Cemeteries and Lower 9th Ward, NEW ORLEANS

No trip to New Orleans is complete without a cemetery visit. Ours included three (or four as some blend right into the next). The above ground burial sites make for impressive splendor in the grave.

After wandering through the classic cemetery above I crossed a four-lane and stumbled upon a Katrina memorial. There are at least six solid marble boxes each housing 18 bodies of those who perished in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and were never identified or claimed. It's a somber memorial holding no names, just the bodies of the forgotten.
Our next cemetery held no above ground graves and the Katrina flooding swirrled headstones and remains into a jumbled mess. Much has been put back in place as best possible but there are surviving signs of toppled headstones and crumbled concrete. The simplicity and originality of the markers made me feel much more at home here than in the marbled mortuary.

New on the New Orleans tour list is the Lower 9th Ward. No one made a trip over here pre-Katrina to see densely packed homes but now that 4000 were destroyed, some completely washed away and others rotting for over a month in standing water, we come to see.

Through the work of the Make It Right Foundation new homes are just beginning to spring up in this wasteland of demolished and deserted homes, with a few restored homes dotting the landscape. But with 1000 people from this neighborhood having perished and many more dispersed to places like Texas and Michigan with no means for returning to an empty lot, it's hard to imagine this area will ever be fully restored.






In the swath of land nearest the breached levy, there is newness and vitality. The Make It Right homes, designed by leading architects and featuring the latest in green technology bring signs of hope and regeneration. Indeed, as we rounded a corner where two school-girls bounded from a bus, an ice cream truck blasting happy tunes raised spirits of youthful optimism.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana

If you like music and booze with a backdrop of history steeped in slavery and voodoo, I can't imagine anyplace you'd like better than New Orleans. I tagged along on Shelaine's trip to see Auntie Kylee in her new digs. Our first stop was the Rock*Art*Circus, an eclectic affair at The Big Top where we had immediate immersion in local culture. The six days that followed involved several trips to the French Quarter, an easy bus (or bicycle) ride, a long walk through Audubon Park, a drive across to West Bank which is more utilitarian than scenic, scenic drives through the Garden District, a bonfire in MidCity and a tour of the Lower 9th Ward (or Lower 9-11 as referred to by Zoe). The day we arrived, Hurricane Ida was heading our way and New Orleans is a bit sensitive to hurricane threats so by Monday schools were closed and the concert Shelaine had hoped to see was cancelled. By Tuesday Ida was downgraded to a Tropical Storm and we barely had a few raindrops. Every conversation and encounter was punctuated with pre- and post-Katrina references. In the French Quarter and the Garden District there's little evidence remaining of storm damage but the year and a half disruption of lives and livelihoods makes a more compelling impression. Not to mention the shattered lives of those who no longer have a story to tell or a place to come home to. In brief below, selected snapshots of our week in The Big Easy.


Music and dancing on a Sunday afternoon in Jackson Square.
New Orleans version of "street meat."
At the Half Moon watching the Saints Game with barking dogs.
Audubon Park.


At "The Fly" along the Mississipi with clouds from Hurricane, then Tropical Storm Ida lurking.

Tree telling us all the juicy details. (And Tanya gave us a tour of the art galleries on Julia Street.)
The Tinmen at d.b.a.
Pontalba apartments built in 1850's flanking Jackson Square by the colorful Baroness Michaela Pontalba. The oldest apartment buildings in the U.S.
Voodoo museum.
Free ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers.
Miniature house in Algiers.

LURAY CAVERNS, Virginia

Luray Caverns is the kind of commercial place with billboards popping up with hokey invitations along the interstate that I normally avoid. However, I'd staked it out in advance as a place to stretch our legs a bit, and free Elliott from his carseat, midway on our 9 plus hour drive, so we braved all the signs of classic tourist-trap and forged ahead, undeterred by the massive parking lot with a dozen commercial busses. After purchasing our tickets and being issued our headphones with self-guided tour buttons we entered a long narrow stairway leading about four stories down to the heart of the caverns. I'm not sure where all the people were but we enjoyed an hour plus walk along the brick walkway in relative crowd-free peace.

Look carefully at the next photo. See the perfect reflection in the water?

KETCHIKAN, Alaska

Last stop on our Alaska itinerary: Ketchikan - self-proclaimed salmon capital of the world. As we rounded Creek Street, the most (and perhaps only) charming street in Ketchikan, three harbor seals poked up their sleek heads as they swam upcreek on the prowl for salmon. Thousands upon thousands of salmon flooding the Ketchikan Creek on their last leg upstream parted as the seals bobbed and weaved in pursuit. Our tourist stops included the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center and the Totem Heritage Center, both of which are tribally sponsored. The Hatchery uses untreated water from Ketchikan Creek to facilitate greater survival rates for the salmon eggs that are spawned in this creek every year and the Totem center restores and preserves early 19th century totem poles and carvings from Tlingit villages. Our unexpected find was the Cape Fox Lodge, a short funicular ride uphill that is virtually invisible from anywhere in town. Our goal when boarding the funicular was finding a decent place for lunch, our reward was an amazing collection of baskets, carvings and totems that had not been written up in any of the guidebooks we'd glanced through.

Ketchikan is the southernmost town in Alaska and receives the highest level of rainfall. True to form, we were greeted with showers but by lunchtime the sun appeared and we rambled about the rest of the day in dry shoes. The main highlight for the cruise crowd is a trip to Misty Fjords National Monument, a short flight or long ferry ride away. Not wanting to board another vessel we passed this one by only to learn that an hour out foul weather forced the ferry to turn back and we were glad to have avoided the long detour!

As I headed to the dock at the end of the day I realized it was my last moment on Alaskan soil. I lingered awhile and reviewed the awesome sights and sounds of Alaska and vowed to make it back someday.

The next day we cruised south through the Inside Passage and on to Vancouver. The last photo here captures a glimpse of the continuous and seemingly infinite view of rolling evergreen-filled mountains. Reclined on the promenade deck, wrapped in tartan blankets, the passing scenery provided a soothing retreat for pausing to reflect, while pressing forward.