New Orleans, One Magical Place

New Orleans still haunts my mind with it's style. Five years ago, while attending a national racquetball sporting event with my hubby, we had the best time ever! I distinctly remember the historic sites, the rhythmic sounds, the tantalizing tastes, and the exotic aromas of New Orleans. We took a streetcar to St. Charles Avenue from the famous above-ground cemeteries to the Riverwalk shopping pavilion and then onto riverboats moving lazily along the Mississippi.

There were voodoo tours, readings, drum and chant rituals. Marie Laveau, the great voodoo queen, is still a staple at the New Orleans historic Voodoo Museum. Visitors can get their own good-luck bags of herbs and oils, and arrange for spooky tours of swamp country. You can even get palms or tarot cards read in Jackson Square. There are artists who sketch visitors in watercolors, oils, or even purchase prints of French Quarter scenes. Or how about that special purchase of an alligator head, or maybe feet as souvenirs!

What an mysterious and magical place. One of the most beautiful streets is St. Charles Avenue. I don't really know if the Garden District survived the great Hurricane Katrina, but it will always be here in the photos I shot that one hot and rainy day back in July 2004.

Can you even imagine having a driveway to your house as grand as this one?

A few blocks away on Napoleon Avenue, vampire mystery novelist, Anne Rice, bought Saint Elizabeth's Asylum, once an orphanage. Wealthy sugar and cotton planters had built stupendous homes in the Garden District. This is such a grand city, not only for it's Victorian mansions, but most of it's architecture. I felt like I was trapped in a movie from the 1920's or 30's.

Tomorrow I will take you to Oak Alley Plantation, one of the most gorgeous plantations you could ever visit, that once was the movie site for "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte," starring Bette Davis. They say it's definitely haunted!

And, for my next gift reveal during the 13 Days of Halloween Swap, here are Hope Malott's gifts to me. I did not have any of this silver garland or the black or white raffia. How could I be so lucky?

Thanks again, Hope!!