One day in NOLA . . .

We started out in the rain and ended in sunshine. La Nouvelle Orléans is not hard to take when you are with family who know the way and let you stay in ritzy accommodations on Saint Charles Street where the sounds of Streetcars lull you to sleep in the early morning hours. Buying a white russian; sipping as you walk past the bars, clubs, souvenir shops, smells, live girly shows, fancy hotel fronts with waiters in black ties, or dilapidated, crusty, old restaurants, head swiveling to try to take in Bourbon Street is the best way to guarantee a smile on your face. Quaint doesn't work as a descriptive word for the French Quarter. Lively, lovely, scary, loud, somber, showy, reeking, bold, disdainful, not meek or mild, beautiful, warm, gutsy, microcosm of good and evil, sinful, lusty, sleek, serene, worldly, holy, peaceful, calm, so far from perfection, enticing, NOLA, you're the one.