The Crazy Cajun

This morning, I went on a tour of the lower ninth ward, courtesy of my own personal driver, Nicole Fruge! Nicole is a native Louisianan, and a fellow photographer at the Express-News, and just happened to be in NOLA the same time as I. She's the kind of photographer I want to be when I grow up.

The lower ninth ward — in case you missed this story — was wiped away by Hurricane Katrina. Rebuilding has been rather slow.





No, it still doesn't look like the photo below. This is the set of "Patriots," a movie they're filming near one of the levees. All the debris, the cars - even the mud - is Hollywood magic (we saw one of the set guys spraying everything down with a mud gun). It sucks for the people who live nearby that have to see this and relive everything that happened.I'm really down with the colorful houses.
Nicole thinks the residents of this house are wicken. The several times she's been by, there are always offerings in the mailbox. Either that, or they're mailing apples.
Afterwards, we visited the Chalmette Battleground, where the Battle of New Orleans took place. It was both educational and confusing. This is how I pictured the battle going down. (photo by Nicole)After a full morning of sightseeing, it was back to the French Quarter for lunch at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen.
My roasted garlic pizza.
That's it for now.