days 1 & 2: the crescent city--haunted tours and happy new year!!

*editor's note* I had this all done and ready to go last night, and for some reason I lost the last 1/3 of the writing, which I had to do all over again today--hopefully I'll get the next two done in the next few days, before I leave town again!!

So, when you go on vacation for 5 days (but really only 3 because of 2 days worth of flying) to New Orleans and you take 350 pictures, it's bound to take a while to get it all organized into a blog. (And remember, this is also my scrapbook, so there is plenty to put in!) For my own sanity, this blog will just cover days 1 and 2.

Day 1: 30 December 2008
On Tuesday, December 30, Janae came over around 9am for what I'm sure was one very looong week for her, but we were confident that she and the boys were going to have a great time. Daren and I headed out to the airport, got on our plane, and settled in for a nice long flight to New Orleans, via Atlanta, Ga. We paused for a moment of silence as we took off from Atlanta in honor of Daren's birthplace (his parents were stationed there when his dad was in the army). What a long day!! We didn't get in to New Orleans until after 7pm, so it was already dark. We met Chad (Daren's brother) at the airport, got settled in our hotel-located in the French Quarters-and headed out to see the town.


These two pictures greeted us at the Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans. I was sure hoping it was "gonna be sweet" for the University of Utah football team at the Sugar Bowl!! There were definitely plenty of red shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, etc. to be found wandering the streets!

Our hotel was only one block away from Burbon Street, one of the biggest party streets in America, I'm sure! To quote the girl I was sitting next to on the airplane to N.O., "What? You are coming to New Orleans and you DON'T DRINK?!?! Maybe it's time you started!" Well, we didn't, but dang, that was one crazy place any time of the day you went. There were plenty of cops around to keep peace and order. And that's it for day 1. I tried to be somewhat conservative with my picture taking because it drives Daren a little crazy, but after that first day I gave up on that. I had no idea that New Orleans was so old, founded in 1718, and to me it was one of the most beautiful places to photograph that I have ever been to. I could have easily tripled or quadrupled the number of pictures I took--not that I'm any good at it, but I do enjoy it.

Day 2: 31 December 2008--Happy New Year's Eve!!


After a nice long sleep-in, which NEVER happens at home, we met up with Chad and Dakon (also a brother of Daren's) to have breakfast (if you can call it that!) at Cafe Du Monde. We quickly found out that the long line goes fast, and that's because all they have are beignets (fancy word for a scone piled high with powdered sugar) and drinks. Yummy, but they can't be all that great for you!

Cafe Du Monde is on the edge of the French Quarter, right next to the Mighty Mississippi, so we wandered over to the river after our "breakfast." We came across this guy playing his saxaphone, and he started singing to me. After he was done we bought one of his CD's (hmm, where is that thing?!) and chatted with him for a bit. He told us all about Hurricane Katrina and how he had to walk blocks and blocks in the water, only to have to turn around and go back home to leave and go another direction. Then he played "Utah Man" on his saxaphone. Very nice guy!


In the afternoon we had a date with the Haunted History Tour group to go to one of the (many) cemeteries they have in New Orleans.

This is how the time was passed as we waited patiently for our tour to start. I took this picture of one of the houses along the way (it was a walking tour). It had some significance, but now I can't remember what it is!

The St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest cemetery in the city, est. in 1789. All the tombs are above the ground, and it has the nickname, "city of the dead" because they say it looks like a city from the air.

This is our tour guide, Shelby I think, standing by a very vandalized tomb. It is the tomb of Marie Laveau, a famous vodoo priestess--and obviously some vodoo is still going on there today. Photo 2 is just a neat statue on top of a tomb, and photo 3 shows how far back some of these tombs go--this person died in 1822!

And finally the row of crypts...I really could have stayed there all day taking pictures. I don't know how many times I thought, "The boys would love to see this place!"

These old street signs were all over the city.

The Basilica of St. Louis King of France, is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the U.S. It was a beautiful building inside and out.

Right next door to the cathedral was the building where the 1804 Louisana Purchase was signed.

This is Daren's brother Chad's hightest aspiration for future employment. These guys were painted up and posing (sometimes to music) for donations in their bucket.

Burbon Street at dusk

We spent our New Year's Eve on a Haunted History tour of the French Quarters in New Orleans. Ben made me promise that I would remember all the spooky stories to tell him, and I tried to get a few pictures of the places--the goal was to get "white orbs" in your pictures, which were supposedly the ghosts, but...it didn't really work in my pictures. When I get Chad's pictures I'll put one in--I guess he's better at capturing the orbs than I am!

Photo 1: many years ago a doctor lived here. His mistress froze to death outside on the roof during a very cold and rainy night, while trying to prove her love for him. Some claim to see the ghost of a woman on the roof at night on occassion....hmmm.

The Ursuline Convent was the first girl's school in Louisiana. The story here is that a young girl had been locked up in a closet all day, and when they opened the closet she ran down the hall and jumped through the window (the one on the right corner) and fell to her death. After that they would close and lock the shutters at night, but mysteriously they would fly open, so now they don't lock them anymore.

Jean Lafitte's blacksmith shop was our pitstop halfway through our tour. This is one of the most well-known and popular tourist sites there in the French Quarters. It was built sometime before 1772. Dang! It is still the original building, but it is now used as a bar/restaurant.

Photo 1 was our tour guide's favorite stop on the tour. It's Nicholas Cage's house now, but it wasn't always. (by the way, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie live right down the street, but we didn't see any of them) So this is the final story of our tour--another doctor (what is it with these guys?!) and his wife kept many slaves at their house in a room upstairs. One night they were hosting a party when a fire broke out. When the firemen got there they rushed in, and almost as quickly they rushed out, trying not to vomit. They had gone in the room upstairs and it made them sick to see so many slaves in such awful conditions (one supposedly was skinned alive!). The pair escaped and were never found, but when the floor boards were being torn up, they found 70 bodies buried below them!

Photo 2 I took just for Ben's sake. He loves key holes, so I thought I would get a picture of this one that is upside down--supposedly put that way to confuse any ghosts trying to get in!

This was our great tour guide--he could pass for either Howard Stern or Slash from Guns 'n Roses!! It was a fun tour, but we were freezing by the time it was done, so Daren and I headed back to the hotel to thaw out, and to rest our weary feet. We didn't leave again, but instead watched all kinds of crazy stunts going on over in Vegas--did anyone see that guy jump his motorcycle up onto the Arc de Triumph there? And then free fall off of it going down? That was crazy!! We stayed up late enough to watch the fireworks at midnight out our hotel window. It was a very fun first day...or second; whatever you want to call it!