I love New Orleans…
We got in the taxi and the driver said, “Welcome to New Orleans. Is it your first time?”
Steven answered, “No I’ve been here many times.”
The driver responded, “Well thank you for coming back. Thank you very much, we are having hard times here….”
And he went on and on the whole drive, not just about how they are having hard times. He just wanted to talk and he told us everything about every place we drove by… On our way to breakfast… I loved him.
It’s a breath of fresh air from the stiffness of those of us in the north. First of all it is sunny and 80 degrees! And every single person I have encountered in the last 12 hours I’ve been here has been kind and open and genuinely helpful. The pace is slower, the people are super friendly, the air is thicker and the architecture is… well… gorgeous.
I walked and walked and walked til I got to Satsuma Cafe in the Bywater an awesome little cafe I heard about from Michael Stipe (well, sort of… via Gwyneth Paltrow via my friend, who subscribes to Gwyneth’s email newsletter called GOOP). You should check it out, the newsletter and the cafe if you are in New Orleans. The cafe is awesome and I had a lovely and wonderful beet and fig salad, and took lots of photos on my walk.
The weather is perfect! And I am feeling inspired…. Thanks NOLA
Samia Shalabi is a Seattle based artist & designer, yogi and traveler who has roots in the Middle-East, was raised in the middle-west and is drawn to India. She has a degree in geology, has traveled all over the world with a backpack, and believes in following her dreams. Samia does yoga most mornings, enjoys walks around Seattle, loves to laugh, and daydreams about where to travel next. She is working on a movie shoot in France.
