. Most public places are rather dirty but this was noticeably more so. It was at that point that I decided to not care so much if I was clean or not. After finally getting to the hotel, it was about 11:30 pm and I was starving. Dinner at a local diner was sweet. I got the largest strawberry pancake I had ever seen in my life. It was delicious. It was fun to meet some of the people I would be spending the next week with too. After that was bedtime. I roomed with Hope and Melissa which was fantastic!!
Day 2:
The next morning we woke up early ready to explore New Orleans. We got 4 hours to ourselves to wander around and do what we wanted. I saw a museum that had an exhibit from Katrina and Mardi Gras. The Katrina exhibit was really powerful and interesting to learn everything about the storm. Mardi Gras had lots of fun costumes. The city was still litered of beads from the past week Mardi Gras so we were able to see some of it. Of course St. Patricks Day is coming up which is just another reason to party. There were already crazy people dressed up and ready. Then we saw a historical museum from when New Orleans originated. Don't ask me anything because I only spent about 5 minutes in there before realizing the city itself would be much more interesting. I found the city of New Orleans (or at least the French Quarter) to be simply dirty. There was trash everywhere and it smelled like a horses butt. However, above all the dirt and grim, there were also some very beautiful displays of life. Peoples balconies were decorated and the buildings were brightly colored. Despite the dirt, I liked the city and all the culture it contained. There were a collection of local artists selling their art on the street (I bought some) and there were local musicians playing for money. It was very enjoyable. For lunch, I had a shrimp po-boy. They are quite popular here and it was rather good. There is lots of fried food here and sweet tea. I also got to try a beignet which was delicious!! I wish we had them in Colorado. Next the whole group headed down to the lower 9th ward, which is the area that was drastically hit and flooded by Katrina. We saw the levies that had broken and were rebuilt and the neighborhood that was trying to become a place of homes again. Right now, people with more money are building there, with large, more hurricane proof houses. It was once a very poor area, but now there is interesting architecture. There are still lots of houses with the X on them, which identified houses that were searched. It must have been very scary. I couldn't imagine seeing how destroyed my house ended up. There were a few remaining and abandoned houses that lay borded up. The feeling there was intense. Then it was time to head to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. We got our rooms in the all boys catholic school, unpacked, had dinner and an orientation, made a Walmart run, then we to sleep. It was a long day and there would be so much to do tomorrow.
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