New Orleans (Part I) - The City
Just got home from a lovely work trip/brief vacation in New Orleans. I had the amazing opportunity to assist my friend, and *amazing* photographer, Leslie, with a wedding (I'll try to post a few photos from the wedding in the next few days!) and tacked on a couple days after the event to tour around the city. I had never been before, and was blown away by the vibrant culture, the beautiful architecture, the stunning landscape, and the food (but mostly the beignets):
I stayed near the French Quarter, so spent a couple afternoons strolling around that part of town before venturing out further around the city. Below are a few buildings from that neighborhood that caught my eye. Honestly, every city and every house should be as colorful as the ones below - even on the couple of dreary, rainy days that I spent there, these structures alone made you smile.
As pretty as these pictures are, it was strange to visit a city that I was mostly introduced to from reading about the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. While the French Quarter looks and feels almost completely recovered, other parts of the city look far from it. I drove through the Lower 9th Ward and the lasting effects of the hurricane are heartbreaking (I had my camera, but didn't take pictures because it felt disrespectful). I noticed spray-painted symbols on lots of the houses and did a bit of research to find this. After visiting the 9th, I couldn't really shake this tragedy from my visit, and am hoping these communities never need to go through anything as devastating again.