New Orleans

New Orleans.

Wow.

What a beautiful, haunting, fun place.

How can it be all those things?  Well, you have the French district, which is beautiful.  Just the door ways when you are walking through the streets are amazing.  The shops, fleur de lis (everywhere) Cafe du Monde and restaurants are abundant and busy.  Which is kind of nice to see in this economy. And I can't forget the jazz on the street corners.  The musicians & singers were fantastic, as were the little kids with soup lids tacked to the soles of their shoes, tapping in a way I'd never heard.  Not sure where they got their beats, some where deep in their souls, I guess.

Haunting?  The plantations are from a sad yet prosperous period of American history. To me, it was almost painful to walk through the properties. The character and beauty of the main houses seemed to contradict the pain of the slave houses.  Once inside the slave houses, though, I thought they had their own beauty.  The paint was chipped away from walls in a way that people try to emulate these on furniture. It was worn yet solid, protective.  The slave houses were 150 years old, yet have survived amazing well without the curation that the plantation houses have enjoyed.  
Oh, and the plantation houses actually ARE haunted.  I didn't see anything, but I believe it.  The workers there have seen apparitions.  I don't doubt it.

Beautiful, sacred, haunting, sad, amazing.

Fun?  Well, there's Bourbon Street, once you get past the two blocks of red light district, unless of course you're into that kind of thing.  But once you got past that, you gotta love the flavored slushie machines in almost every bar. It was fun to try all the different food...and see all the different ways to cook shrimp.  Bubba Gump wasn't kidding!  So shopping, great food, lots of people watching...all fun to me!