As Hurricane Gustav approached the Louisiana coast, I thought back to how lucky I was to have spent several days in the beautiful city of New Orleans just a few months before Hurricane Katrina hit in August of 2005. I really enjoyed my time there and consider myself fortunate enough to have seen the great city before devastation hit.

Laurie was attending a convention for her job and I joined her for some days of relaxation. Her work days were over by mid-afternoon, which gave us plenty of time to check out the city. In the mornings, I usually roamed around on my own, basically walking a different direction every day.

We stayed about a mile away from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. This is a spectacular facility (hosting about 95 conventions a year) spanning 10.5 city blocks along the waterfront. It is not simply spacious. It is beautiful and well run.

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During the mornings, I checked out the French Quarter, the SuperDome, the lakefront art area and Harrah’s Casino. It was odd to see the French Quarter early in the day, when the wild crowds were not everywhere partying.

Together, we took a couple tours; one was a tour of hauntings. I am not a real believer in the supernatural, but this was an outstanding tour. I learned the origins of “graveyard shift” and “dead ringer”. Of course, some say it is simply folklore, good for naive tourists. Either way, it sounded plausible and was interesting,

The tour also pointed out the home of New Orleans royalty, Archie and Olivia Manning. Archie was a star quarterback for the New Orleans Saints in the early years in the 70s. Despite the team being horrible, Archie was excellent and the fans still love him (and his sons Peyton and Eli, current NFL star quarterbacks).

One of the best parts of our trip was after one of the tours. We decided to walk back to the hotel. We underestimated the distance, but we got to see so many great sites. We were very tired, but it was worth it.

Laurie was determined to eat some authentic New Orleans food, eschewing our cabbie’s suggestion of Harrah’s buffet. She eventually did find some good down-home cooking. Inspired by her, I even had a bowl of turtle soup (tastes like chicken).

We had our fortune told by some hipster in the Riverwalk Marketplace. I gave him no hints and I am not a believer, but I have to say he nailed some really oddball things in my life (past and future). Again, believe or not, but it was interesting.

We jammed quite a lot into those several days, and yet it was so relaxing (the Big Easy?). We really felt we experienced New Orleans. As the events of the last few years have unfolded, I feel horrible for the citizens of New Orleans, who have gone through so much. I also look back fondly at the wonderful times I had there.

-John Wroblewski, distribution specialist