Marilyn and I awoke Saturday morning to a cold, blustery wind, but clear skies.  We had spent the night in Metairie and everything seemed fairly normal.  We returned to downtown New Orleans to see what it looked like in the light of day.

We took a wrong turn after exiting at the Super Dome and soon learned we were in a long line of cars waiting to park so they could pick up mail.  The grim thought that the USPS wasn't yet fully up and running after more than four months was disconcerting and added to our growing doubt that maybe we should be visiting someplace else.  After checking many hotels for a room, we were almost sure of it.

We were finally directed to the 41 story Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street where we managed to secure a room.  A friendly bellhop named Daniel kept us entertained with his non-stop patois as we went to our 22nd story room overlooking Canal.

"My cousin Hollis Price played ball for Oklahoma State," he informed us.

The view from our room's window was stunning and we began to feel better about our stay after seeing the amount of traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, along the wide, historical thoroughfare.  The French Quarter, only a block away, beckoned, so we hoisted our cameras, steeled our hearts and headed for it.  http://www.ericwilder.com   http://energyissues.blogharbor.com