A Trip to Cajun Country- Suggestions
 

Hey All,

I know you all know about my love of the South, but lately I've been wanting to take a trip to Cajun Bayou Country in Southern Louisiana. I was wondering if any of you all had taken a trip like this, and if so, where you stayed and whatnot.

Much Love,
Ethan

Ethan, God invented Paul Prudhomme and recorded Zydeco music so we wouldn't have to go to Southern Louisiana. Its not a particularly scenic area, and the conversations with the locals wouldn't be all that different than what could be experienced at any random Bojangles' after 10pm.

I've been to Southern Louisiana a couple of times this year alone. If you're going into New Orleans specifically, just make sure not to spend all your time in the French Quarter. It's fabulous, don't get me wrong, but there's a LOT more to New Orleans than just that one section. I personally love the Garden District. St Charles Ave is fabulous, as is Magazine St. Both have amazing architecture, delicious restaurants, and great unique shopping (especially Magazine St). I also just love wandering around the residential streets in the Garden District... some of the best architecture in the nation! And when you are in the French Quarter, keep in mind there is SO much more to it than Bourbon St.

Hmm, I couldn't disagree with you more about all of this... though I suspect you're baiting people by being purposefully inflammatory. I've never met friendlier people in my life than the people I met in New Orleans. Folks going out of their way in an extreme fashion just to be helpful. For instance, when my friend's fuel pump went on his DeLorean, we had a guy stop and hold a flashlight so we could try and change it out. When we realized we didn't have a specific tool we needed, the guy drove us across town to my friend's house to retrieve the tool, brought us back, and STILL helped us with the car. This was just a random stranger on the street.

Southern Louisiana is quite beautiful as well... except the heavily developed industrial sections, which are indeed prolific. But the bayous, cypress trees, live oaks, spanish moss, and architecture are all incredible. Even though Southern Louisiana is gritty, it's at least thoroughly genuine... unlike it's sister cities Charleston and Savannah, which are Disneyfied posers in comparison (I love all three cities, by the way).

Nah, I was just being snarky. If anything, I was just surprised personally that, while as much as I love the food & music associated with the culture (and I really do), its never once occurred to me that I need or want to go down there.

I have a $150 United Airlines voucher I have to use before the end of the year, so I was actually mulling this over last night. My criteria? 1. Warm. 2. Cheap. 3. Can be done in a weekend (i.e., leave NYC on Friday night, return Sunday night). New Orleans seems to fit the bill! I've been there a couple of times already, but not post-Katrina. More than anything I am interested in seeing the ongoing recovery effort, in particular, Brad Pitt's cheap modern houses! There's an Iron and Wine show at the House of Blues that I was interested in seeing but it appears to be sold out! :mad: Anyway, I'd also be interested to hear what anyone else comes up with...

Just watch Swamp People, my new favorite show.

Honestly, I think post-Katrina New Orleans is something every American really should experience. I was last there a few months ago... 5 full years after Katrina. I was there for about a week and was shown around by one of my DeLorean friends who lives in Metairie. The city is still in such a state of disarray it's alarming and highly sobering. So many roads are still impassable. Even outside the highly publicized 9th Ward, there are enormous areas which have been razed and left for dead. Nice, middle class suburban sections. Mansions in high end established areas which are damaged, boarded up, whose yards have gone to seed. Countless numbers of homes left abandoned, with the water line and number of dead still visible on the exterior walls. You have to leave the touristy parts of New Orleans and drive north towards Lake Pontchartrain to see it, but once you do, you realize how staggering the scale of the destruction still is. And the amount of people who STILL haven't come back after all this time, and probably never will. I can't even imagine how bad it looked the first year or two after the storm.

But the most amazing part of all is the spirit of the New Orleans people. I've never met friendlier, more optimistic, upbeat people in my entire life. They all seem to thoughtlessly take care of one another. You'd think after all the horrendous BS they've been through, they'd be bitter, guarded, and resentful. Nothing could be further from the truth. I could tell you several stories of the generosity I encountered from complete strangers, but I'm already rambling uncontrollably :p. Seeing New Orleans earlier this year was just so humbling and enlightening. It is one of the most memorable, meaningful trips I've ever taken.

