New Orleans Trip - July 12-19

[VortexBFForever]

Greetings from New Orleans, Louisiana! I'm down here with my youth group on a mission trip. I'm typing all this on my iPod since my laptop is safe at home.

I'll be updating this thread daily so those who want to know will find out what's happening each day!

I will also occasionally post pictures that I take on my iPod. Of course, I also have my camera, but without my laptop I cannot upload and share them until I get back.

Yesterday was the first day of the trip. We left and went as far as Huntsville, Alabama. We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings at Madison Square Mall, swam in a neighborhood pool (for fun) and spent the night at a church there.

Today, we finished the trip. The entire trip from Dayton, OH to NOLA lasted about 13 hours total. Part of the route included crossing Lake Ponchartrain (that lake is HUGE) and going right past the former Six Flags New Orleans!

We are staying at a place called Camp Hope, which is actually a former school that was made into a dormitory. Although it's technically in New Orleans, it is located in Arabi/St. Bernard Parish.

We just had dinner at an area Raising Cane's restaurant. It was my first time eating at a Raising Cane's. The sandwich I got was really good. I love the sauce!!

Tonight will be the first of six nights spent down here in NOLA. Tomorrow is our first day of "work."

I hope you enjoy the updates, including the photos!

[VortexBFForever]

Here's the first picture. It was taken at the pool in Alabama last night. It wasn't as dark as it looks in the picture.

And yes, that is a person in the picture. I don't remember who, though.

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[jcgoble3]

Sounds great! Be sure to tell us how Raising Cane's chicken, bread, and sauce compares to Chicken Shack at KI.

[VortexBFForever]

Raising Cane's and Chicken Shack are pretty similar, but I'm going to have to say Raising Cane's wins by just a little bit.

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[VortexBFForever]

July 14, 2014

This day was our first day of work. We split into groups and headed off to different worksites. I was in the group who went to St. Gabriel School in Gentilly to help paint doors and walls.

After eating lunch (during a thunderstorm!) we headed downtown to help at a homeless shelter. We passed the Superdome on the way. That thing is ginormous! I'm always blown away by its massive size each time we pass by! Anyway, at the shelter (called New Orleans Mission) we packed bags of food and gave them to people we saw when walking around the neighborhood, a lot of whom were poor/homeless.

In the evening, we went uptown to City Park. We played games and had fun there. We would've done Storyland and the Botanical Gardens if they weren't closed on Mondays...

The last thing we did was go to the Morning Call Cafe which is open 24/7. I enjoyed some hot chocolate and beignets while also enjoying their free wifi!

All in all it was a great day!

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[medford]

Have fun down there. There is a ton of history and architecture down there. If you get a chance to explore the French Quarter there are a lot of interesting sights. I assume you are underage, so I wouldn't recommend exploring in the evening and no matter the time of day, never stray too far away from the river, IIRC the recommendation is to stay w/n the first 4 streets off the river, otherwise it goes down hill very quickly. Tons of awesome food around every corner and a lot of interesting people watching.

[Mandee Wurts]

If you like raising canes chicken, you must not have ever tried popeyes. Its the BEST chicken ever. Anyway, have fun in nola, my fiance is from there and we visit frequently. Its always a blast!

Thats awesome what you are doing ️

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[VortexBFForever]

^Thanks for the comments, both of you!

July 14: We got some more painting done at St. Gabriel School, with the nice early afternoon surprise of a passing thunderstorm outside! After we were done there we got some sno balls. The one I got was a stuffed (vanilla ice cream inside) strawberry cheesecake sno ball! It was amazing; I loved my very first sno ball!

July 15: We spent some of the morning cleaning around Camp Hope. I was one of the people who helped clean the showers.

Next we went to the St. Roch neighborhood and handed out flyers to any residents we saw and told them about an outreach event we're having at St. Roch Park tomorrow evening. Once we had handed out all the flyers we also got to explore the St. Roch Cemetery. To be honest it was one of the nicest cemeteries I have ever seen.

Finally, from about 1:30 to sundown we were at the French Quarter. We shopped at a handful of stores including the French Market, walked through Jackson Square, explored the St. Louis Cathedral, ate at Cafe du Monde and relaxed on the bank of the Mississippi River.

I bought a Mardi Gras mask at the French Market. A lot of places sell these masks but the Market was where I found the lowest price ($5.99). There was a live jazz band playing in Jackson Square. After exploring the Cathedral we listened to them for about 5-10 minutes. This was probably my favorite part of our French Quarter excursion. I even got a picture with them!

The beignets at Cafe du Monde are AMAZING! They're even better than the ones at Morning Call Cafe at City Park! They are really tasty but also very filling.

It was nice relaxing on the bank of the Mississippi. We saw a couple of barges pass by and we also skipped rocks.

One of the few cons of this otherwise great time was that we didn't get to ride one of the streetcars. Phooey. But I still had an awesome time!!

My new mask!

Edit: We also ate at Johnny's Po-Boys. I had a dressed (meaning it had lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise) shrimp Po-boy with remoulade sauce and it was very good! It was also my very first po-boy.

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[LoraX]

Don't you look cute in your mask! So adorable.

Thank you for being willing to go to the homeless shelter and helping. My family has been impacted twice by having homeless family members. I truly cannot describe what it feels like knowing a loved one is homeless.

My paternal grandma was an alcoholic and lived on the streets of Chicago and New York City. She was nicknamed "Rat Lady" because she had very long hair that she wore up in a bun that was a knotted, ratted mess. She was murdered over a bottle of wine in 1979.

Late last year, my oldest nephew spent time living on the streets of Indianapolis. He spent time in some shelters too. My nephew is now in Mississippi and in the Job Corp.

I have a friend that runs a shelter in Indianapolis and have two friends that got a new lease on life by going into that shelter. It's been wonderful seeing how far both men have came. A homeless shelter does such amazing work. It's a true labor of love.

Sorry to hijack your trip report, but knowing you, I thought you would like to know how much I appreciate you and your willingness to help. It's people like you who will give hope to someone that's truly down on their luck.