A less "live"-ly day

Monday was another beautiful day - sunny and 70s. Took a quick bus ride to the Garden District. Stumbled upon Lafayette Cemetary (the oldest "American" cemetary in New Orleans) and went in. I’m not a cemetery groupie or anything, but I was interested in seeing the mausoleums. Sean, a total character who’s affiliated with the cemetery, walked me around the grounds to explain stuff. I learned most New Orleans burials are above ground because of the city’s early Latin influences - not because of the city being below sea level (though that’s definitely another contributing factor). Also I found out bodies are buried in simple wooden coffins (so they decompose more easily). When it's time to add another person to a tomb, it's opened up and cemetary workers clean out what's left from previous burials (coffin remnants), and they put any bones/human remains in a plastic trash bag and place it in the back of the tomb so there's room for the new casket. It's a law that you must wait a year and a day after a burial before adding another body to the same tomb. Even then, what’s inside can be “pretty gnarly,” according to Sean. Apparently there are 40+ people buried in some tombs.

Had a shrimp po boy and lemonade for lunch and did some shopping on Magazine St. before heading to the airport to fly back to NY.


Row of tombs in Lafayette Cemetary.


Pretty little angel on top of one tomb. There are actually very few statues in this cemetary.


House in the Garden District. It's across the street from where Anne Rice lives, but I thought this house was more visually interesting than hers.