New Orleans Day 3

Sunday I was looking forward to sleeping in, since I was out waaay past my normal bed time Saturday night. But when 7:30 am rolled around I was wide awake. I laid in bed for awhile, just because I could, but that didn’t last long because I was super thirsty. After downing a good liter of water, I headed out on a run. I’d spent some time with the map the day before and scoped out a good route. I decided to basically run the square perimeter of the French quarter. Each of the 4 streets had a very different character. Canal street had a big city feel with high rise offices and hotel. North Rampart was leaning towards seedy and run down. Esplanade was residential with gorgeous houses and a canopy of moss covered oak trees. Then N. Peters was people clogged and touristy. The sun was bright, the wind was cool, and it felt so good to run off the excess of the night before. My garmin had trouble finding a signal, and I was too impatient to wait, so I ran just by time, which made it even more relaxing. On my run I passed a Lousiana State Museum, the Presbytere, that had an exhibition on Katrina that I really wanted to see. So after a quick shower, I headed straight there to make sure I had time to see it. Holy moly. What a powerful exhibit. I was in tears a few times. They had a lot of personal stories, either on video, or narrated by the real people, so it really came alive. They had a room with huge movie screens and powerful fans showing footage of the storm. It made you feel like you were right there in the wildness of the worst of the storm. But then they also had the stories of all the regular people who acted so heroically to save their friends and neighbors, and how the city worked so hard to rebuild itself so quickly. It was truly a story of hope and resilience. I could have stayed forever, but I was absolutely starving, and the airport shuttle was picking me up in an hour. So, I made a quick stop for the one thing left on my list- a po’ boy. I got a huge oyster and shrimp po’ boy with sweet potato fries and an ice coffee. Heavenly.

And now I’m at the airport, trying to resist one last order of bignets because the whole terminal smells like fried yummyness.