Our trip to New Orleans started out with a visit to the oldest existing cemetery in New Orleans - St. Louis. This cemetery was established in 1789. Until 1984, it was believed that nothing remained of New Orlean's first cemetery, St. Peter's (established 1721), until coffins and bones were discovered on the site where the cemetery used to exist. Other than these bones, no relics of the cemetery exist aside from bricks in the St. Louis Cathedral, which could have possibly been taken from the walls of the first cemetery.
These photos are from St. Louis Number One. It is located on Basin Street and is open from 9AM to 3PM.
A bicentennial plaque.
Another sign.
The Varney grave as you first walk in. In 1834, this tomb was actually in the middle of the cemetery. This tomb is in Egyptian Revival Style architecture.
This photo shows how crowded the cemeteries can be. This is because Southern Louisiana has always suffered from a severe land shortage. Actually, until water pumps were installed in the early 20th century, New Orleans was practically an island.
As you can see, some of the crypts are in better conditions than the others.
This one has a door knocker!
Many possess decorative ironwork fences and crosses.
Upon closer inspection, the top of this "table" is where the epitaph and information is written.
The one in the back has a music note on top.
This corner is full of rubble, and it is hard to tell where the grave(s) reside.
Another broken plaque.
A young girl weeps atop this crypt.
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There are several types of tombs in New Orleans:
Wall vaults serve as the walls for the cemeteries. A person is buried in the vault and it is sealed up. "A Year and a Day"* later, the marble plaque is removed, then the layer of brick and plaster. The casket is then removed and disposed of, and any human remains placed back in the vault and pushed either to the back or the side. Then the new coffin is placed in and the vault sealed up once more. Because of this, many generations of bones mingle together behind these walls.
Wall vaults may also be called "oven vaults", as they act like ovens and decompose bodies more quickly. Between the months of May and September, the temperatures inside the vault may reach hundreds of degrees Farenheit.
*A year and a day is the minimum time determined necessary for a body to desompose. New Orleans bodies decompose more rapidly due to the lack of embalming. Most burials occur within 48 hours of death.
The second type of crypts are family or private tombs.
To further save land, above-ground crypts are used over and over. Often, they are family crypts, as can be seen here with the Quesnay family, which has been burying since 1892. The most recent burial in the crypt was 1991. Families often have two vaults, with the top vault being used first, The remains are then moved down into the bottom vault until the tomb is full. After a year and a day, the bones can be removed fromt he bottom and transferred to the chamber in the foundation of the tomb called the caveau. 
Several more above-ground tombs.
The third type of tombs are stepped tombs. They are low graves with stepped sides that ascend to a flat top. The technique is reminiscent of ancient burial techniques where the dead are laid on the ground and covered with earth. Stepped tombs are created by building a brick foundation, resting the coffin on top, and then covering with a pyramid shape. These graves are used only once and possess no caveau. Because of this, stepped tombs sink more quickly, as the caveau gives weight distribution. This is why you will sometimes come across a flat layer of brick on the ground. These spots are where stepped tombs have sunken completely. New tombs are not built on top of sunken graves.
The last type is the Society Tomb, considered to be the most effective procedure. In an effort to lower the high costs of burying the dead, people of similar trades or religions would form "Benevolent Associations" in which people could receive low-cost medical bills and "burial insurance". Members were buried in multi-vaulted "society tombs".
This is the tomb of the Italian Mutual Benevolent Society. It is the cemetery's tallest structure and is made entirely of marble imported from Italy! Though this importation of marble was much more expensive, they did it to show their allegience to their Italian heritage. The sculptor was also imported. Sculptor Pietro Gualdi was brought to New Orleans and decided to spend the rest of his life there. He was the first one to be buried in the tomb that he built.
Built in 1857, this tomb cost $40,000! It has 24 vaults and it's caveau can hold thousands of remains. 
This statue of Charity has been beheaded by vandals.
The Italian tomb gained much fame from the 1969 movie Easy Rider. In the movie, one character beheads the charity statue. But, as stated before, the statue was vandalized long before the movie was filmed. The film crew did, however, film in the cemetery illegaly. This is why it was the last major motion picture to be filmed in this cemetery.
Multiple-burial tombs are much more practical than the usual below-ground vertical one-person-per-grave burials that we use elsewhere. There is simply not enough land to go around!
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Thomas and Lynn with a tour group in the background (I cropped most of them out). You can see how narrow some of the paths are.
Me. Hee hee.
Thomas being sneaky. :)
Thomas and I both looking...weird.
lol. I just love this picture.
This poor chap shares a birthday with Thomas...only a few centuries earlier.
Outside the cemetery, horse-drawn carriages line up offering tours of the French Quarter.
