Daves Wedding...

Me and some friends were fortunate enough to be invited to an old friends wedding in New Orleans and we descended on the Crescent City for the festivities. I'd only been there one time prior to this trip. It was about 1 calendar year before Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. About 1500 people lost their lives in the storm. The most amazing thing is that years later there are still signs of damage. While the rebuilding is still going on the resolve of the people and the spirit of the city is definitely back. The music, food, and culture are what defines the area and unlike anywhere I'd ever been.

We stayed at the St. Louis Hotel which was about 500 feet off of Bourbon Street and were the wedding was being help. Our days were filled with walking around, site seeing, picture taking and lots of eating. I think the first 10 meals I had included some sort of Gumbo or Jambalaya.....soooo good.

The nights were filled with partying and good friends. We stayed out until nearly 4am each night and I was shocked at how energized we were just by being there. I met professional wrestler John Cena who was in town filming a movie. The day of the wedding our friend Laura Lee who live in the area toured us around some of the areas that were damaged by the Hurricane. All I can say is that we are really fortunate.

The wedding itself was beautiful and included Dave and Andrea and the bridal party dressed in traditional 1920's formal wear. The reception was great and included lots of food, drinks and dancing (I did the centipede on brick....ouch). After the wedding Dave's mom arraigned for a "second line" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_line ) which was a jazz band processional who march us all down bourbon street. This was really cool and we showered all spectators with beads as we passed by.

I have to thank Dave and Andrea for having me and look forward to getting back down to New Orleans because I had way to much fun to not go back.