As I wrote earlier, we did have the sounds of Bourbon Street blaring until well into the early morning, but we all slept nonetheless. We elected to take a city tour during the morning, if only to convince me that there were some redeeming areas of the city worth seeing. Our concierge came through again, and we were picked up right at the hotel after breakfast. It was a beautiful morning, and I am glad we ended up taking the tour. There is -- of course -- a lot of colorful history to the city, much of which does explain its "free spirit." The guide basically said, "as a city settled by prisoners, pirates, and prostitutes, what else would you expect?" We did get to visit the lower 9th Ward, which saw the worst of Katrina's devastation. I joked as we drove through depressed neighborhoods on the way that the 9th Ward couldn't possibly be any worse. I was very wrong. Six years later, we were all struck at how it still looks like a very fresh war zone. We did get to see many of the so-called "Brad Pitt" homes, each of which is unique and designed to survive some form of flooding in the future. I was glad when we turned around and headed back toward downtown, though.
The highlights of the tour were a cemetery stop (all the graves are above ground) and the Garden District
. At the cemetery, they went into great detail how they are able to literally bury 100's of people in regular size sarcophogi, and how the tradition is carried on today. The Garden District was truly beautiful, but I'm sure Sandra Bullock is very tired of the tour buses stopping in front of her house at all hours of the day.
We had time for one last souvenir stop after the tour, after which we took a short cab ride down to the cruise ship pier. With such a small port and only one ship at dock, check-in was a breeze and we were aboard the Norwegian Spirit by 1:30pm. Anna and I had sailed on Norwegian last summer, but this was Katherine's first time. We had been on the Epic last year, which is literally twice the size of the Spirit, and I have to say I MUCH preferred this smaller ship. In fact, I think it was a perfect size and I think we all really enjoyed her.
I was surprised to learn that New Orleans sits 110 miles upstream on the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico. As the crow flies, it is a relatively short distance to the open water, but the Mississippi has so many turns, that it took nearly 8 hours to cover the distance down river to the Gulf. It was an interesting cruise and the miles upon miles of open bayou were quite beautiful.
After dinner and a show, and what was to become of nightly ritual of ice cream before bed, we returned to the cabin and all collapsed.
Down the Muddy Mississippi
Sunday, April 17, 2011
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
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