Kathy sends one last post from New Orleans

Kathy returned home from New Orleans on Tuesday, April 21, and sent me these pictures. But I was on the Buffalo River by then and out of range of cell service and wireless. So here is the belated report from Kathy on her last couple of days in the Big East.

Some of the trees in New Orleans are draped in beads thrown during the Mardi Gras parades. If the beads hit the ground, NOLA locals believe, they lose their good luck charm.

This is the Oak Alley plantation, aptly named with this incredible walk of live oaks that are an estimated 300 years old.

On the sugar plantation, most slaves were field hands who worked all day then went to their quarters to tend small gardens and cook for themselves, keep house etc. Plantation rations were insufficient to nourish the workers.

The wood-drape at left above the table is a "fan" attached to a rope that slaves slowly pulled to move the fan back and forth over a bowl of ice to cool the guests. Ice imported from the North. Insane.

Our last meal in New Orleans was at Muriel's in the French Quarter. Multiple rooms, ubiquitous chandeliers, terrific good food, including shrimp risotto and Gulf mahi mahi.