NOLA, she's really great.

I got the wonderful privilege of spending the past few days in New Orleans with DaniBeth and her brother Andrew. We did a ton of fun things. It was a taste bud extravaganza! The food was super delicious and I tried lots of things I had never eaten before. ie: oysters, budane balls (sp?), bengets, gyros, humus, praline bacon, malt & fries ice cream, fried green tomatoes, and I'm sure some other things I am forgetting.

We spent a little bit of time driving around at the areas that were hit the hardest by the hurricane. It shocked me how much still needs to be done. After two years, you can still look around and definitely tell something happened. Don't get me wrong, a ton of progress has been made...Andrew is working with a ministry called Baptist Crossroads that is helping rebuild the upper 9th ward. It was so neat to see how much progress has been made there. People are so proud and grateful for what they have. I'm inspired by their courage. One thing that I thought was really fun and neat is the owners of the new house get to choose the color they want it to be painted. The street is a rainbow of different colored, new, beautiful houses. I wish I would've gotten a better picture of it, because it's awesome, but it was pretty rainy, so the colors look dull. But they aren't!

Other highlights include:

Seeing 2 alligator fights. We went to Jean Lafitte park and played with some gators.
Listening to some awesome jazz music. The rain didn't stop us from walking around to find some music.
Playing with kids in Andrew's neighborhood. Super cute and sweet kids.

I hope you get to go to New Orleans someday. It's really great.