Jackson Square

After the boat ride, we walked over to Jackson square, where the St. Louis Cathedral was. This was Clay's number one stop he wanted to make on the trip. It was beautiful, and very peaceful. We just sat down for awhile.

This was a statue of Andrew Jackson


These were the things around the cathedral, we saw a couple and their photographer taking their engagement pictures. All these people you see in these pictures....a lot of them were people doing palm reading. Kinda interesting place....right in front of the church. And, then there was a guy singing church music at the top of his lungs behind them. He was really good. I enjoyed listening to him. In fact, I had planned on giving him some money when we walked by, but he appeared to not even be doing it to get money like a lot of people around. I didn't want to offend him by giving it to him.
This little dog....his owner called it his bike. She said she was born with this condition, and this was her 3rd bike. The reason I know that is b/c even the pets are friendly in New Orleans. There was a lady sitting beside us on a bench, and every person that passed by, stopped so that their dogs and her dog could sniff each other, and then the owners would just visit. I assumed this man was homeless...he was pushing his shopping buggy with tarp duck taped all around....but I will say, he was a very sharp dresser....Dressed to the T.
These iron horses line the sidewalks all through the French Quarter
So, after leaving here, we walked back to our hotel. Then, decided we were going to go eat at Emeril's restuaurant, "Nola". We walked all the way down one street, realized it was not on that end, walked to the other end, then decided it was going to be too expensive to eat there. Then ended up wandering around, then back to the same place we had been earlier that day, and then ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Then, decided we wanted to ride the trolley, so walked down to one stop, realized we didn't have the correct change for the trolley, so had to walk to a store to buy gum that was $2, (everything there seemed overpriced in N.O.) and then Clay led us to a different Trolley stop. We sat there a while and decided it had stopped running for the day, and had to walk back SEVERAL blocks to our hotel. Needless to say, I was not a happy person on the way back to the hotel. Then we got back, and Clay was ready to go back out again! I was too grouchy, and pooped out by then. Good grief, I am too out of shape for all that!

The Natchez Steamboat River Cruise

We really enjoyed our Steamboat cruise. They talked to us the whole time telling us about things along the way. I wish I had written it down, b/c I only remember some of it now.

This was the oldest plantation house in Louisiana...or something like that. The guy under the umbrella...they said he is a famous marine photographer. Man, that looks like the life, don't it?? Just hanging out waiting on something exciting to take place in the water.

Beautiful Saint Louis Cathedral....they told us that by rule, that no other building in the French Quarter could be taller than the Cathedral. There are buildings taller in New Orleans, but not in that area. This is the building the Louisiana Purchase was finalized in ....or something like that
They told us that these words appeared on the building right after Katrina. Nobody, not even the owner of the building know who/how the words got on there.
This was where a really long fuel train was sitting and was hit by lightning I believe during Katrina's storm. It ignited one of the cars, and caused a chain reaction blowing up the cars. The damage goes on for a long ways.
This are army barracks...I thought they said part of Interview with a Vampire was filmed here...but when I googled it, it only mentions a plantation in New Orleans...Oak Alley, we didn't see it, so I don't know if any of it was filmed here or not. Now I want to watch the movie again.This is the 2nd largest Sugar factory in the world. Domino sugar

This is the plantation home of the man that began this.....and look at these massive buildings that have now been built beside his home.

Our boat was a true steam boat....powered by this. I think some of the boats have this on it, but are not actually powered that way?? They talked like they were more special than other boats. haha

Day 2

On Monday, we headed out, with the plan to ride a Trolley around so we could see what all there was to do. While we were waiting at the stop, a man started talking to us, and told us the trolley we wanted to ride wasn't really going anywhere special, and if we wanted to go to the Riverwalk, it was just a few blocks down, so we should walk. So, we headed down there. Right before we got to the riverwalk, a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted some free tickets. All we had to do was go look at this hotel that they had just finished, and we would get the free tickets. They had a nice air conditioned van waiting to take us there, so we decided, why not? Well, we got there, and it was a sales pitch to buy a timeshare with the condos. We still didn't really care, we were in the air conditioning, and getting free tickets! A lady we talked to there said she lived in the 9th ward, and she had been living in a Fema Trailer for 3 yrs, and had just now gotten all the permits back to begin rebuilding. I can't imagine.

