In February, I was fortunate enough to travel to New Orleans for my job. There is so much to see and the very lively French Quarter is up and running for visitors. I only wish I'd had more than a few days to see this interesting city. As morbid as it sounds, I was very interested in seeing first-hand the aftermath of Katrina. Many of the suburban and urban areas had been repaired and the streets downtown were dry after having about four feet of standing water months before. However, the notorious FEMA blue roof tarps are present on the top of the occasional house. I visited the upper 9th Ward but didn't venture too far into the decimated areas due to safety issues. Driving through neighborhoods filled with gutted, broken houses was rather sobering, though. I found the emotional graffiti left by New Orleans residents particularly interesting. The food in New Orleans is great. If you visit the French Quarter, you must get a Muffuleta (muff-uh-LOT-uh) sandwich from Central Grocery on Decatur Street, where it was invented. Just up the street is Cafe DuMonde, where you can find their famous Cafe Au Lait and delicious Beignets (Behn-yays), French doughnuts coated in confectioner's sugar.