Eli Reports On the Coming Storm

There is a tropical storm coming and people are calling it Isaac. It seems to be following us. It might turn in to a hurricane. Here is a list of islands it has hit so far: Montserrat, Dominica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas, also Florida. I learned about the storm five days ago. Part of Florida was evacuated. I am hoping that the storm does not kill anyone. We are trying to stay away from the storm. We will drive east tomorrow.

School has started

The playground near where we're staying in Jackson is empty but for Eli, Izzy, and Hannah

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.

A Report On the Garden District By Eli

New Orleans

We were in New Orleans yesterday. We went to the garden district. The houses were beautiful. I, Izzy, and Mama found a lot of them that we wanted. One of them was made of stone with stone lions near the stairs. It was awesome. New Orleans is famous for hurricanes and floods, but neither would be able to penetrate that house.

Mother and Daughter: Looking At Each Other Through the Camera

This is Hannah's "Mama" series. All of these pictures were taken on the same day in the French Quarter. She expressed to me, every time she took a picture of me, how proud she was of herself for having successfully taken a picture of me.

This Last Picture Was Taken On the Riverboat

Later that same day I took a series of pictures of Hannah as we walked from dinner to the gelato place. All of these pictures were taken over a period of about ten minutes.

New Orleans' French Quarter

I hadn't been to the French Quarter in about fifteen years. The last time Elijah and I were in New Orleans he was presenting at a conference, and I got to spend an entire day wandering around the quarter by myself. I had found a whole section of sleepy antique shops and old perfume stores and such. I had not been to New Orleans with children and also not since Hurricane Katrina, both elements designed to have an impact on how I moved through the quarter, a multiple block section of old New Orleans most likely to attract large amounts of tourists and far too many scams.

We started our adventure by looking for beignets and coffee, but finding po boys and ice tea instead at a cafe on the square.

The crowds outside were intense, and there was at least one tourist for every scam artist or business person trying to milk them of their money. After we ate we decided to treat the quarter like an interesting hike and we went wandering off towards the less crowded residential streets.

Hannah Taking a Picture of Me Taking a Picture of Her

Sad Because Dada Took Away Her Camera For Not Listening

The Boys Dressed Themselves Alike This Morning

A Little Tired of Walking

Overheated Children

Tourist Carriage Traffic Jam

When we got too hot and the kids started wilting we ducked into a coffee shop and bought the kids little mini pseudo-coffee drinks.

The Kids Were Really Hot and Tired By the Time We Rested

Hannah Was Happy To Have a Cold Drink and a Cinnamon Roll

Hannah Was a Really Good Table Companion

She Was So Good She Got Her Camera Back

Elijah Found Out Yesterday He Has Pink Eye

While we were chilling out in the coffee shop Elijah discovered a cool riverboat tour we could take that would let us see the Mississippi, listen to some live music and get a boat ride where we could sit and rest a bit, all at the same time. So we headed out to the river.

Izzy Took This Picture On Our Way to the River

After the riverboat we wandered back into the quarter looking for dinner. We walked a long way looking for a restaurant that turned out to be closed. We ended up at a touristy cafe with loud live jazz and stereo-typical New Orleans food, but we all ate something and that revived us. I never did find the part of the French Quarter I remember liking. Either its been taken over by tourist traps, or its farther into the quarter than we managed to go.

Tired After a Long Day

All the Parents Are Wiped Out

The Kids Are Hot And Tired Too

After dinner we walked to a gelato place not far away. The flavors were really great, Elijah pronounced the honey, sesame, goats milk gelato in the case to be a true hippie flavor. Little did he know that the nice hippie owner was smoking a cigar just outside. When Hannah dropped her ice cream straight off her cone first thing, he went right in and got her another scoop. It started to rain just as we sat down outside and we chilled out under the awning and chatted with the owner until we all finished and the rain stopped. He was from New York and told us we should definitely go to the Bronx Zoo when we get up that way.

Eli and Dada Both Got Dark Chocolate

The Legs Next To Hannah Is Her Ice Cream Hero, He Brought Her A Second Chance Scoop

Hannah Got Milk Chocolate

Izzy Got Mango Sorbet

It was sunset by the time we finished our gelatos, so we walked back towards the river to find our car.

The Boys Were Deep In Their Imagination Game

Hannah Was Too Tired To Walk

Good Bye French Quarter