We ventured only once
on Bourbon Street in the evening. The streets and balconies were absolutely packed
with people. That was a bit overwhelming and when we saw a man with a jackknife
being wrestled to the ground by several policemen, we decided to forego evening
outings.
A week in this amazing
city was much too short for all that we would have liked to do. We did manage,
however, to take a boat tour of the exotic bayous and spoke French with our Cajun
tour guide. We also took in a cooking demonstration to learn how to prepare some
of the local dishes. Gumbo is one of the delicious meals that I have added to
my chef's repertoire since then.
The most memorable
moment though, was no doubt our visit of one of the walled-in cemeteries. Diane
and I decided to take a walk and entered there alone. There was no one in sight
at first, but after about fifteen minutes, we saw a man approach us. He was
wearing a holster on his shoulder and across his chest with a handgun in it. We were obviously a
bit apprehensive at first until he explained to us that he was an archeologist
doing some research among the mausoleums lining the many narrow isles of the
graveyard. He was kind enough to explain to us that it was dangerous to wander
around unarmed in such an isolated place and offered to give us a guided tour
of the area. He no doubt also wanted to make sure that no harm came to the rather
witless tourists that we, in fact, were.
The mind is a strange
thing. All of these memories came rushing back to me as I was putting on my
face mask this morning to go take a walk in the hallway of our condo building. I
thought: “I have to wear a face mask, but at least I don’t have to wear a gun
to take a walk, and my face mask is not loaded.” Danger is a very relative thing!
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