Katrina reminded us that New Orleans is a city built in a bowl and that when conditions are right, water will fill the bowl. Jiminy Crickets, the city’s drink is a Hurricane. For me, that means looking for a second home on the rim of the bowl. Fortunately my natural inclination is to live off the ground. Unfortunately, New Orleans isn’t a city awash in high-rises.
Many of you may be thinking I’ve missed the point of being in New Orleans, and that I need to focus on the classically historic structures that line the city. Nope. While my recent trip reintroduced me to a city I’d not visited in over a decade, some things are best experienced more from afar than continually up-close. The French Quarter retains its beer-sopped streets, along with the skeevy tourist and local clientele of memory. And that kind of unpredictable raucousness has never been me. It’s OK to visit, as one would a foreign land, but stepping over blacked-out barflies 24/7 isn’t how I want to live.
