New Orleans: Part 2

I mentioned in my previous post that my vision of New Orleans included a lot of pirates... well that vision also included a lot of ghosts. So a visit to a cool old cemetery was only natural. I'm extremely fascinated with how people are buried above ground in New Orleans. Hundreds of years ago, through trial and error they discovered that burying people underground just didn't work because every person they tried to bury underground would eventually come back up above the ground after the rains and floods came in and softened the earth up. So to avoid that minor issue they eventually decided on burying people in above ground tombs. We did a tour at the St. Louis #1 cemetery, which is regarded as the oldest surviving cemetery in New Orleans. Our tour guide was the lady pictured above and she was awesome. There is so much fascinating history surrounding these types of cemeteries, and if that thing interests you at all definitely do some research.

That strange looking pyramid type tomb is the future resting place of Nicholas Cage. Not even joking.

The above tomb is the exact reason I wanted to visit this particular cemetery! It is the tomb of the famous voodoo queen Marie Laveau. Who is a very interesting character to learn about. If you're interested in New Orleans history, she is a must to research.

One of the days I was there Shelby, Scott and I drove out to Pensacola, Florida to hang out at the beach. I'd never been to a white sand beach before!

The water was so warm and perfect! Towards the end of the day though we saw a shark and that was the end of us swimming, haha.

One of the days we signed up for a swamp tour.

It poured rain and we totally got soaked, but it was so worth it.

Our tour guide was a legit Cajun. He showed us his scrapbook of all the alligators he's caught in his life. Like, I probably wouldn't be surprised if he's made an appearance on Swamp People. He was pretty awesome.

The swamp did not disappoint! We saw a ton of alligators. Which are so scary, but I've read they're not really that aggressive. I guess crocodiles are the ones you want to watch out for, but alligators are actually not too bad?? But honestly if you stuck me in a room by myself with one I would still be horrified. From the comfort and safety of a boat though, they are really fun to watch.

Our Cajun tour guide keeps pet alligators and so he passed it around and let us hold him. I thought this baby one was so cute. I mean look at those little arms just hanging helplessly at his side! Such a cutie.

Another amazing thing about New Orleans is all the food! We ate at some of the most delicious places and one of the highlights for sure was Commander's Palace (which is the restaurant that Emeril himself started out at as a chef, cool eh). You pick out three courses - appetizer, main course and dessert and it was all SO GOOD. I'd never had fine dining before this experience and now I don't know how I went my whole life thinking I knew what good food was. But guys, I didn't know what delicious meant until I ate at this restaurant. If you are ever in New Orleans I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. There's even a documentary about the lady who started it - Ella Brennan on Netflix, it's called 'Commanding the Table'.

Whelp guys, thus concludes my documentation on New Orleans. It was a dream come true for me. Luckily Shelby and Scott will be there for several more years and so I plan to make even more return trips!