The Big Easy and The Mississippi Delta, Y'all

Never been to "N'awleans" before.

Now we have.

The main day we spent touring New Orleans, we all wore plaid shirts.  Accidentally.
We got a few comments.  "Look at that plaid family," or from the guy trying to sell carriage tours "Hello, FAMILY OF PLAID, step right up for a carriage tour!"

St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana.

I love the music on nearly every street corner in New Orleans.  What a great city with so much history and artistic flair.  We visited all the main hot spots -- French Market (where we just missed Robert DeNiro, who was there filming a movie), The French Quarter, The Superdome, we watched a video about hurricanes/Katrina/eroding wetlands, ate Cafe Du Monde beignets, Jazz National Park and learned all about Louis Armstrong, went through the famous Saint Louis Cemetery, ate Bananas Foster French Toast and Eggs Benedict Poor Boys, and even hit the Children's Museum.

 

 

 

 

Saint Louis Cemetery #1 is the famous cemetery where all the graves are above ground vaults.  Above ground graves are pretty important in this area of New Orleans because of the city's frequent flooding.  This cemetery is also home to the grave of the famous Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau.  Her followers still adorn her grave site with gifts in groups of three.  The number three is significant in Voodoo, appearing many times in spells and folklore.  Legend has it that if you deface Marie Laveau's grave by drawing three "X's", then knock three times to make your presence known, that her angry spirit will visit you that very night.  Having just returned from Haiti, I found this very interesting, as Haitians are steeped in a culture with deep Voodoo roots.

 

 

Most vaulted graves in the Saint Louis Cemetery were constructed in the 18th & 19th century.



Bananas Foster French Toast -- New Orleans, LA.

 

 

 

 

Playing dress-up in the French Market.



Beignets at Cafe Du Monde - New Orleans.

 

Jazz National Park - New Orleans.

At one point during our tour of New Orleans, Mr. Fix-It needed to take a phone call.  I told him I'd wait with the kids at a nearby park.  The park was fairly crowded with people lying all around in the grass, and walking around.  CBR was sitting on the arm of a bench beside me overlooking a bush. 

 

Seems harmless, right?

In less than a nanosecond, he disappeared.  I'm still confused by how it happened but the boy ended up backwards . . . in the bush . . . stuck . . . hanging upside down by his pants  . . . which were sliding off . . . leaving his bare hiney exposed . . . and his pants ripped.  I heard him squealing from inside the bush, and then noticed a few college girls pointing and laughing at the bush.  This child frequently leaves me wondering.  He's quite mysterious.

 

The whole episode left him quite forlorn.

 

Not to mention the flapping hole in his pants that forced him to reveal his underwear for the remainder of the day.

CBR was so worried that people would see his underwear because of the flapping hole in his pants.  I convinced him that no one would see a thing as long as he walked in a zig-zag line.  He did it.  The rest of the day.  It was hilarious. 

 

In an effort to change the subject for poor CBR, I reminded the kids about how we'd crossed the headwaters of the Mississippi River while in Minnesota -- and now here we were standing in the wetland area where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  We're beginning to have flashes of these "WOW" moments at the realization of just how much we've done over the past nine months.

 

Gathering cotton remnants from a cotton field.

From Louisiana, we traveled through Mississippi -- we discussed cotton & the cotton gin.  We discussed the Delta region. 

 

We also enjoyed some down time.

 

CER and CBR snuggling as they watch a movie.

 

Onward to Georgia . . .