Well, I'm back on the blog. At least for tonight. The hotel internet has been spotty at times and last night it was just too late to do anything. Now I have to get you all caught up.
We visited relatives (Don, Mary, Ellen, and Lucy +Mitzi and Basil) in Katy, TX. We spent a day doing laundry, going to the park to release some physical energy, mini golfed, scootered, read, played video games, played with the doggies, and generally hung out and caught up.
We left Houston early evening Thursday and got to Lafayette, LA about midnight. We took and posted a picture of the bug carnage we created on the front of the car going through east Texas. Yuck! Claire wants to know how we're going to get it off since we can't go through a carwash with the cartop carrier on the car. Good question Claire! Got a mid-morning start to New Orleans (say "N'awlins").
It's Claire's birthday, so we wished her a happy birthday at the Louisiana visitor center on I-10 in the Atchafalaya (say "a-CHA-fa-LI-ya") Swamp (9th longest bridge in the world is I-10 through there) and the ladies there gave her all the trinkets they could muster. A Louisiana (say "loo-si-ANN-a") pin, beads with a large LA button, a luggage tag, and crawfish caviar (Red Hots, relabeled), and at lunch in The Big Easy, she had chocolate cake and our server sang to her.
The weather today was blissfully cloudy. The temps stayed in the high 70's, low 80's with a breeze. Got to walk along the Moon Walk along the levees by the Mississippi River. Took the kids to Jackson Square and Bourbon Street. Noticed lots of closed up businesses, but it's still loud on Bourbon St. Had the lunch, po boys and cheeseburgers, and then walked back to the Audubon Aquarium. Spent our last couple of hours there and boogied out of New Orleans before rush hour hit hard.
We then headed across the longest continuous bridge over water in the world, 2nd largest in the world over any terrain; the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. It looked like the low sections of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, but you couldn't see the far shore quite as soon.
When we got to Mississippi, we headed to the Gulf coast to wiggle our toes in the Gulf of Mexico and the white sand beaches. The kids really liked that. Mom of the Year, here I come! I showed them where I went to the beach when I was stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi. We checked out the major growth and the Katrina damage (still greatly evident). Due to dense population, New Orleans seemed to get the greater media coverage, but physical damage to seemingly secure structures was worse along the Gulf Coast. There were homes on stilts that the stilts remain, but the houses are gone. There were houses built on concrete pads that only have the front brick steps left. There's still a grounded fishing trawler between two casinos. It was moving for me. Of course, with all of the growth, I would hardly have recognized it anyway, but there were some beautiful mansions that are gone and won't be rebuilt.
We then continued the journey to Mobile, where I sit and type this as I wait for my photos to upload. I can't put the link in until I know the pictures are there, huh?
Tomorrow it's the USS Alabama then the 5-6 hour drive to Atlanta.
Pictures days 3-6.
Pictures Alamo and San Antonio.
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