I finished up a project this afternoon, so I gave myself the night off to do whatever I pleased. I saw crowds of teens in the Quarter yesterday and found out later they were some of the 35,000 people in town for ECLA, the Lutheran youth gathering. I love a crowd I’ve got nothing to do with, so I decided to hop on my bike and head down to the convention center to see what all these teenagers were up to. I got there after 5:00, so the day’s events were mostly over. It was T-shirt distribution time, and clumps of tow-headed Midwestern teens were impatiently waiting, by way of UNO (the card game, not the local university), texting, and Italian-ice-eating, for the chaperones to come back with the goods. Yeah, it was pretty much like any teen summer camp/class trip scenario, except bigger. Groups were filing out to head over to the Superdome for the first mass meeting, so I got back on the bike and tooled down Poydras to see if I might sneak my way in. I’ve definitely got the Lutheran Youth look, so I waited in line, figuring I’d blend right in and get to hang on the floor of the Superdome with the kiddos. But alas, you needed a wristband to get in, so I was turned away. I took this picture of kids lined up to get in to the Dome as I walked back to my bike, even though it still doesn’t give a sense of the sheer mass of this crowd. There were evangelical Lutherans everywhere. In fact, I almost hit several on my ride home from the coffee shop tonight. I will watch my pedals for the weekend, and I hope the kids stay out of trouble and get what they’ve come for, and that New Orleans benefits from their service activities.
wow. looks like the saints are in town.
The Lutheran Youth Look! LAWLIN!
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