4th of July in NOLA

Three years ago in March, during spring break from grad school in North Carolina, my late father and I decided to pay our first visit to the city of New Orleans. Sure, we considered more tropical locations such as Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Ultimately, however, we went with an American city that we felt offered an interesting mix of cuisine, music and culture. Suffice it to say the trip was a blast and I am thrilled we went there. We saw some great jazz at Snug Harbor jazz club in the French Quarter, ate some fine food at places such as Brennan's and Commander's Palace, and were treated very well by the locals. A truly great experience and one of the many fond memories I have with my dad.

Anyway, I don't need to remind any of you what happened to New Orleans just a few months later. One word sums it up: Katrina. I remember talking with my dad on the phone in the weeks following the hurricane and how sad, angry and frustrated he was by the event itself and then the pitiful response by FEMA to the subsequent disaster caused by the failure of the levees. Having just been there a few months earlier, it all seemed a bit more familiar to me and thus bothered me even more. I took in all the news reports about the storm, and was reminded of the very real human drama playing out when a child displaced from New Orleans enrolled at the school where I was teaching in North Carolina in the fall of 2005. I vowed to return to the city the first chance I had.

Fast forward to July 2008. My first opportunity to return to New Orleans, this time at the invitation of my buddy Thang, a native of the Crescent City who now lives in Chicago. We had talked about doing this trip since I met him last year and I jumped at the chance to go back. To check out some of the places I had gone to with my father, see some things I had missed in 2005, and most importantly to spend money and show my support for the city. This time I saw the city from a decidedly different perspective, with someone who still has a lot of ties in the city and knows his way around. I stayed with a friend of his, Kelley, who lives in the Bywater section. Within minutes of my arrival last Wednesday I was sipping a drink at Bacchanal, a wine bar owned by his friend Chris.

Craving live music, one of the few things that I requested be on the itinerary was a return to Snug Harbor. Thang wasted no time knocking that one off, as we hit the club Wednesday night to check out a set by local trumpet player Irvin Mayfield and his band. During the show he brought up a number of teenagers, all students at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), to play piano, drums and standup bass. I swear if you closed your eyes and listened to this group you'd have no idea they were between 14-17 years old. Wow, there is some really impressive musical talent in New Orleans. Did I mention that we got into the club free because Thang knows the manager? Very cool.

Over the course of the next few days I saw a lot of the city, imbibed at many of Thang's favorite drinking establishments and met a lot of interesting people. Noteworthy among the places we visited is the Columns Hotel in the upper Garden District. Built in 1883 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel is a step back in time with its mahogany wood interior, grand staircase and square domed stained-glass skylight in a stylized sunburst motif (yes, I took that description from the hotel's website). Equally breathtaking is the exterior, which boasts a large front porch upon which to knock down a few drinks and watch the crowd roll in and the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line roll by on a lovely Friday afternoon. And this is exactly what we did. Just a beautiful setting and one of the highlights of the trip.

Aside from all the things I did and saw, it was fascinating to talk to residents and hear the many stories of how they managed in New Orleans post-Katrina. Kelley, my host, talked about all the people she put up in her house during the months following the devastation; About her goldfish, who had to be relocated to a friend's place since she couldn't get into her home at first, but who is still alive and swimming much to her delight; About how everyone had to dispose of their refrigerators after they were filled with rotting food for weeks. Thang's friend and host, Heather, told me that she was without Internet service for four months and that the day the first garbage truck returned to their neighborhood all the residents came outside and applauded.

In these and many other stories I was blown away by the resiliency of these people, the strength of the communal ties, the passion they have for their city. I made a lot of new friends that weekend, and I will be back to New Orleans. That is a promise.