New Orleans

St. Louis Cemetary #1 in New Orleans

Now we can say we have been to New Orleans. So strange to actually see a place we've heard so much about what with Hurricane Katrina and Mardi Gras and all.  But once you see the place and see the levees and see the water everywhere, it's pretty easy to imagine the devastation that a hurricane would cause.  We toured the famous French Quarter, the oldest part of New Orleans.This graveyard was just across the street from what is designated at the French Quarter.  Because the water is right beneath your feet they don't bury anyone. They put them in these crypts.  This is still an active cemetery (unlike the one we saw in Savannah) and family members are still added to the crypts. The oldest ones we saw were from soldiers born in the mid-1700's.  Some of the newest in 2012.

Buildings in the French Quarter 

Hmmm??  Shall we buy it?

The buildings are beautiful especially the ones that people have taken really good care of and kept up like this one.  We laughed when we saw this sign about leasing this building.  The other side says "not haunted" - I guess you can take your pick of what you want to believe! 

The Family on Bourbon Street

"Intriguing and disturbing" Bourbon Street

Then we came to the infamous Bourbon Street.  The first time we just sort of passed by; some nice lady from New York took our picture.  We made our way down to the the waterfront park on the Mississippi River; a beautiful stroll along there and then up Canal street which divides the French Quarter from the business district. Kind of touristy along there what with Harrah's casino and such.  We stopped and had a seafood lunch and then, in my infinite wisdom, I said, "Let's go back down and walk down Bourbon street and then back to where the car is."  I didn't realize from my brief glance previously what all was REALLY on Bourbon street.  Oh My!!  It's bar, after bar, after strip joint, after strip joint and most of the establishments are open-fronted so you can see right in. I was a bit shocked and wondering what kind of mom I was to bring my girls down there!!!  Jade kept gawking at everything and Mya is just like, "mom, put your head down and just keep walking".  The woman in the doorway in her skimpy panties and top was almost too much for Mya. We saw these garbage-bag type raincoats in one store and she wanted to go buy a bunch and hand them out to all the ladies who were improperly dressed - lol! After we made it through the "gauntlet", Jade said "That was both intriguing and disturbing!"; Mya just thought it was "disturbing".  Jade wanted to go back and gawk some more  Apparently, Mya even looked in one place and there was some lady pole-dancing.  Mya was mortified!  We had a good laugh about our "adventure" the rest of the day.  I love Jade's description - she hit it on the head!

We drove from New Orleans to a place called Breaux Bridge, LA still on the coast but east of Lafeyette.  We came across yesterday, still on I-10 through Baton Rouge.  The highway from just west of there for about 20, maybe 30 miles is all elevated highway above swampland or I guess it's called bayou.  It's two lanes both ways with just a small shoulder on each side.  A truck towing a camper broke down and OMG!, you should have seen the mess that caused.  There was nowhere for him to go so all the traffic was backed up behind him for MILES!  A bunch of 18-wheelers, RVs, cars - it was a complete mess.  The traffic was backed up for at least 15 miles.  And then farther down the road because of the mess, some 18-wheeler smushed a car between it and the cement wall of the highway and two other cars must have hit each other and one looked like it's front bumper was just dangling on the car.  Those poor people must have been stuck there for hours!  I kept thinking two things.  One, where does one go to the bathroom when stuck like that? and two, I sure as heck hope these elevated roads are in good condition with all that weight sitting on them like that.  Actually, I was thinking a third thing too - how lucky we were to be going in the opposite direction!!!

So we landed safely at our campground.  Memorable name: "Catfish Heaven".  It's cheap and convenient but there is a reason for that.  The power hookup can't handle both air conditioners, let alone the microwave and hot water heater (even though it's supposed to) so we have to juggle everything to cook dinner.  We are so tired of sweating.  We are all glad to be heading inland a bit tomorrow to get out of this humidity.  It's stifling.  The wi-fi isn't great either so I'm going to try to post this and then tomorrow do another post of our Swamp Tour with Monsieur LeBlanc - a true Cajun. It was awesome!