Day 8 - Going Home

12-26-14, Friday.

All good things must come to an end and today we had to fly home (insert very sad face). After we checked out of our condo, we headed over to Lake Pontchartrain for one last look. We figured this would be our last time visiting New Orleans and wanted to get one last photo op.


Jim, Laura & Kevin



Looking across Lake Pontchartrain to the north shore - which is 25 miles away!

Our rental car - a Toyota mini van

The mini van worked out great. It had 3 rows of seats with enough room in the very back to hold the luggage for all five of us. Both side doors opened so it made getting in/out easy for everyone.

Kevin had one last request before leaving Louisiana - Waffle House for a late breakfast/early lunch! Since we don't have Waffle Houses in Washington or Idaho, we all agreed!

After we ate, we headed back to Kenner for one last look at the Mississippi River. It's a mighty river, but very ugly. I'm used to blue rivers in Washington, and the Mississippi is the color of mud. I have no idea which was up the river or down the river but I took a picture both ways!

 Kevin & Laura had the first flight out in the early afternoon. Jim, Tracy & I weren't leaving until later in the day. After we dropped Kevin & Laura off we tried to go to a mall in Metairie (I wanted to go to the Vera Bradley store to see if they were having any after Christmas sales) but the traffic was so bad we ended up just turning around and heading back to the airport.

There were a lot of unhappy babies on our flight home - all of them right by our seats. Fortunately I had my noise-reducing headphones on watching a movie so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, the row we were in was directly in front of the emergency exit rows so our seats didn't recline at all. I was hoping to get some rest since we didn't land until 9:30 p.m. and still needed to stop and eat, go pick up our car at Jim's dad's house and then drive almost 3 hours across the state to our house. We got home at 1:30 a.m. safe and sound!

Day 7 - Merry Christmas!

12-25-14, Thursday.

We decided to ride a trolley into the French Quarter to see if we could find a restaurant open. We were going to try Café du Monde again but it was closed.

We passed Jackson Square right when the Calypso Tumblers were getting ready to perform. They are accomplished acrobatic gymnasts, contortionists and comedic entertainers who made it to the Top 10 of America's Got Talent. I think we missed the first part of their program with all their tumbling, but what we did see was hilarious and we were greatly entertained!

One of the acrobats tumbling over 5 people.

Tracy had woken up with a sore throat Christmas Eve and wasn't feeling that much better today especially after we were so cold after the swamp tour. She stayed in town with us until after the Calypso Tumblers act then she went back to the condo. Jim & I and Kevin & Laura wandered around the French Quarter until we found the Olde NOLA Cookery open for lunch. We got the last table available. Of course, since we were leaving New Orleans the following day, I had to have my last fried catfish po'boy!

Lunch at Olde NOLA Cookery

After lunch, we rode the trolley back to the condo. Unfortunately, it was time to get things packed up and ready to fly home the next day. We did another load of laundry (it's nice to have clean clothes after vacation) before calling it a day.

Day 6 - Honey Island Swamp Tour

12-24-14, Christmas Eve - Wednesday.  We had reservations for the Noon swamp tour at Honey Island Swamp Tours. It's across Lake Pontchartrain in Slidell off the Pearl River. It was on/off sun in the morning but quickly clouded over and was very cold - 55 degrees.

Our tour guide was Renée Dupree. He wore cutoffs with boots and a cameo jacket! He was a pretty funny guy and other than freezing, we had a good time.



Renée Dupree taking another passenger's picture

We went through bayous (the main one was called Gum Bayou), the swamps and the Pearl River. We saw turtles sunning themselves (or maybe they were just trying to stay out of the cold water) and great blue herons. It was too cold for the alligators to be out - they bury themselves in the mud and don't come out until it gets warm.

Leaving the dock

Fishing shacks to the left of the dock

Fishing shacks to the left of the dock

Gum Bayou

Gum Bayou - you can see how low the water is right now but after winter the rivers will raise back up to the high water line on the trees

Gum Bayou

Gum Bayou

 

These little leaves grow on the trees only after it's rained.

 

Gum knees protect the trees from boats running into them.

The green leafy stuff growing around the tree is not native to her bayou/swamp and is very destructive.

Three trees that grew together.

When Honey Island was discovered many years ago on the Pearl River, it smelled very sweet. As it turns out, the island was full of honey bees - hence the name Honey Island! There are quite a few fishing shacks on the island but none of them are ever for sale. They're just handed down from one generation to the next. Most of them are in pretty rough shape.

Fishing shack on Honey Island

Fishing shack on Honey Island

Fishing shack on Honey Island

There were some really nice homes on the mainland side of the river. Renée told us that the alligators will come up on the yards to sign themselves but keep close to the water so they can escape if people come close.

