City Tour, Cemetaries, Ponchatrain, and Masked Beauty!

I think it was on Monday that we took another Grey Line Tour in order to see the rest of the city, that we had not seen on the Katrina tour, or in our exploration on our own.  It wasn't necessarily a great tour; so much of tours is based on one's tour guide, and the one on this one wasn't that great unfortunately.  We did see a few things on this tour.  

We had not stopped at a cemetery before.  Cemeteries in New Orleans are unique due to the fact that the city is below sea level. If they were to dig and bury folks in the ground, it would be very wet, so they build structures, mausoleums and the such, above ground.  The guide told us that plots can easily cost about $60,000, and thus they will be purchased for entire families for either their bodies or cremated remains.  There are several people in each one. 

This one, for example, I counted 36 names. It is really not that big, so I am assuming there must be cremated remains...I don't know. 

I don't know that I truly understood the story, but I think this structure above is for bodies as well.  It just looks like it is in terrible disrepair, and I think it would be considered the "low-rent district"....:(

As we continued on our tour, we also drove past Lake Ponchatrain, which we heard a lot about during the time of Katrina. 

The following picture has nothing really to do with the tour of New Orleans, but we did purchase this 'fancy' masquerade mask for Miss Allison, and she had to model it, of course, for us. :)