Anyway, we did our tour, and had our sales pitch, and the girl doing it was new. And bless her heart, she should really not share so much info. She didn't know much of anything....she didn't even know if the condo had a pool or not!?!? Then as she was explaining how the time share works, she told us that she had just learned that day that a year has 52 weeks in it...she was like...WOW, all I ever knew was that it has 12 months! Then she said, you can use your time share to go to Hawaii...b/c I just learned today that it is part of the United States! Bless her heart...I was like, well, I must be doing an o.k job teaching my kids, b/c they know all that now! haha Oh, and she also told us that her other job is a hostess at a strip club. Good grief! And then, she got her manager over there, and he got kinda huffy with us when we told him we weren't interested. He told us that wasn't fair to that girl that had been showing us around b/c she doesn't get paid if we don't buy it. He told us we should never go to a time share pitch again. Clay was quick to tell him, "well, then you need to have your people on the street tell folks why they are coming here first, if you don't want them wasteing their time!"

Anyway, the gave us our free tickets quick and shooed us out of there. Oh well, we didn't care. We got out in just enough time to walk back to the riverwalk, and get on our Steamboat Cruise. That was very nice!

This man was preaching with his bullhorn! He was really telling folks too!

These were so cute! They were everywhere, each one painted differently.
The Riverwalk along the Mississippi River
This is the top of the steamboat. The man was playing the pipes like a piano to play music while we waited in line


Our food. Not as yummy as the night before, but still pretty good. That is red beans and rice in that bowl
We forgot to take a picture of the boat, so we got these when we walked back over there that night.

Our first night

This was the first thing we came upon. It was a little outdoor cafe, but you didn't have to buy anything to sit there.

Bourbon Street at night

We ate at Sammy's Seafood. It was YUMMY YUMMY! I got Shrimp Creole, and Clay got Stuffed Shrimp. I could have eaten there every night. It was just the first one we came to, and it was a great choice!

We went to a Jazz Club that night, and it was very nice! The music was great, and there wasn't very many people in there at all, so it was very relaxing to just sit back and enjoy the music.
Another sign outside the jazz club said it was the oldest Jazz Club in New Orleans.

Natchez, Mississippi

Let me backtrack just a little bit. We went through Natchez on the way down there, and drove around a bit to look at all the old homes there. It was a very neat town. I think there were about 10 old plantation homes there that you could tour. We didn't do any, but I think you could make a whole trip just to Natchez.

The sign above says that this is the only church built cathedral style in the state of Mississippi.

Look at these trees!

Our Hotel

I am going to post a little at a time about our trip b/c I have SO much to do today, as you can imagine, all of us being gone since Saturday. This is the hotel we stayed at. The Hotel St. Marie. We stayed in the French Quarter, about a block from Bourbon Street. It was an older hotel, but was very nice. I have so much to say about this trip. These are the main points that stuck out to me thought. #1 Absolutely BEAUTIFUL architecture. I was amazed. I never realized New Orleans was that beautiful. I felt like I was in Europe. It is a totally different world down there. I had kinda a bad impression going down there. And, the first night, b/c Bourbon St was so close, that is where we went. It was an eye opener, and there were SWARMS of people. I found out later it was b/c there had been an Essence Music Festival there, and the locals told us it is very wild that weekend. Most everyone had cleared out by Monday, and it was much calmer. Even with all those people though, I felt safe. There were policeman EVERYWHERE on Bourbon St. I felt safer there than on the quieter streets just b/c I didn't see the policeman there. But, by the end of our stay, I felt safe everywhere. It is just overwhelming at first, and I had preconceived ideas after all the news reports during Katrina. #2 The people from New Orleans are SO NICE. Anyone will just start talking to you. We had the best service there than we have ever had anywhere. That was so nice. #3 July is NOT a good time to go there, simply b/c you have to walk everywhere you go. I would really like to go again in a cooler month. #4 I will say, it was nice to breath fresh air after leaving. In the French Quarter, all their dumpsters are on the front sidewalk, as they don't have back alleys, and the smell was very strong. And, I also have a new appreciation for Arkansas's no indoor smoking law. Anytime we travel to another state, I realize just how nice it is to not breath cigarette smoke in a restaurant.

We had a great time. It was so nice to get to do this together. I could do a whole post on the difference between traveling with 3 kids, vs no kids. The whole time I kept saying, "if the kids were with us....it would be like this..." Even just the ride down there was so calm and relaxing. Usually I am a horrible car rider. I just want to climb the walls. I realized on this trip, I think the kids could be a reason for that! LOL The trip down there and back both seem to go very quickly. I was, though, so ready to get back to our kids. And they even said they were ready to get home when we got there to pick them up. That is the FIRST time we have ever stayed away long enough for them. Usually, when we go to pick them up, we are greeted with them saying, no, I don't want to go home yet! They were totally o.k. with us going without them. They couldn't wait to get to Monticello, and Leah said on the way home that they got to have their own vacation, while we were taking our own vacation!

This 2nd pic, we did not take. We got this off the hotel's website. It is an awesome picture though!
This was the view from our hotel. We were higher up than a lot of the roofs.
Here is our dorky selves in the elevator.