We slept well and woke before the 4:20 alarm. Showered, dressed and met M&M in the elegant dining room.

Brad had gotten up even earlier than we had in order to prepare a fantastic breakfast of fresh fruit with whipped cream, feta and egg souffle, grits casserole, orange juice, sweet rolls and delicious strong coffee. We thoroughly enjoyed the breakfast and Brad's company, and after a quick game of tug-of-war with Cody we hit the road for the half-hour drive to Camp Hope.

The early morning is incredibly foggy but we managed to locate Camp Hope with little trouble. We reunited with Rebecca, selected hard hats, tested our respirators and then followed the yellow Camp Hope schoolbus to our first house. We have volunteered during this trip to assist the process of gutting houses that were devastated by Katrina in St. Bernard Parish.

This first house is owned by John, who has some serious health problems. The gutting process had been started yesterday. Today we joined about ten other volunteers to finish the job. We tore down all remaining walls, parts of the ceiling (due to mold,) and dragged/dumped everything outside by the curb for the Army Corps of Engineers to come and pick up. It was very dirty, tiring, grueling and somewhat dangerous work, but very fulfilling. John came to the house, and although his health problems did not allow him to assist us, he cheered us on. I had found a photo of his two young grandsons under the structure of the house, and it was still in decent condition, and when I handed it to John, he became emotional and thanked me profusely. He also choked up, as we all did, when the job was finished and we had to say goodbye and move on.

We drove back to Camp Hope for a hot lunch, visited with other volunteers, then drove northwest to Musician's Village. Marc and I walked to Henry Swanson's house and I rang the bell. Henry looked outside and immediately recognized me, yelling "You're back!!" He ran outside and gave me a bear hug. Carol and Muriel walked over and Henry gave us a tour of his house. Sixteen months after Katrina, work on his house has progressed but there is still so much to be done. Henry had recently recorded a CD called “Swanson and The Wiseowl: Pieces of the City,” available online at http://cdbaby.com/cd/wiseowl.

We enjoyed visiting with Henry and we promised him that we would stop by to see him once more before we have to leave for home. It was wonderful to see him again.

We then walked around the corner to Chuck's house in Musician's Village. It appears as though Chuck's house is finally finished, and we rang the bell but no one was home. We will locate Chuck, though, one way or another.

Disappointed, we drove northwest along Claiborne, then north up Esplanade to Carollton. A few short blocks later were were back at the 1896 O'Malley House where we all took much-needed showers and then rested.

We visited with Brad and played with Cody, then at 6PM we drove west on Carollton to Oak Street and found Jaques Imos' which is our favorite New Orleans restaurant. Rebecca could not join us - she was exhausted from a full day's work.

At the restaurant we once again found Kaiser, our waiter during our October visit, who immediately served us four appetizers on the house. For entres, Carol had potato-crusted drum (a local fish,) Muriel had the bouillabase, Marc had salmon, and I ordered BBQ shrimp. The food, service and ambience was unsurpassed and the four of us give Jacques Imos' Five Stars.

Stuffed, we drove back to the B&B, visited with Angela and her friend Rachel, then dragged ourselves upstairs and fell into bed at 8:30PM in order to rest up for another day gutting houses.

Next Day