Day Two
First, a quick word to the non-blogger people out there who have found that without a blogspot account they couldn't post a comment. Sorry about that. You should no longer have an issue. Comment away! :)
Day One.
First, I have to tell you, I pretty much slept like a rock. Maybe it was just, after the anticipation of this trip, finally being here ... I could let go a little bit. I don't know. Or maybe it was just the air conditioning. :)
Today we ventured out, after sleeping in, in search of food. I have to say, suburbia (where I lived for my last 8 years or so in the city) is looking relatively normal. I mean, yes, there's plenty of construction, and FEMA trailers, and yes, some businesses had their signs missing, and others were closed (permanently or otherwise). But there was traffic, and hustle and bustle, and the area was basically as I remembered it, with some of the inevitable change that a city will have after several years.
That was good.
Came back to the motel, made some phone calls (talked to some people I haven't talked to in YEARS, and it was way too much fun to surprise them).
We were meeting my friend Michael for dinner at 8pm, so we had several hours before then, and we didn't want to just stay in the room. So off we went, on a drive.
First I went to Old Metairie. It's a very ritzy area that got hit pretty hard in the storm, and an area I knew very well because I worked there for several years. Because it was an area with money, there was a lot of construction - by and large, these were people with the means to rebuild. There were also empty lots where I was quite certain houses used to stand.
The area was not without its humor.
This place here, for example, amused me terribly.
Or this one. Something about the old-money nature of this neighborhood just made this trailer seem a little out of place. Of course, knowing it was the old money folks who decorated it ......
But that's where the comedy ended.
We drove out of the area, through another part of town with some nostalgia ... and then realized I was headed to Lakeview. Lakeview is the other part of town where the levee failed. It's not the part you read about in the national news, so much.
As I turned onto Fleur de Lis Street, where the neighborhood sign "Lakeview" remained on the neutral ground, covered in overgrown weeds ... my heart sank. Not that it was a surprise, mind you, the dirty streets and the unkempt grass ... but just seeing it, finally.
Unfortunately, we realized that the camera batteries were dying, so I only have a few pix to share. We'll go back tomorrow, though, because some of the images were so poignant. God bless the citizens of New Orleans, who not only wear their hearts on their sleeve, they paint them on the fronts of their houses.
I cann't express how heartbreaking this was. And this was down ONE street. Granted, it was a street I had nearly rented an apartment on, so I felt a little kinship to it. But the destruction, particularly at the spot where the levee had broken. Marissa had told me to bring my kleenex ... she wasn't kidding.
I wasn't entirely ready for it, but since we were already there, we went a little further down to the lakefront area. To the area where some once amazing seafood restaurants were now ... gone. I mean gone. Like, fell into the lake gone. Nothing but pilings. I knew that had happened to one of the restaurants, and I'm sure it should have dawned on me that it wasn't selective, that they would ALL be gone ... but it hadn't.
All at once, I remembered the bad blind date at Bruning's; the night Laurie was in town and we went out to Fitzgerald's and had drinks and danced with the live band; picnics at West End Park. This photo is of the parking lot of these great restaurants:
Those cars have been in that mating position for almost a year. And the area behind the cars? That's where the restaurants all used to be.
The day wasn't all doom and gloom. We spent the evening in the French Quarter, sat on the riverfront, walked around to see what was still around and what wasn't, and most importantly, had dinner and drinks with the fabulous Michael Sullivan.
Sad, though, to leave the Quarter around midnight ... with it virtually empty.
Day One.
First, I have to tell you, I pretty much slept like a rock. Maybe it was just, after the anticipation of this trip, finally being here ... I could let go a little bit. I don't know. Or maybe it was just the air conditioning. :)
Today we ventured out, after sleeping in, in search of food. I have to say, suburbia (where I lived for my last 8 years or so in the city) is looking relatively normal. I mean, yes, there's plenty of construction, and FEMA trailers, and yes, some businesses had their signs missing, and others were closed (permanently or otherwise). But there was traffic, and hustle and bustle, and the area was basically as I remembered it, with some of the inevitable change that a city will have after several years.
That was good.
Came back to the motel, made some phone calls (talked to some people I haven't talked to in YEARS, and it was way too much fun to surprise them).
We were meeting my friend Michael for dinner at 8pm, so we had several hours before then, and we didn't want to just stay in the room. So off we went, on a drive.
First I went to Old Metairie. It's a very ritzy area that got hit pretty hard in the storm, and an area I knew very well because I worked there for several years. Because it was an area with money, there was a lot of construction - by and large, these were people with the means to rebuild. There were also empty lots where I was quite certain houses used to stand.
The area was not without its humor.
This place here, for example, amused me terribly.
Or this one. Something about the old-money nature of this neighborhood just made this trailer seem a little out of place. Of course, knowing it was the old money folks who decorated it ......
But that's where the comedy ended.
We drove out of the area, through another part of town with some nostalgia ... and then realized I was headed to Lakeview. Lakeview is the other part of town where the levee failed. It's not the part you read about in the national news, so much.
As I turned onto Fleur de Lis Street, where the neighborhood sign "Lakeview" remained on the neutral ground, covered in overgrown weeds ... my heart sank. Not that it was a surprise, mind you, the dirty streets and the unkempt grass ... but just seeing it, finally.
Unfortunately, we realized that the camera batteries were dying, so I only have a few pix to share. We'll go back tomorrow, though, because some of the images were so poignant. God bless the citizens of New Orleans, who not only wear their hearts on their sleeve, they paint them on the fronts of their houses.
I cann't express how heartbreaking this was. And this was down ONE street. Granted, it was a street I had nearly rented an apartment on, so I felt a little kinship to it. But the destruction, particularly at the spot where the levee had broken. Marissa had told me to bring my kleenex ... she wasn't kidding.
I wasn't entirely ready for it, but since we were already there, we went a little further down to the lakefront area. To the area where some once amazing seafood restaurants were now ... gone. I mean gone. Like, fell into the lake gone. Nothing but pilings. I knew that had happened to one of the restaurants, and I'm sure it should have dawned on me that it wasn't selective, that they would ALL be gone ... but it hadn't.
All at once, I remembered the bad blind date at Bruning's; the night Laurie was in town and we went out to Fitzgerald's and had drinks and danced with the live band; picnics at West End Park. This photo is of the parking lot of these great restaurants:
Those cars have been in that mating position for almost a year. And the area behind the cars? That's where the restaurants all used to be.
The day wasn't all doom and gloom. We spent the evening in the French Quarter, sat on the riverfront, walked around to see what was still around and what wasn't, and most importantly, had dinner and drinks with the fabulous Michael Sullivan.
Sad, though, to leave the Quarter around midnight ... with it virtually empty.
posted by Tracy @ 11:39 PM
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