Day 7 & 8: New Orleans

We made it to New Orleans in pretty good time.  No problems and we drove past some pretty cool little towns.  We saw a cool plantation house and I think we were seeing fields of cotton.  Kind of gross but I saw a dead alligator on the side of the road, definitely something we are not use to seeing.  We got here at around 6 and decided we wanted to get something to eat.  

 We went up Bourbon street because the street is famous.  I will just let you all know, it is famous for all the wrong reasons and it doesn't matter if it is Mardi Gra time or not, trust me you don't need to see anything on Bourbon street.

 It is really loud and I found it interesting that the whole street is full of people, every night.   We did eat some yummy Jambalaya and blackened shrimp and Gumbo.  Then we just hurried back to our room.

 We decided to take a tour through the Garden District.  It started in the Lafayette Cemetery.  It was interesting to hear the stories.  The reason they bury their dead in these tombs because of the Spanish influence. Not because of the water tables or anything, although that played a part in them keeping the tradition.  Even today they still bury their dead in these family tombs.

 This was kind of interesting,the fire companies would sometimes fight over which fire company could fight a fire in certain areas.   Sometimes they would fight so much that the fire wouldn't get put out and the house would burn down and sometimes people would die.

 I can't remember the story behind this house, there were just so many.

 This house is the oldest house in New Orleans, they aren't even sure how old because it was here when New Orleans became a town.  It was probably an old plantation house. 

Cool old fence

This house is 24000 square feet, 28000 if you count the porches!  Amazing!  This house proudly houses two  whole people.  I think this one was used in some movies but I can't remember.  I guess New Orleans is just full of movie history.  Sadly during this tour my camera stopped working, I have no idea why.  It seems to be working now though.  

After the tour we meet up with one of Hope's friends, she lives here and showed us around the rest of the day.  It was nice we went to the french district and through some shops.  We went to the Satchmo Festival, it was a Jazz festival dedicated to Louis Armstrong, kind of cool.  We ate beignets, very famous here.  It tastes kind of like a elephant ear.  It was  a good good day, we walked all day and now I'm exhausted :)  We are off to Mississippi and then Florida tomorrow!