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Published: January 10th 2011
..looking down St Charles..
..tree lined avenue with the street cars riding the middle of the street each way..houses off to the side impressive.They promised a storm ... and they delivered! Woke up to relatively clear skies but could see it was much, much colder so wrapped up warm and headed out intending to visit the Audobon Zoo.
Rode the street cars down St Charles Avenue - from one of the guide books we expected to see some fairly valuable and impressive real estate...certainly did, lots of very big houses come mansions some taking up large blocks of land with 4, 5 and 6 garages. Old plantation style places, newer refurbished, renovations and some new construction but keeping the Old South theme alive on the street. Two large and prominent universities on this street also and numerous churchs and synagogues... Street is lined on both sides by large trees with the street cars riding the island in the middle in both directions.
After about a half an hour, took us that long to get there, got off at Audobon Park to walk about 1.5 kilometres through the park to the zoo. By this stage the wind had come up, skies had darkened and after walking half way there got sensible and abondoned the idea as it was clear we were going to
Riding the Street car...
..kids just sat back and watched the world go by.. get caught in the zoo in a storm and it was a fair haul back through open ground to get to the street cars back to the French Quarter. Kids a little disappointed as this was one of the highlights we had for them here but they saw the common sense to it and agreed without any fuss...proud of them!
Good news was that walking back through the park we found a squirrel so the day was a success anyway... turned out a good move as if we had gone to the zoo all we would have seen were empty enclosures and paid $60 for the privilege.
Caught the street car back down St Charles and got off in Canal Street and walked down to the riverfront and the Audobon Aquarium. This was pretty good and it was clear others thought it was very impressive...but we are spoilt down under as Sydney Aquarium, Sunshine Coast Underwater World and even Kelly Tarltons are a significant step up. Some of the enclosures were not in as good a condition as we are used to and some were a little on the small side also. Not all bad though and some
Look at that smile..
..riding the street car.. interesting stuff like a large albino alligator... just something very strange to see. Quite a good Amazon Rainforest area also.
Came out of the Aquarium after about an hour or so and the skies had been torn asunder and the wind was howling and it was pouring hard. Too wet to make the dash up Canal to the hotel so ducked into the Riverwalk Mall to find coffee and some more food for the kids and hide from the storm and wait it out...it waited us out and eventually we made a run for it...we got drenched and the wind was blowing straight down Canal into us... again proud of the kids as it was cold and wet and generally pretty unpleasant but we made a game out of it and they had a good chuckle and not a word of complaint. Got the two frozen cherubs back to the hotel and defrosted them.
I then spent a couple of fascinating hours in the guest laundry getting clothes dry to pack before we move on tomorrow. Storm was full on by this time so we weren't going anywhere and in the end that was us for the day
Local Real Estate..
..this is an example of some of the property at the lower end of the price spectrum on St Charles...some very impressive places.. and the kids watched a cartoon network marathon. Dinner in the hotel as although the storm had abated it was still very, very cold and just no point in going out in it. Also hotel is much quieter as the mathematics convention or conference has closed up and moved on... what a bunch of boffins... still, much rather share a hotel with them than a bunch of rugby fans...
Sorry to be leaving New Orleans as just haven;t really touched the surface of it... not the child friendliest of locations perhaps, it is more an adult destination with its focus on art and music and interesting environment... kids have not complained though as they can see that they did okay on the Orlando leg of the journey. Its one to come back to.
Travelling tomorrow for Los Angeles... leaving here on 7.30 pm flight due in at 9.30 pm LA time - which will be 11.30 pm New Orleans time so kids will be shattered. Following day, gotta be at the airport in LA around 4 or 5 pm for a early evening flight back to Auckland...home and the end of this little venture...
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Poppa
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Journey's end - or nearly....?
Well it's hard to realise time is running out. Your blogs and pics have been brilliant. Travel safely on the final leg of your journey and it will be welcome home to the sunshine...... Loadsaluv