Henry explained interesting facts about New Orleans along the way. We drove through the garden, lakeview, and the "beverly hills" areas and neighbourhoods. There were no gated communities. The poor, rich and the wealthy all lived together.
Author Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire)'s house with a tree full of Mardi Gras beads in front it.
The areas that were affected by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 drew the biggest fascination. Most of the city is built below sea level and most on top of swamp land. When Katrina hit, the water spilled over the levees below and caused severe flooding.
Some of the houses were still abandoned with the mark TFW which stood for Total Flood Water in front of it. Some houses you can see the yellow water stain mark left behind.
We drove through the neighbourhood Brad Pitt donated and built. The houses looked very colourful and funky looking. They are also now designed to have an escape hatch on the roof. A lot of people died trapped in their attics during the disaster.
The other fascinating attraction about New Orleans is their cemeteries and their culture.
One tomb can contain hundreds of bodies like this one. The whole family will be buried in it. They don't cremate bodies either. The body is allowed one year and one day to decompose before the casket is removed and body/ bones are pushed to the back of the tomb with a pole to make room for the next deceased family member.
This particular cemetery we stopped at ironically had a luxury retirement home right next to it. In addition, it almost blends into a residential area. This would never happen in China. No one would ever dare or want to live anywhere near a cemetery.
The city tour ended just before noon and we were ready for our next tour. Our swamp boat tour with Louisiana Tour Company cost $52 USD per person including hotel pick up. There was an air boat option which was $72 per person. The air boat has the big fan on the back and is very loud and fast. I wasn't allowed on it since I was pregnant. We drove about 30 minutes outside of French Quarter to reach the boats and swamp. Our boat captain and guide again was a local guy with a few missing teeth, but had all of his fingers.
Although the boat captain told us 'this ain't Disneyland' and there was no guarantee, we came across a young alligator within the first 15 minutes of the tour. He was resting under the shade on land.
Our second alligator was an adult about 7 feet long swimming in the water. The captain started throwing marshmallows at it. Apparently, the gators really like them because they float and are white and sweet. The captain then leaned towards the water with the gator alongside of the boat and less than one foot away from his face. He tapped the gator's nose and petted the top of its head. When the gator opened its mouth, he would throw a marshmallow into it. The captain even put a marshmallow on top of its head which the gator swam around with for a while.
The captain then showed off his pet baby alligator. He said it was his back up plan in case we didn't see any in the wild. He said baby gators are very prone to predators before the age of 2.5. In the wild, out of a litter of 50 eggs only 15% will survive. He plans to release his after 2.5 year old.
Locals Cajuns do hunt alligators. It is tightly controlled and an allowance is given to each family with alligators on their property. Each hunted must be tagged and reported.
On our way back from the swamp tour, it started pouring rain. We thought it was a fitting way to end the trip and condition our mind to head back to the always rainy Vancouver.
Our last meal in New Orleans had to be good, not that it has disappointed me so far. I have loved everything I ate, maybe a little too much. I even picked up Cajun cooking spices to bring back. ACME Oyster Bar off of Bourbon Street is very popular and we had to wait in a line up for a table.
The wait was totally worth it. I ordered my third crawfish boil dinner. Two lbs of pure heaven! By far the best tasting crawfish boil so far. It was more expensive at $9.95 USD per lb than Montrel's ($7.95 per lbs) and the festival ($8 per 1.5lbs) but it was worth very penny. The crawfish was big and fat and tasted like they injected the spices right into the crawfish individually. I ordered 2 lbs with the thought of taking half of it back to the hotel for later. None made it back. I ate the 2 lbs in one sitting and even mulled over the idea of ordering another pound to go. Did I mention I really love crawfish boil!!
Tomorrow we fly back home. I really enjoyed our Southern trip. New Orleans is a city with a lot of flavor from its history and culture from its people. I would totally come back here for a second round.
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Location:New Orleans
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