This is the way many of us want to remember New Orleans:The light shining just right. Bourbon Street being called "Rue Bourbon." Iconic buildings.
My husband and I were so looking forward to our trip there to, you know, do our thing. Take pictures. Explore. Eat lots! We wanted to inhale Creole and Cajun and everything we had yet to discover. Alas, that was not our experience.
The food was expensive and not all that exciting. The service was, well, just okay. A man with an eye twitch asked me where I was from, and I rarely answer this type of question honestly, but I did tell him I'm from San Antonio. What ensued was an uncomfortable silence and my secret wish to be a better liar. I should have used Poteet, Laredo, Waco, anywhere! Just not the city that shamefully tried to steal their football team as they struggled to keep their community together.
And keeping it together is exactly what they're working so hard to do. How can I really complain about my "diminished New Orleans experience" after what the community has endured?
All I really could do was take my library jumpies and be on my way. The thing is, though, that I know I simply must go back in the future. The community needs the support and I do appreciate how the library realm is doing its part, in a way. The 2011 Annual ALA conference will be in New Orleans, and I do believe ALA was the first conference to go there after Katrina back in '06.
We traveled long and hard on the day we went to New Orleans, so I could not fully appreciate their library by going in. Still, here's the finished product.a) New Orleans Public Library
New Orleans, LA (06.05.08)
