Luis and Adam joined us for a day in the car to explore some areas around New Orleans. We first stopped at District Donuts to sample a few of their specialties.
Tasty!
We drove across Lake Ponchartrain to the Southeast Louisiana Refuges Visitor Center hoping to do some hiking. There wasn't a whole lot there except for a sweet lady who talked our ear off for quite a while and told us about a few fun spots for lunch.
We took her advice and went to Old Rail Brewing Co. in Mandeville.
I was still full from donuts, but Matt loved the catfish sandwich.
Mandeville sits right on the shore of Lake Ponchartrain and is a beautiful community
with stunning lake front homes. The guys got a beer at Barley Oak Brewery before heading back to the city.
This time we drove across the causeway. It is the world's longest bridge over a body of water and there were times you couldn't see any land!
Our last stop was to visit the Lower 9th Ward...one of the areas hardest hit by Katrina and sadly, so much of it remains in ruins.
We saw so many houses still boarded up and even had the writing on the windows from when rescue teams went door to door.
We saw empty store fronts, abandoned gas stations and signs of Katrina everywhere.
Here is one of the levees that broke creating the flooding. Heartbreaking!
