The Big Easy

On Friday Barbara and I visited the French Quarter in New Orleans. We had a lot of fun. We saw the St. Louis Cathedral, Jackson Square, we saw the mighty Mississippi River just upstream from where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico and we even visited the Hard Rock Cafe. We even found Dr. Seuss. That’s surprising due to today’s “Cancel Culture”. I tasted beignet’s for the first time. We went to the Cafe Beignet just across the street from Jackson Square, but the line was approximately 200 yards long. Fortunately, they had two other locations a few blocks away with no waiting. After our long afternoon of exploring the French Quarter, exhausted, we made our way back to our trailer. We hope to visit again some day.

I have often been curious about the location of the city of New Orleans. It was built upstream from the Gulf of Mexico in the Mississippi Delta. It’s a good place for a transportation hub, due to the Mississippi River, but where it is located is in most places, below sea level. When standing in Jackson Square, we were 2 feet below sea level. They could have accomplished the same thing if they had built the city 15 miles to the north where the land is above sea level. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of the city is built on fill. It’s a good thing they don’t have frequent earthquakes. If they did, they would have even more to worry about than just hurricanes and flooding.