New Orleans

Our RV park in New Orleans backed up on an inlet of Lake Ponchartrain, very nice visually and close to everything we wanted to see. Becki and Walker joined us for several days here.

We would highly recommend the Mardi Gras museum to all, adults and kids.

It's at a warehouse/factory that manufactures and rehabs floats for the major Mardi Gras parades, that begin several weeks before Fat Tuesday

The tour director mixes in Mardi Gras and New Orleans history and myth, along with the process involved in building the floats. We were there at a perfect time, as the floats were being finished for this year's events.

We followed up that visit by going to one of the early parades, called "The Little Rascals", and aimed at young people.

Before it was over, Walker managed to collect over 70 strings of beads that were being thrown from the floats.

We went on a swamp tour. Beautiful weather and saw lots of

wildlife, including turtles and all kinds of waterfowl.
Unfortunately, the guide told us the water was still too cold to
bring out the alligators, so the plastic one in front of the lodge was the only one we saw.

No visit here is complete without a trip downtown. The French Market sells everything from mouth watering "benets" to all kinds of apparel.

Several cannons from the colonial days line the Mississippi River waterfront.

We boarded a horse drawn carriage for a tour of the French Quarter and some history, then ended up watching the mimes and musicians at Jackson Square and enjoyed some of the courtyards with statuary and murals.

There are several old plantation buildings lining the Misissippi southwest of the city. We picked this one to see. The land was settled by a French aristocrat in the early 1700's, and the oak trees that canopy the entrance paths date back to then. The present mansion dates back to the early 1800's, when the plantation largely grew sugar cane.

If you look closely at the last picture, you can see Peg standing at the bottom of this enormous oak.