A Thousand Lives

The road west carried me south into New Orleans, a city I had always wanted to experience with a camera in hand.

I walked the French Quarter, past iron balconies, painted shotgun houses, and streets named in tile set into the sidewalks. St. Louis Cathedral rose over Jackson Square, the gilded Joan of Arc gleamed near the French Market, and red streetcars rolled along Canal Street. A riverboat drifted on the Mississippi, and in Armstrong Park, Louis Armstrong stood with his trumpet raised. On one sidewalk, someone had written a message in chalk: I would lose a thousand lives for her.

New Orleans wears its heart openly, full of music, faith, mystery and devotion all at once. It was the kind of place that made me slow down, look closer, and fall a little bit in love on the way west.