The French Quarter

Early in our visit to New Orleans, I decided to check out Bourbon Street. I saw three cops on horseback just sitting there chatting. And I thought to myself, When you are a cop on Bourbon Street you must have a different threshold of what constitutes an infraction. Once off Bourbon Street, things in the French Quarter were pretty quiet, even elegant. I'm guessing that since we were there off season, the Bourbon Street spillover was minimal. In this environment, my focus went to the beautiful architecture and the deep sense of history. It isn't only New England that has roots going way back.

The night before the wedding, the rehearsal dinner was held at Antoine's, celebrating 175 years of continual service. The wedding itself was held Saturday evening in the St. Louis Cathedral, first built in 1718, and expanded and rebuilt in 1850. As we stepped out of the church, a brass band was playing, and we proceeded to do a second line parade through the French Quarter. The bride and groom, Megan and Todd Ledet, even made it into an AP wire photo! What an experience. We shook our handkerchiefs and people came out onto the balconies to cheer us on. For a short time, we were in the center of things, and it felt pretty good.