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St. Vincent's Guest House
Originally founded as an orphanage in 1861 by Margaret Haugherty, St. Vincent's is now a bed and breakfast. Located at 1507 Magazine Street, several of the rooms on the first floor are sitting rooms where you can enjoy tea.
We stayed in room 25, on the third floor. A short walk takes you to the balcony, where you have a gorgeous view of the city.
While the rooms offer no refrigerator, you can improvise like we did!
Also, plug up the sink and fill it with ice for another option!
Perhaps the most exciting part of the hotel was the old elevator!
The first day we thought it was broken, because we could not get the doors to open. Finally, Lynn and I got on it for the first time. We had no problems despite the numerous signs. The door opened and I began to step out. Just as I got close, the elevator suddenly dropped several inches! I screamed, thinking we were plunging to our doom. But, it stopped. lol.
We took the elevator as much as possible during our stay. It was alot of fun!!
Thomas on the stairs of St. Vincent's.
A cab driver told us that the hotel was haunted, but we assumed he was just saying that to scare the tourists. But, on Saturday morning, we had set the alarm clock early because we were going to Six Flags. It went off, but it was quiet and on the radio, so I let it play a few minutes so I could lay in bed and let everyone else sleep a little while longer. Soon, a rap song came on, but I still didn't turn it off because it was on low volume. Then, a small hand grabbed my ankle as if to say, "Get up and turn that off!" hee hee.
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Haunted French Quarter Tour
Friday night we took the Haunted French Quarter walking tour. The tour meets at 7:30 PM at O'Flagherty's Irish Channel Pub on Toulous Street. It costs $15, or $13 for students with ID. I was quite impressed with our tour guide. I learned a lot, and she made it quite enjoyable, despite the high humidity.
The tour guide begins by telling us that the pub is over 200 years old. Long ago, it was a grain factory. The owner lived there with his wife, but he also had a mistress, Angelique. One day he and Angelique had a huge fight and he murdered her on the very stones below us. Right behind where Lynn is sitting in the above pictures, there was a well. This is where he dumped his mistress' body. Just as he is thinking that he is going to get off scott-free, he hears a scream. In the carriage pass (the arch), a slave child witness the whole affair and runs off to tell the police. Quite distraught and realizing that he will be killed, he goes and hangs himself from a window.
Nothing significant happened to the wife.
These three ghosts are still present at the sight. Danny O'Flaherty bought the site and turned it into a pub, where live Irish music can be seen. There is a balcony above, locked off from the public, but the wife's ghost likes to sit up there and watch the music. Many of tourists have seen her and asked if they too could sit on the balcony. They are quite surprised when employees tell them that it is locked and that the woman up there is a 200-year-old ghost! The man can be felt by people who go upstairs. Unexplainable bickering will erupt between people, but dissapate as soon as they get outside. He is a hostile spirit. Angelique still loves men, and will brush against them. Despite being murdered, she is a playful spirit.
This building has a haunted ballroom, where mothers would take their mulatto daughters to find white men to marry, or at least be a mistress to. If a pretty girl goes there today, she might still feel a man brushing the locks of hair from her face.
The man of this house had a mistress, as many men of the time did. When he died, his wife invited the mistress over. Stupidly, the mistress came over, maybe thinking she had inherited something. The wife then drugged her, I believe it was, and took her to the attic. There she tied her to a chair and left her there to die. Her ghost likes to move things around in the attic.
This is the famous St. Germaine house, rumored to have been occupied by a vampire. It has been unable to keep any owners for quite some time.
Thomas and I wanted to buy it (lol), but I looked it up and it's 2.5 MILLION dollars. *sigh* Oh well.
This church was the home of many duels.
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RANDOMNESS!
Saturday was spent as Six Flags, and we didn't want to lug cameras around, so we have no pictures. So, as not to disappoint, here's a picture of Thomas when he fell between the wall and bed and got stuck!
Here's a picture of me poking Lynn's boob, trying to wake her up.
And here's a picture of Thomas' "funny old man" face he makes when you try to poke at him while he's sleeping.
Hey, we tried.
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Aquarium of the Americas
Sunday was spent once again attempting to visit the Lafayette Cemetery (closed again!), strolling through the Aquarium and Riverwalk Mall, and listening to little blonde girls scream about how much they loved my hair. hee hee.
The locked gates of the Lafayette Cemetery.
Penguins and HUGE Caribbean lobsters.
The girl we asked to take this picture must have had some kind of prejudice against the Frog, because he was HUGE and she managed to cut almost all of him out of the picture!
Or maybe she was just stupid.
WOO-HOO! Makin' a Thomas Stew!
Some cool looking buildings we drove past.
That's painted on.
LMAO
I loved this.
Trolley!
Drunk Mardi Gras Bum!!
Also, a big thanks to the book "City of the Dead", available for $6 at the Garden District Book Shop located at 2727 Prytania Street. Portions of the cemetery info come from there.
