One of the highest points of my vacation to New Orleans—other than seeing my Dad and stepmother—was a visit to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, just down the street from the French Quarter. I took many photos, and got to experience the wonder of seeing some amazing animals at arms’ length.

Now a great many fish (maybe 50% so far) have died because the filters and pumps for the tanks haven’t had power for eight days.

When I talked to Dad yesterday he asked me how it felt to be one of the last people to see New Orleans as it once was.

Disorienting.

I took about 50 photos, of Dad and Linda, of my brother Kurt, and Dad’s dogs, some of the local wildlife and the fish in the aquarium, and a few random shots of the French Quarter. I start to feel like I missed a spectacular opportunity, then I realize that people have been taking pictures of NOLA since the camera was invented, so the fact that I didn’t take a picture of the magnolia trees along the river doesn’t mean that such a picture was never taken. Just not by me.

And I will happily trade a thousand professional photos of the Mississippi River for one off-center shot of my Dad and brother standing in the mouth of a shark.