Devestation and New Orleans

Introduction
For our day off, the whole team drove down to New Orleans to see the sights. After scooting home just in time for the orientation meeting, dinner was at Chili's. Because the meal went until 10:30, I wasn't able to fully update the blog until the next day. I've put the destruction pictures into a slide show, so you won't be able to see the full size images until we get back.


Daily Activities
On the way there, we drove through mile after mile of desolate beach front property, with the remains of a house here and there. Further inland we saw deserted shopping centers, businesses, and dozens of empty apartment blocks.
Click this link to see the slide show.

Or watch it here:



Getting to New Orleans we had a bit of a tussle with the map, but thankfully we got to our parking lot without any punches thrown. There were many strange shops, including this one, which had a statue of a "hurricane survivor".

After a delicious lunch with the whole group at "The Gumbo Shop", we split off in different directions. Most watched some comedic break dancing street performers, and most of the group stopped in at "Cafe le'monde" for some French donuts (beignets).
For Scott, it was his first time eating at the famous coffee house. Jim and Alec K. had been here before and advised on a portion of six per person. Following the doctor's orders, Scott got the half dozen. Amazed at the large bag of powdered sugar with some good ol' deep fried dough, Scott and the rest of the table dug in. In the end, there was a whole bag of left overs, and everyone was covered from nose to toes in the sugar. Scott, flustered with his amount of pastries, had this to say, "What's a doctor and his kid know about ordering beignets?".



Other than that, the group just enjoyed the sights.


The car ride to and from was about an hour and a half. Riding in our 15 passenger van, the back seats weren't too comfortable on the worn down roads.


We got home at 7 o'clock, just in time for orientation speech from the camp leaders, Irene and Ed. They gave us a touching story of surviving the storm's aftermath that can only understood coming from the victims. No insurance, no communication, no jobs, and no help. The final point of the message, was that their are two kinds of government. The first is the Federal government, which can never provide the right help in time because of the bureaucracy. More importantly, the second government, the government that was formed 200 years ago, the people. That was the government that saved D'Iberville, and it's the same government that this group is a part of.

Orientation went till 9:30, leaving us just enough time for diner. We split and went to either Chili's or Sonic burger. It was a good end to a packed day.