New Orleans

Friday July 10
We weren't in any hurry to get going this morning. We had planned to have a leisurely morning being that we only had a 3 hour drive to New Orleans. However, Cole had other plans, he was awake at 5am. When you are all sleeping in one room once the first person is up, it's not long until everyone else is awake. So we all got up, bathed/showered and had breakfast; a little after 7 we headed West along to gulf coast to New Orleans.

We took our time getting there, in Biloxi, MS we got off the freeway and drove along a highway on the coast. It was slow going but was fun to drive along the water. We got to New Orleans around 1pm. As we were driving into the city, we drove past the lower ninth ward and saw so much devastation remaining from Hurricane Katrina.

Our hotel was right next to the french quarter near the aquarium. We didn't have any hard set plans for the afternoon other than going to the french market in the quarter. After checking into our hotel (And surviving Rob trying to kill us by trying to turn the wrong way down a one way street) and relaxing for a little bit, we went down to the river walk and walked along the Mississippi River and then cut over into the French quarter. Right about this time it started raining. We were able to stay pretty dry by walking under the overhangs from the stores. When we got to the french market it went from raining to pouring. We walked through the market and then hung out for about 30 minutes in a covered area waiting for the rain to stop. Once it did, we started making our way back to the river. We stopped for dinner, the kids had pizza and Rob and I got some Red Beans and Rice. We got back to the car and decided to drive over to the garden district.

The streets in New Orleans are pretty screwy and don't make much sense. Instead of ending up in the garden district, we ended up at walmart. Oh well, we went in and bought stuff to have for breakfast the nest morning. When we got back to our hotel, the kids were wide awake and the rain was completely gone so we let the kids swim in the hotel pool for a while. Cole was his usual self and made friends with everyone in the pool. He's such a flirt (a trait which he definitely gets from his dad.)

Rain in the French quarter

Check out that rain!

Holocaust Memorial on the Riverwalk

The kids with a paddleboat in the background