NEW ORLEANS IS BACK!

MARDI GRAS 2010!!!

I had not been to New Orleans since 2004. It was Labor Day weekend and I was living in Miami. I was actually hurricane dodging with a friend of mine. A hurricane was approaching Miami, and all the flights out of town were completely booked. At the last minute we decided to pack a bag and drive from Miami to New Orleans (at least a 13 hour drive). Personally, I didn't care about the drive (since I wasn't driving) and there was a massive traffic jam to get out of Miami anyway. But we made it to New Orleans for a weekend that is appropriately called Southern Decadence. We missed the hurricane, but I did have a decadent weekend. ;)

I first went to New Orleans when I was in my early 20's and I have been in love with the city ever since. New Orleans is a city unlike any other in the United States. It's French, Creole, Southern, corrupt and corrupting, all at the same sweet time. It has a rich cultural history and is just a beautiful city. I actually dated a guy there for about 6 months and did a lot of travelling back and forth, including seeing New Orleans on a "regular" weekend (and it is VERY different). I went to New Orleans for Halloween, which is huge holiday for the city. I have been to the World War 2 Museum and bypassed the Confederate Museum. Needless to say that I have always had a soft spot for New Orleans. The film that most shows the beauty of the city of New Orleans is Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire.

Like most Americans and people all over the world who have visited New Orleans, I watched the news in horror as Hurricane Katrina flooded the city I loved in August 2005. I watched in disbelief saying to myself, how can the United States of America treat its citizens like this? This wasn't some flood I was watching on CNN somewhere in Africa, this was in a city I had been to and loved. While the Bush Administration made many mistakes, the shoddy treatment of the poor people of New Orleans was among the most shameful.

I had not been back to New Orleans since 2004, so when a friend of mine suggested we go to Mardi Gras for his birthday I was in. Although I had been to Halloween and Southern Decadence, I had never been to the Big Easy for its biggest celebration. After 6 years, it was good to be back in New Orleans. It's just a fun town. Everyone is in the French Quarter to have a good time and get drunk. And those are my kind of people. It was truly a special time to be there because the underdog New Orleans Saints had just won their first Super Bowl during Mardi Gras a few days before we got there. Six years after Hurricane Katrina it was if the city was finally back where it belonged. And it felt like it. The city needed that win.

I could tell you a million stories about New Orleans, if only I could remember them, but here's a classic example: As my friends and I were getting directions to a restaurant from the concierge at the W Hotel, after he pointed out where to go, he offered this piece of advice, "Gentlemen, no matter what you do, always find a public restroom. Don't do your business on the street or the police will arrest you." That's a lot better than what I'm used to hearing from a concierge when I normally ask for directions to a restaurant, which is, "Can I get you a cab."