You can find “New Orleans” on a map bordered by the 17th street canal, Lake Pontchartrain, the mighty Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.You will also find New Orleans in the hearts of the Louisiana people and those around the world who have experienced it … Jazz, Mardi Gras, The French Quarter, Creole and Cajun Cuisine.

But My New Orleans is more. It is bigger.

The Big Easy goes beyond the borderlines of this great city. It is always a part of me wherever I go.

My New Orleans goes north up the Mississippi River to Natchez, strung together by mighty Oak Trees, Spanish Moss and a path of majestic plantation homes from an era gone by.

My New Orleans goes east where my family vacationed on the sandy white beaches of Waveland, Gulfport and Biloxi.

My New Orleans goes south through the bayous and swamps, where as a young girl my father would take me fishing, down the Mississippi Delta and to the Gulf of Mexico.

My New Orleans gets its spice from the west through Baton Rouge and to the heart of Acadia (Cajuns)……….Lafayette.

My New Orleans is like a good gumbo with necessary ingredients to a recipe rich in culture.

A gumbo that is stirred by the people where our southern hospitality welcomes each ingredient to melt into the other, to give it the flavor of something you will always take with you wherever you go.Once you taste it… You will know what it means to love New Orleans.

That’s my home… that’s My New Orleans.

That’s why I have created this design to remind everyone in our surrounding cities including the coastal region and beyond, much like the Mississippi River, our bloodline flows beyond the borders of this great city.

It is Our New Orleans.

It belongs to everyone.

by Anne Dale