Back from Vacation: Post #2

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Whoops! Photo is sideways, but this way... you can read it just fine!



When we got our rental car near the New Orleans Airport, the lady helping us was very helpful and excited to tell us great things to see and do while we visited New Orleans.  She recommended places for Swamp Tours and also the National World War II Museum.  We checked out the museum on our second day in New Orleans after having beignets and coffee at the Cafe du Monde.  The museum was well worth the trip.  My husband is quite the WWII History buff.  He could walk up to pretty much each exhibit and give us a spiel about what everything was.  He was quite the tour guide. 

One day, we also ventured out of New Orleans and went for a swamp tour on a boat.  Getting there was quite an adventure.  We got horribly lost despite using my son's Blackberry Phone and Mapquest on the Internet.  The boat tour facility was about 30 minutes from our hotel... it took us nearly two hours to find the darn place.  The boat tour was GREAT!  They had smaller, fast speed boats, but we got boats on a larger, 16-passenger boat.  The fast boats were sold out.  The larger boat went plenty fast.  Besides that, the tour guide stopped frequently so we could watch the alligators and so he could tell us all about bayous, canals, brackish water, alligators, and his Cajun family history in New Orleans. 

In the brackish water...

Big 'gator in the canal...

A canopy of Spanish Moss over the bayou...

A small alligator sunning on a discarded plank of wood...

A quick video to show you what the Swamp Boat tour was like.

I think our tour guide, Ernie, had these alligators rather conditioned.  As we rode down one canal, the alligators started to swim up to the boat and Ernie brought out his big bag of marshmallows! The alligators loved them it seemed.  Ernie said the alligators could not really taste them, but the alligators could easily see them due to the contrast between the dark water and light colored treat.
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I was inspired to try some new dishes in my kitchen after returning from vacation.  Check it out HERE on my cooking blog.