If you have the time and feel the desire to go to New Orleans, I can't encourage you enough to go. If you have any local contacts down there, that's the best way to really see the true state of the city. If you don't, there are Ledgies on here from New Orleans who I am sure would be more than happy to show you their city.

Louie, thanks for the suggestions. Many of the reasons why you've wanted to visit are some of the the things that intrigue me. There is just something about the culture, and the things that I've heard that really attract me.

This isn't directed at you Louie, but down South we get a little tired of only hearing
about New Orleans. If I didn't live down here I'd think that New Orleans was the only
place hit by the hurricane. Mississippi and South Alabama were hurt too. Pull up
Biloxi Mississippi on Google Maps and you can still see the devastation.

I can still see the destruction of the previous hurricane by just looking out my
window. Our farm had serious damage and we are still recovering from that storm.
Thank the Lord our homes were spared.

Last time I was in Louisiana I went all over the Southern part of the state visiting DeLorean owners... from Schriever to Mandeville. The reason I think so many people focus on New Orleans is the devastation is so immediately visible because it's a densely populated urban area. You can tell when homes and giant sections of the city are missing or heavily damaged. In the rural areas, it's just harder to pick out the damage, because it's not as apparent what used to be there. :shrug:

I do feel your frustration though, 2 years ago a tropical storm hit North Carolina and my home and all my neighbors homes filled with 4 feet of water. All of us lost our cars and most of our possessions. We got lost in the mix, too. Most of our neighbors were uninsured, FEMA told us they'd buy out our properties... they never did, etc.

Thanks for the insight- it definitely sounds like an interesting yet humbling tour of the city. If I go, I think I'll take one of those pre-packaged Katrina tours since I would rather not hassle with the bother of renting/parking a car for the weekend. This tour even includes a look-see at Brad Pitt's houses!

http://www.dixietoursneworleans.com/...SCRIPTION.html

It's weird. My anxiety over those storms is so bad that I don't even like
to say their names. I hate feeling that way about it.

Sorry to derail this thread. Advice to anyone traveling down South.
You must, I repeat you must try Polk Salad.

Down in Louisiana
Where the aligators grow so mean
Lives a girl that I swear to the world
Made the aligators look tame
Polk Salad Annie
Gators got your granny

How's your mentor Maria Duval doing?

No problem. I know precisely what you went through. I don't say the name of the storm that got us, either. It was very serious, though... I had to swim out of my house and across my yard holding my dog above my head. I had to go buy dry clothes (while wearing soaking mud covered ones) that day because all mine were ruined. We had flood insurance and were fully insured (despite having to pay a total of 2 grand for all our deductibles), but we didn't know we needed to have a rider policy so our temporary housing would be paid for while our home was reconstructed. So we lived in the upstairs spare bedroom in our house with no HVAC for 6 months while our place was reconstructed. It was hell on Earth. FEMA told us for the past 2 years they'd buy our property, but ended up refusing to each year. We eventually had to just move and rent the place out... our anxiety was so terrible every time it rained.We tried not to let the whole experience poison us, but unfortunately, stuff like this just affects us all in the strangest ways.

Louie I had no idea you had went through the same thing.
Yours actually sounds worse. We were blessed that our homes
weren't damaged except for a little roof damage. And it's good
to know that I'm not the only one who has problems with talking
about or using the names of storms.

Just wanted to add my thoughts on New Orleans. I had never been there until last June when I went specifically for the FM concert. I was shocked by the ongoing Katrina cleanup efforts. The friend I was with said New Orleans was a stinky dirty place to begin with (I'm sure he meant specifically during mardi grass and the areas in New Orleans were people do stinky things in the streets). Regardless of what my friend said, I could tell what was obviously water damage and other damage to homes and businesses that had been caused by the storm. I wanted to take a tour but we were short on time and dollars.

I have another friend who came to my town when she was forced to evacuate her home in New Orleans and she ended up staying here because she lost everything, even her business due to the building being ruined. She was totally traumatized by the whole event. After about a year of getting herself together and making the decision to stay in Alabama, she opened a massage therapy shop - called Touch of NOLA. Cool eh?

Oh, also wanted to mention that when I went to NOLA used priceline.com to bid on a hotel and got an AWESOME deal. I paid 50 bucks for a room that would have been $139 if I hadn't used priceline. Okay, There's my priceline plug for the day!