At Last! A Real Steam Powered Riverboat

After having dinner on a steamboat in Sacramento that no longer functioned as an actual riverboat, Izzy really wanted to ride a real riverboat. In New Orleans he finally got his wish. Elijah found the Natchez Steamboat that takes a 2 hour afternoon tour down and back up the Mississippi River. Izzy was very excited. His parents were excited too.

On the Upper Deck of the Riverboat Natchez

Watching the Wheel Go Round and Round

The boat even has a small trio of musicians on board who play live jazz. Hannah got a kick out of dancing to the music.

Hannah and Izzy Checking Out the Band

Hannah Decided to Dance

The ride turned out to be incredibly great.

Sitting Down and Having a Snack

Hannah Made a Friend Named Reese, She Was Also 3

Not only did we get to sit and watch the the shore go by for a couple of hours but the tour included a guided narrative of what we were passing on shore and we learned all sorts of things about New Orleans, the River, the History of the United States, and inadvertantly the History of Capitalism as we rode along. He pointed out the place where the levee broke during Katrina, and the lower 9th district which took on so much of the flooding during the aftermath. He explained that the neighborhood sat lower than the river and was reliant on the levee to keep the waters out.

The 9th District In the Distance, The Brick Building Is the School Still Boarded Up

This Is the Place Where the Levee Failed

Then He pointed out two military ships, the Andrew Jackson Memorial and a bunch of brick houses that were military barracks. Then Old ship yards that now held Oil Tankers, a plantation house off in the distance crushed in amongst other houses, The old Ford factory, and the Domino sugar refinery that takes in sugar from all over the planet with its two billowing smoke stacks and its palm trees decorating the industrial facility. The sugar refinery made me think of the Cuban sugar plantations working their slaves to death rather than giving their workers breaks. Sugar seems always tied in to the horrors of poverty and cruelty of capitalism, sweet and rotten.

One of the Largest Sugar Refineries In the World

Then we passed more crude oil tankers, the modern day version of sugar.

An Oil Refinery Near Where the Oil Tankers Dock

You could trace the marks of slavery, and marketing, global shipping, processing, and the devastation of poverty and disenfranchisement, all in one stretch of land. All just down river from the French Quarter and its post-Katrina-panic. There is a feeling in the air around New Orleans as if the city is hiding, as if it is trying to regain its dignity after having lost its footing. Like a beautiful woman who becomes insecure and less sure of herself. I always loved New Orleans for its unapologetic boldness, the feeling that it just knew what it was, and was proud and happy to be that. This visit it was hard to find, not like the soul of the city was lost, but like it had drifted out farther into the corners, away from strangers. I would have had to take a lot more time to find it, it was no longer just out and about ready to be seen. I was sad, but I am assured that it was even sadder a few years back. The city is getting better. Somehow the steamboat ride gave me insight into how many times the city has stumbled before, the layers of history that New Orleans has suffered through were all written on the shores along the Mississippi. I have faith that the city I know and love will reclaim its ease and strength eventually, though perhaps the French Quarter will be lost in a sea of tourist cheese for a lot longer before New Orleans kicks the butts of those stupid enough to think that's all there is. In the meantime, the steam powered riverboat is a fun ride, and a great way to get to know the city better.