New Orleans

This past weekend I went on a trip to New Orleans where I chaperone the band at the high school where I teach. It was a blast!!

We left last Wednesday night and drove all night. The trip started with a bang when the tour buses got pulled over at 3am by two troopers in Alabama. Apparently we were going 5 miles over the speed limit in a construction zone. They proceeded to keep the buses pulled over for like 35 minutes while they checked logs and paperwork. Crazy!

In New Orleans, we went on a tour of the haunted places of the French Quarter, took a steamboat cruize on the Natchez, went to the Aquarium, and watched a Carnival parade. The parade was very cool, standing on the sidewalks jumping and screaming for plastic beads made in China. LOL! I think I came home with like 150 strings of these silly beads. Going to give some of them to my kids at school. Then the next day, the band actually marched in a parade. I and the other chaperones followed the band during the parade. We walked for almost 5 miles! My feet were killing me. It was so cool though because there were people lining the entire parade route. We also got to go on a swamp tour, a plantation tour, and listen to live jazz music!

The swamp tour was cool. We were on boats going through the swamp where we were able to see live gators swimming in the water. The tour guide actually had a small alligator on the boat. It was two years old and about two feet long. I am not afraid of a lot of stuff, but terrified of snakes and other reptiles. When he pulled the gator out of the cooler, I immediately hightailed it to the other end of the boat. Eventually I was able to get up the courage to sit beside someone holding it and touch it. Then one of the other chaperones and I finally decided to try holding it. Now let me tell you, I was terrified. I was handed the gator and was holding it and taking the picture and then the gator went beserk! His head starting moving and his tail was swinging and legs flying. I panicked! Luckily I did not drop it or throw it overboard although I thought about it. One of the kids got it quickly from me and I proceeded to go to the other end of the boat and try to calm down. My heart was racing! Of course, then one of the kids tell me they got it on video! Just waiting for that to show up on youtube! LOL!

One of the most sombering things we did was take a bus tour through the 9th ward of N.O. This was the area that was the most devastated by hurricane Katrina several years ago. A lot of the buildings are just gone. A lot of them are shells. A lot of them still have the x's on them where they were searched. Completely unbelievable! There were whole blocks with only one house of them now. Just barren empty fields.

Coming home sucked! First a long bus ride and then about a 30 degree temperature change! Brrrrr! It was like 70 in N.O. and only about 40 at home. Wasn't ready for that!

Food was really good, although I have had enough of gumbo and jambalaya for a while. We also had pralines which were amazing!!!

I will post pictures when I have them! Happy Mardi Gras!