Alabama - Louisiana Trip

I visited in February,  2005.  Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29.

Click here for Alabama pictures

Famous Beignets here
	The fountain at Pat O-Brien's where Mom & Dad celebrated their honeymoon about 50 years ago.

My Mom in 1956

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cafe Du Monde reopens with revelry
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/shared/news/nation/stories/10/1020a_NATDUMONDE.html

By MIKE WILLIAMS
Cox News Service
Thursday, October 20, 2005

New Orleans

 All is far from right in this corner of the world, but on Wednesday the ordeal of rebuilding a city flattened and flooded by Hurricane Katrina got a little more bearable.

For the first time since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, thick, creamy cafe au lait and doughy, delicious beignets smothered in powdered sugar were once again being served at Cafe Du Monde, a French Quarter landmark as famous with tourists and locals as Preservation Hall or Antoine's Restaurant.


"This is a great day," said Jay Roman, a member of the Fernandez family that has owned the French Market open-air cafe near Jackson Square since 1942. "It's a signal to the rest of the country that New Orleans is open and running and coming back to life."

Like much of the French Quarter, the 140-year-old cafe is located on high ground and survived Katrina with minimal damage. Power and natural gas service were restored several weeks ago, but the Fernandez family faced the same severe labor shortage that is hampering hundreds of other New Orleans businesses struggling to reopen.

Roman said it took the company weeks to locate all of its roughly 300 employees, some of whom fled as far away as Boston, and many of whom lost their homes to Katrina's floods.

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