Brief Trip to New Orleans

Here's Peter, Lindsay and Emma in New Orleans. We wandered down to this bench on the banks of the Mississippi after we arrived on Thursday. I was sitting beside Peter when suddenly something sharp poked my left forearm. 

"Ouch! What the hell was that?"

We figured it must have been a bee, as I pulled the stinger out of my arm. It stung for several hours, and then proceeded to turn red and swell over the next day or so.

We were down in the French Quarter, in downtown New Orleans. There are all these beautiful balconies.

The night before we left, we took a paddleboat dinner cruise on the Natchez. It was great. The food was terrific and the tour was very informative and interesting.

After the dinner cruise, we went back to the hotel to change and go out on the town, but we received letters under our doors stating the hotel had to close by 8 a.m. the next morning due to the mandatory evacuation. They suggested we all get to the airport while taxis and traffic were still moving. We packed up and spent our last night in the airport. It was impossible to sleep, with the constant announcements and other noise. We were all exhausted but happy to see the ticket agents come in at 4 a.m. The airport was FREEZING cold, and Lindsay offered her hoodie to Peter.

Lindsay and I walked over to a Denny's around 2 or 3 a.m. We learned from a Homeland Security guy there that most of the airport and airline employees had been released from duty, and Homeland Security and TSA workers were flown in from all around the country to run the airport. As a parting gift, he told us, "There's only about 1/3 of the crew to run the airport, and we're expecting 20,000 people, so you better get there early." 

Early? We're already there! I don't know how we could have gotten there any earlier.

We all got out Saturday morning. Home, exhausted, but home.