New Orleans

The first day we toured New Orleans we went to Mardi Gras World. This place designs and builds floats to go into the 55 or so parades during Mardi Gras. It's as important as the Rose Parade.

The floats start as a design board like this one. This one is going to be Beauty and the Beast.

This is a finished float ready to go to the storage warehouse until next February.

The church of St. Louis facing Jackson Square.

Jackson in the center of Jackson Square a pretty park near the river.

There was a Irish Pub Crawl in the French Quarter the Friday we were there. Boy were they loud.

typical buildings in the French Quarter.

We took a walking tour of the French Quarter. The buildings are right up to the sidewalks, so no yards. But they do have courtyards down the sides of the buildings like this one.

We also went to see the city of the dead. They bury their loved ones about ground. It use to be because of the shallow water table, but now the ground is well drained and it's just tradition.

The graves are in rows and look just like a neighborhood.

That night we went to a cooking school for a demostration. This is Harriet, our teacher. I've not had as good a time as we had that night. She was so funny. She told stories about her family that had us in stitches for two hours. I wanted to take her home with me. And the food was amazing as well. I got the recipes to try when we get home.

That was Friday and we were gone from 9:oo am until 8:00 pm. We were pooped by the time we got back to the rig. But the real kicker was we had to be on the bus again Saturday morning at 7:30. Oh well, we can nap. Right.