Letters to Briggz: Big Easy

Dear Briggz

The Big Easy or as some of us like to call it, The Big Sleazy… Our voyage has now taken us to New Orleans, home of the Saints, Pelicans, a 24 mile long bridge that crosses lake Ponchutrain, the birthplace of Jazz, and of course the French Quarter. We stayed at a state park called Fontainebleau on the other side the lake from the city. A big reason to come here was to see our close friend Lily! She was our advisee at Groton School and of course you know her mom very well.. Paula has only been caring for you over the past few months. We wanted to spend a day with Lily and she wanted us to get a small tour of New Orleans.

She is a teacher of Science and English in a program called teach NOLA. I think she is enjoying herself and will probably sign on for another year. While with Lily, we were able to meet a few of her friends who are also teachers.

Enough about that though, with Lily as our tour guide she led us to a park where the mighty Mississippi River passes. The boys played a little imaginary football as we watched the cargo ships sail by.

A and Lily trying to get the cargo ship to blow the horn

Mom and Dad have both been to New Orleans before, but we wanted to boys to see where Hurricane Katrina had done so much damage. The 9^th Ward is still a very damaged part of the city. Many of the folks that could afford to repair their homes have placed them up high on stilts or cinder block pillars. You can still see dilapidated houses with spray painted X’s on them indicating that the house has been searched, whether or not a person was found living or deceased in it, and that is marked as uninhabitable. An interesting part of this story is that once you pass through the 9^th ward to the other side you end up in St. Bernard Parish which is a big shipping town, it is like night and day. The homes are all new and businesses seem to be thriving.

The day flew by and we were all getting hungry. Lily is a fan of this Hot Dog joint made famous by Guy Fieri from the show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. They have any combination of hot dog you can imagine, and they are huge. Not only were the hot dogs delicious, but the fries were off the chain and the beer was ice cold!

We had a great day visiting with Lily and we were so happy to see her!

The following day we remained at the park and explored a bit. We took in a couple walking trails including one that was advertised as a boardwalk over the marshland. All of us were excited to possibly catch a glimpse of a few alligators. Well little did we know that the boardwalk had been destroyed by the hurricane as well. No Gators! We made the most of they day and enjoyed the warm weather, sunshine, and a nice evening fire pit.

Next we wanted to check out the rest of the city. One more trip across the bridge and into the heart of NOLA and Who Dat nation. We walked the streets of the French Quarter, which was teaming with street musicians, antiques shops, bars, and gift shops. We took a stroll around Jackson Square where one can see a piece of history as well as several artists selling their lasted creations. Again our stomachs grumble… Time for Beignets, a delicious take on fried dough with mountains of powdered sugar and a fine cup of coffee.