On stilts for when the river floods

Big deck for fishing

Turtle on a log

Great blue heron

When we got back to town, we had a late lunch at Voodoo BBQ. This was Jim's choice of places to eat while we were in New Orleans. He'd eaten catered lunch from Voodoo a couple of times when he was working down there.

After our late lunch, we hung out in the condo the rest of the day/evening. We'd gotten cold on the swamp tour and were having a tough time warming up - the heat was cranked up and we kind of snoozed and read and watched TV. It was nice to do nothing since we'd been on the go ever since we'd gotten into town the 19th.

 

Day 5 NOLA

12-23-14, Tuesday. We had absolutely no plans today except do some laundry! After we got the laundry done, we rode the trolley into town so Laura could go to Café du Monde and get beignets. Today there were absolutely no lines whereas the last time we were in town the line was all the way down the block. While we were eating our beignets, I saw these sculptures behind Café du Monde on the concrete wall that blocks the trolley tracks.

Café du Monde

Sculpture #1

Sculpture #2

Sculpture #3

We also went back to the Farmers Market so Laura could get a souvenir t-shirt!

Squirrel - the other white meat!

After we got back to the condo, and before the storm hit, we walked down St. Charles Avenue and up and down 2nd and 3rd looking at the beautiful homes and very different trees. All the homes had beautiful landscaping - I guess when you live in the Garden District it's expected of you to keep everything looking very pristine.

Big oak tree

Tree covered in ivy

Tree roots

Love this two story home

Love these roots climbing up the tree

Tree full of Mardi Gras beads

Beautiful home

                                    

Street of different trees - more of a blond wood

An up close view of "blond" tree

Lovely magnolia tree in front of another beautiful home

Huge oak trees in front of beautiful home

 My choice of dinner tonight was Bucktown Burger & Seafood. Jim & I used to eat here when we lived here and the food was good and filling. I had fried catfish on a grilled onion bun with sweet potato fries and sweet tea. Boy had I been missing that since being back in Washington!

Buckhorn Burger & Seafood - LOVE IT

We made a quick stop at Winn-Dixie on the way home. After we got back, the storm broke open and we watched the lightning right outside our condo window. It sure brought back memories of when we lived here for those 15 months! The storms in Louisiana are crazy! The cracking thunder feels like it's right in the room with you. I ran up on the roof deck to get a picture - fortunately I didn't get hit by lightning!

The storm has arrived

Day 4 Pensacola Beach, Florida

12-22-14, Monday. We took a road trip today to Pensacola Beach, Florida. We were gone 12 hours and covered four states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida).

We left about 9:00 and it was raining pretty hard until we were nearly out of Louisiana.

Along the way, we stopped at a Waffle House in Mississippi for breakfast. It was greasy, but boy was it good! Waffle House was Kevin's choice of places he wanted to eat while we were down south.

Driving through Mobile, Alabama, we made a spur-of-the-moment stop at the Battleship Memorial Park (Jim took credit for this stop although Tracy will try and claim credit!). We toured the USS Alabama, the Submarine USS Drum and the Aircraft Pavilion. What a great decision it was to stop here.

We finally made it to Pensacola Beach and the white sand was beyond unbelievable. The temperature was about 68 degrees and just perfect although the water was cold. I might have to look into some timeshare weeks there in the future! The condos are right on the beach!

On our way back to NOLA, we stopped in Alabama at Cracker Barrel for dinner. Cracker Barrel was Tracy's choice of places she wanted to eat while we were down south!

Our final stop of the day was the rest area right after we crossed into Louisiana from Mississippi. Jim & I had stopped there on a road trip we took back in 2013 but there were so many people crowded around these carvings I couldn't get a good picture. I can't remember the guy's name, but he carved these out of oak trees that were uprooted during Hurricane Katrina.

Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time we got back to Louisiana! It was a long day, but we had fun and even learned some history!

B-520 Stratofortress named Calamity Jane

Jim & Kevin reading about the B-520

B-520 Stratofortress

Tracy, Kevin, Laura & Jim getting ready to board the USS Alabama

USS Alabama

USS Alabama

Laura going crazy with one of the big guns (thank goodness it wasn't loaded)!

Kevin wasn't nearly as crazy as Laura!

On the deck

Stealth Bomber in the Aircraft Pavilion

A-6 Intruder - this is one of the types of planes that fly the canyon over Sunland.

Calamity Jane

Tracy on board the USS Drum Submarine

Me

Laura coming up out of the USS Drum

Kevin coming up out of the USS Drum

Jim coming up out of the USS Drum

Pensacola Beach

Pensacola Beach

Laura & Kevin

 

Jim & I

 

Tracy & I

Would have loved to find a sand dollar that wasn't broken - they would have been huge.
Laura said this was a crab shell was from a crab that had molted. 

Pensacola Beach sign

In other words, don't leave your garbage at the beach.

Carved from dead oak trees.

Carved from dead oak trees.

 

Carved from dead oak trees.