NOLA

That's New Orleans, Louisiana, for those of you who don't know the cajun lingo. Dan and I were able to have a little vacation this week. My parents watched Maddie, my sister watched Abby; and we were off to South Louisiana! We had a great time. We spent some time at Cafe DuMond enjoying the beignets (which the dictionary describes as a donut with no hole). Yummy! How can you go wrong with something fried and COVERED in powdered sugar.
Apparently, a good way to make money in the French Quarter is to paint yourself a metallic color and pretend to be a statue. If someone gives you a donation, you pose for a picture with them. Hence, me with the golden man. (We also saw a siler man, but no donations or pictures for him!)










We also rode the trolley through the city. It actually was nice because we were on it during a rain shower - we weren't going to pay the $12 for an umbrella, so we just stretched out our ride on the trolley.

We were also attacked by an alligator wearing an explicit apron.

This is a picture of Dan and me in our hotel courtyard. The hotel was in the quarter, so everything was within walking distance. We had a great time!

We didn't see much damage left over from Katrina. Several stores were selling shirts/bumber stickers that read, "Make levees, not war" and "I drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was gone" (my personal favorite). Apparently where they are suffering the most is in tourism. We had 2 different people (one a shop owner and the other a resident of N.O.) thank us for visiting the town. They said they greatly appreciated any visitors.