Welcome to the Swamp!!!!

Read the other post first then read this.


So Monday morning we ate our continental breakfast in the open air courtyard then set off on a funfilled day of Plantations and the Swamp!!!
Oak Alley Plantation was first. We were there an hour early so we had beignets and coffee at the restaurant. YUMMY!!!! The tour was really cool... I want to live there!!! We had a mint Julep as we walked around the grounds...took pictures.... I would love to be a Southern Belle!!!


Off to Laura Plantation..... Completely different. This was a Creole plantation. Everyone worked not just the slaves. Check them both out online and deffinitely visit them both if you come down for a visit. Both had great tour guides...nice houses.... expensive giftshops.




Off to the Swamp!! So we arrived in Lafitte, Lousianna..... Don't blink, you'd miss it. It was a two hour Airboat tour of the swamp and marshlands. IT WAS SOOOOOOOO COOL!!!!! Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done. I was scared at first to go on the airboat because I don't like boats but I got over that fast. We saw alot of alligators and birds and turtles and trees oh my! Did you know that alligators eat marshmallows??? Seriously alligators eat marshmallows!!! Chris took a video of it to prove it!! They don't chew or even taste their food they just swallow it hole. I even got to hold a baby alligator!! I GOT TO HOLD A BABY ALLIGATOR!!!! IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!! Chris has pictures. But Chris is a chicken he didn't hold it. So all in all it was an amazing tour!!!

Back in the French Quarter we went for dinner at a Soul Food restaurant called the Praline Connection. We had fried okra to start, then I had BBQ ribs with Jambalaya rice and collard greens. Chris had a breaded pork chop with red beans and rice. Yummy food but HUGE portions. When we ate all we could we left and walked around for awhile. We got drinks at a Jazz club on bourbon st. I had a Hurricane and Chris had a mint julep! Boy were they strong!!! Good music good drinks. We then walked up and down Bourbon st. at all it's glory and had the largest daiquirri that I have ever had!!! I was alittle tipsy.

So now that I have typed all of this Chris gets to come and add a couple pictures. We will write tomorrow to tell everyone of the trip to the RITZ!!!!

New Orleans

Hello Everyone... here is a recap of the last few days. Didn't have WiFi and now we are paying for it. Literally....$10 a day. So we are only paing for 1 day. Cheaper then the Marriott!

We went to the USS Alabama in the Mobile Bay. It was a big warship from the WW2 time period. It was grey... it has guns... go Americans go! We have pictures. I don't like boats so we didn't stay an overly long time.




Next we drove through the rest of Alabama and into Mississippi. I had lots of fun saying M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i. I think I was starting to drive Chris crazy. We turned off in Biloxi for lunch and drove around down by the gulf. We think Biloxi was hit by hurricane Katrina or some other recent storm since there was lots of damaged buildings and vacant lots. I have pictures.






It was a bit of a downer to see the beautiful beach on one side and mass destruction on the other. There were several "Waffle Houses" that were destroyed!!! It makes you appreciate Mother Nature and her mood swings. Anyways we had lunch at Popeye's.... nothing special....everything is fried. Back onto the Interstate.

We decided to bypass Baton Rouge etc. and come straight to New Orleans. Yes we saw lots of the Katrina devastation. From the highway you see rows and rows of vacant houses, all boarded up. Business have moved or been vandalised and parts of the city look like a ghost town.

At the Louisianna Tourist Info Center we picked up a bunch of Travel and Hotel Coupons and headed out again. One of the coupons was for a hotel in the French Quarter called Hotel Chateau. We told the front desk clerk it was our Honeymoon and she upgraded us from the cheapest room they had to a King size bed Balcony Room. The Hotel is on the corner of Chartres and St.Philip. Cute room cute outdoor courtyard.... nice place...you should go.

After seetling in we decided to go walking around and to try and find something to eat. We walked all over the French Quarter Bourbon st. etc. and we settled on a restaruant called Petunia's. It was really good!!! Oh Julie you are going to love the name of the guy who owns if..... Hoyle Byrd!!!! I kid you not!!! I had Cajun Pasta and Chris had Grilled Red fish. Yum.