Last day in New Orleans

[This blog was written on Thursday night, but the internet signal we were "borrowing" sort of disappeared on us, so I haven't been able to post it til now]

End of Day 4, last day in New Orleans

Today was our last day in the city of New Orleans, and it was indeed a good one. We went out for our last job this morning to an intensely overgrown lot. When our friend Randolph showed us the site, even he was a little surprised at how out of control it had become. We had our hands so full that I barely took any pictures (although I believe Joey did), but we made a very good mark on the lot. After a quick spin over to Home Depot, we all put on gloves and set to work pulling up the 4-5 foot tall weeds and other plants that had overrun the area. We didn't get to finish before lunch, but the next crew that works on that site will find their jobs much easier.

After we finished our work, we ate lunch at the Cathedral (chicken and couscous!), and then headed back to our house to get cleaned up. Since this was our last day in town, we made our work a half-day and set aside the rest to go down to the French Quarter to see some sights. We parked our vehicles back at the Cathedral and took the trolley into downtown. We walked several blocks to Jackson Square, where we eased off the whole "schedule" thing and poked around in various stores. My personal favorite was the Little Toy Shop, where we played around with puppets, cars, lunch boxes, and more.

Our dinner was incredible... the Gumbo Shop was just awesome. A great little restaurant around the corner from Jackson Square, this was apparently frequented by Tennessee Williams back in the day and still serves great food. For dessert we crossed the square again and got beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde. Then we walked back to the trolley along the waterfront, where we happened to see Anderson Cooper! Needless to say, we didn't get to talk much.

Tomorrow we'll be getting up bright and early and hitting the road back to Austin. The week has been tough in a lot of ways, but we've risen to each challenge and done some serious work for people in the Lower Ninth Ward. While there is always more to do, the gratitude and appreciation that has been poured out on us during our stay reminds us that every bit counts.

Peace,

~Matt

Luke sports a classy belt made of two trash bags.

Ellen and Campbell on the trolley to the French Quarter.

Joey, newly crowned, systematically taunts everyone with the most awesome tarantula puppet.

Digging into dinner at Gumbo Shop off of Jackson Square.

New Orleans lighting up the Mississippi River.