April Weekend #2, part two

So Saturday night in New Orleans, after a day of drinking in the French Quarter, we headed back to Dan's house for a little house warming party. Yogi and Dan bought the house a year before and had done a ton of renovation, and had done a really nice job making the house look beautiful again.


Thus, there was plenty of pre-made booze.


Catherine and Lionel.


Lionel, put to work on the stove, with a guy from Alaska looking over his shoulder.


Catherine and Dan.


Cheers!








Maddie adjusts the music.





Then we went to a couple bars, the second of which was in a huge, beautiful mansion on a broad boulevard.
















I spent about thirty minutes impersonating Scottish accents with this guy, until I was literally ripped away from him by one of the guys. Haha.

The next day we woke up late and headed for brunch.





And then we did a lot of driving around, seeing various parts of New Orleans that had been affected by Hurricane Katrina.


I didn't take a lot of photos but I did take a couple in the Ninth Ward, such as these steps that are all that remain of a house. Many of the houses simply washed away when the levees broke, leaving only foundations that are now surrounded by overgrown grass.






The wall in the distance is the wall of one of the levees.







After doing some touring, we went back to the house to drink some beer and hang out.




Hanging out with boys has its merits.






The guys found this big metal thingie near the levee and took turns smashing things in the backyard with it. Hooray beer!










The last night everyone was pretty tired so we had dinner and did a little more drinking before heading home. This is from before dinner, at the Carousel Bar.

And that was that. Monday morning, Catherine, Lionel and I headed to the airport and flew back to New York. New Orleans was absolutely wonderful -- beautiful, diverse neighbourhoods, warm and friendly people -- and I want to go back!