Hector and I celebrated our five year anniversary in New Orleans. It is hard to believe that we have been married for five years, man how time flies! Hector and I are not perfect (not a big shocker) and we have had our fair share of disagreements, but overall it has been a wonderful five years. I would not want to change being married to Hector. After five years, I can definitely say that I made a good choice in picking Hector as my husband.
I started looking at places to go for our anniversary months ago, but because of Hector's current project at work he didn't know if he would be able to get time off. Because we waited so long to get tickets somewhere I was afraid we would have to go some place within driving distance, but I found great tickets to New Orleans just two weeks before we left, so I planned a last minute trip. Hector had never been, so he was supper excited and I hadn't been since volleyball Nationals in 1999. Since I served my mission in Louisiana, it kind of feels like home to me. That was a long way of saying we were really excited for our trip!
We left Thursday afternoon and arrived in New Orleans in the evening. Thrifty me found the bus route from the airport to downtown. After we settled into our hotel on the edge of the French Quarter, we headed off to find some dinner. This is an easy thing to do in New Orleans. The food is fantastic. Hector really wanted to eat Alligator, so we of course started off with that. We ate several helpings of ettuffee, gumbo, creole, and po-boys while we were there. I even ate fried catfish for breakfast...it was on the breakfast menu and it was quite yummy. After our food we went on a ghost/spirit tour of the city. I am not really into the ghost thing, but it was a good introduction to the city. We walked around the French Quarter with our tour guide and he informed us of some of the more gruesome history of the city. This city has such a rich history, the tour was fascinating, but we were pretty tiered when it ended. It is supper humid in New Orleans, even at 10:00 in the evening, we had been traveling all day and walking on our tour for two hours, but it was a great start to our trip.
Friday Morning, after eating some bengiets (yummy) for breakfast, we took a bus tour of the city. This tour was sensational and I am so glad we took it. We learned so much more about the city and we got see places and neighborhoods that we would not have seen had we not taken the tour. I like getting off the beaten path and I enjoy seeing more of the city than just the downtown areas. This first building is a historic church in the center off the French Quarter. It is a beautiful landmark.
These next pictures are from the lower 9th ward and other neighborhoods that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It is amazing how much evidence of the the hurricane still exists five years after Katrina struck. The 9th Ward has many abandoned homes. Some homes have not been touched in the five years that have passed. It is sad to see so many boarded up homes. At the same time, it is nice to see the work that is being done to rebuild the neighborhoods. There is construction taking place on every block of the city and surrounds suburbs.
This is monument created in remembrance of the destruction created by Hurricane Katrina. This monument rests in the center of the lower ninth ward.
Above is a picture of one of the trendy/green friendly houses Brad Pitt is building in the Lower 9th ward. After we left this area, we drove through several other areas of the city that were affected by the storm, yet we didn't hear much about on the news. We saw lovely middle class neighborhoods that once had water ten feet high in the homes. These neighborhoods are fascinating now. Some homes were unlivable and they have since been leveled. The homes that could be fixed have been. So now the neighborhoods have many newly renovated and updated homes, with an empty lot next to it.
Home built by the French in the 1700's.
We stopped at one of the above ground cemeteries in the city. It is quite the sight....and much eerier than a regular cemetery.
Below is an abandoned high school. It has not been touched in five years. How sad to think that my school where I coach and teach could become nothing more than a building in just a day.
After our tour we enjoyed walking around the city. We shopped at the public markets and tried on masks. We watched the street performers. They are very entertaining. I remember the painted people from the last time I was in New Orleans, and they were every bit as entertaining this time around.
Friday Night we went and watched a play at this gorgeous historic theater. The play itself, was less than historic, unless you think the 80's count. We saw, "The Wedding Singer". It was so much fun. They turned it into a musical and the production was fantastic. We laughed the whole time. Who knew Hector had never seen the movie.
We spent most of Saturday in the Garden District. This is where the rich Americans lived in the mid 1800's. The homes are amazing...so much detail and they are huge by today's standard. New Orleans had so many people with money back in the day compared to the neighboring cities and states.
We stopped by another cemetery in the heart of the Garden District...and we were so glad that we did. There was this, somewhat crazy, cemetery caretaker who was offering free tours. He was a local guy, no question about it. He was so funny...and random, but we learned a ton about the cemetery and enjoyed talking to him about the area. Overall, everyone we met from New Orleans was so nice. They all seamed so grateful for tourist. They are happy that people are there spending time in their beloved city.
This was my favorite house above, but the picture does not do it justice. I was ready to pack my bags and move in when I saw it. Saturday night we hit up Bourbon street. No we did not participate in the infamous events that take place here, but we did need to see it on a Saturday night. We did listen to a little music while we waited for our comedy show that night...that was a little interesting and I cannot say I would recommend it to anyone. Interesting is all part of the fun though. One of the best parts of the day was eating a Snowball. It is basically shaved ice, but we got this wedding cake flavor and let me tell you, during the humid month of July on the Gulf Coast, nothing is better.
I haven't taken pictures lately, as my life has been consumed with the beginning of volleyball season. I love volleyball season at the high school. I am so glad that I have been able to coach. This will be my sixth year at West Springfield. The time has flow by. Volleyball started two weeks ago. The first week was tryouts; this is my least favorite part of the season. I have to evaluate everyone and then basically crush the dreams of about twenty kids. Yeah, fun for me. Now that I have the teams selected I am having much more fun. I am excited about my team this year. They are raw and less experienced than teams I have had in the past, but sometimes that is a good thing. We practiced twice a day last week and we are doing that again this week. My Dad came to visit last week. We have always bonded over volleyball and I love that we share volleyball in common. He coaches at the high school I went to, but his season started a couple weeks after mine, so he came to help me. It was so fun having him here. I put him to work with some of my girls and they enjoyed working with him. He also spent some time with Natalia. Natalia got so used to having him here that for the next two days after he left she would stare at the door leading to the basement waiting for him to come up. I thought it would take her a couple days to warm up to him, but she remembered him and had so much fun playing with him. 
