And you might have had an owl statue in your courtyard to scare away the birds.
And you might have strolled down this street which is said to have been Walt Disney's inspiration for Orleans Place at Disneyland.
Okay, not a great picture. There's a car blocking the view. And a guy with a dog. It pretty much looks like this from the other direction.
You might have buried your perishable goods in the ground in order to keep them cool in giant ceramic urns that were originally used to import olives and olive oil.
However, you would most definitely have been entombed above ground, especially if you were Catholic.
This is the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in the Garden District. Most people have seen this place at one time or another because this is the cemetery used to film every New Orleans cemetery scene in pretty much every movie ever made from Easy Rider to Double Jeopardy. There's even a plot of land left empty so that film companies can build their own tomb. Because using one that's already there would be sort of creepy. And I'm sure the family wouldn't like it. Anyway, they say the grave's a fine and private place, but I'm sure that's not when there's a large group of tourists is wandering up and down the aisles of the cemetery.
Our tour guide, Valentine, was a retired arbitrator from the Bay Area. And you can't tell from this picture, but he's decked out head to toe in Santa Clara University wear. It was kind of odd to run into a fellow Bronco this far away from the Alma Mater, but it appears that we are everywhere. Oh, and there are 39 people entombed in the monument behind him. Want to guess how they got them all in there? No? Well I'll tell you anyway. First, you can only open a tomb by law every year and a day. This gives the most recent resident and their untreated wood coffin time to sufficiently decompose. After that time and when the next family member is ready to join their predescedents, the tomb is reopened, the most recent addition is bagged and tagged and moved to the side, and there is now plenty of room for the next inductee. Oh, and the reason for the above-ground tombs? Because of the high water table, there's more room above ground than under it.
Despite the possibility that some people might find wandering around a graveyard a little, well, morbid and creepifying (to quote Joss Whedon), it was really very beautiful. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the cemetery and the rest of our trip.
For the law geeks out there, this is the Ferguson from Plessy v. Ferguson (one of the worst decisions in Supreme Court history). Plessy is buried in St. Louis No. 1. We didn't make it to his grave, unfortunately. I would have liked to have had a matched set.
This is the roof of the St. Charles streetcar line. You can tell that I'm originally from San Francisco because I kept calling it a trolley.
This was my attempt to get a picture of myself because Mr. flyskim does not take pictures.
Since we had just missed Mardi Gras, we had to see the Mardi Gras museum.
What do you want to bet that this was all done by hand?
I seriously dreamed about this guy last night.
The Mississippi River
Disney New Orleans!
This group was practicing for St. Patrick's Day. I'm not kidding.
Anyway, that was our vacation. We don't do that very often which is why I took over 150 pictures in four days. We ate in many good places. We drank many intoxicating beverages. We only got sick of each other's company once or twice, so overall, I'd call it a success.
Progress on McCalls 5818 continues. Both the lining and the fashion fabric are cut out and fitted. All of the darts are sewn on the lining and only the front darts on the fashion fabric remain. Then I can assemble the parts and adjust the fit. I have a new invisible zipper foot on its way to me in the mail, so I may wait until I get that to insert the zipper. Or I may just soldier on without it because I'm hoping to wear this to work next week.
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