New Orleans

Recently, we (the REU group) spent a day in New Orleans, wandering around and basically being Touristy McTouristface.1

Anyhow, I took my camera with me – how can I be a tourist without it?2

So, if you want to see some pictures of New Orleans looking pretty, head below the fold. (And I’ll add that ‘in pictures’ is one of the better ways to experience the French Quarter – it’s old, the water table is very shallow, and that means that it’s a rather fragrant area, even after the invention of sewers.)

There’s a lot of very cool old buildings in New Orleans.

Within the French Quarter, you see a lot of wrought iron and brick – it’s a Spanish building style, actually, as the last big fire that went through the region took place during the Spanish ownership of the city, and thus everything was rebuilt to the Spanish fire code.

Though this is being posted a bit later, we went through a week after NOLA Pride, which still put it in Pride Month. Plus, it’s New Orleans.

We had a good ten-minute conversation about how to fit a cruise ship under a bridge because of this.

Lots of people on the shore were wondering about how much the ship was listing – I was just being impressed by how fast it turned around.

Once you get out of the French Quarter, there’s some fancy new buildings, too.

may or may not have almost walked into a parked car trying to get a good angle for this photo

We went on a ‘ghosts’ tour of New Orleans – apparently that’s a theme, of late?

This church is *old* and pretty.

(Sound of an angelic chorus singing)

I would like to say thank you to whoever gave this nice creature a hat.

“What does ‘virgini deiparae dicatum’ mean?”
“It’s basically latin for ‘St. Mary’s Church.'”

There’s something cool about skyscrapers peeking out from between all these old buildings.

Has that joke gotten old yet? Answer: yes, but I will never acknowledge it. ↩

I’ve been told that the whole “sunglasses, button-up shirt, shorts, and camera” makes me look like a Tourist Dad. I’ve come to terms with it. ↩