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Published: October 24th 2010
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We woke up to the alarm at 6.30am feeling very hung-over. Had a shower and met Colin and Shona downstairs for breakfast. Scott was worse than me, he felt very hung-over. Had buffet breakfast before getting picked up from the hotel for our swamp tour. The driver gave us a lot of information on the way to the swamp about hurricane Katrina and how it affected the people. We saw a lot of houses that he pointed out that have been abandoned since the floods as people didn’t come back. We saw abandoned hospitals and shops. He told us that where they used to have 2 hospitals now they have none. Where they used to have 9 drug stores they have 2, where they used to have schools they now have none. It was interesting to hear some of the recent history. We drove over a newly opened bridge over the lakes, and got to see the old bridge that was destroyed by Katrina. Very interesting information before we got to our destination - honey swamp tours.
We were on a boat with 6 other people and our guide - Charlie. Charlie was really fantastic as a guide. He had lived
in the swamps his whole life and his family own one of the houses on the swamp. He took us down Gum Bayou first - it is called Gum Bayou as there are about 3 types of gum trees down there. This is where we saw our first gator and he is a big one - the biggest gator they have living in the swamps, about 15 foot long. His name is El Wapo. He got a bit of a scare at first so he jumped out of the water pretty quickly - was cool. We thought he was chasing another little gator, but Charlie later told us that El Wapo is used to the sounds of the tour guides boats and the sounds of their voices so he doesn’t get scared of them as he knows they won’t hurt him. He didn’t really come out of the water, but he emerged himself enough that you could see how big he was.
We then traveled a few miles down the river and saw more smaller gators along the banks, turtles and some birds. The swamps are really quite beautiful. Charlie also told us that when Katrina came there were some
houses on the swamp that only had 5 inches of water, but some houses like his parents that had 5 feet of water. This just shows the magnitude of the water coming in, as Honey Swamp was like 10 miles from where the storm hit. It also illustrates that by the time it got to the houses who only had 5 inches of water that it was finally reaching its limit. Charlie said he stayed through the storm, but next time wouldn’t. The winds were up to 160mph and were ripping out trees all over his backyard, but only one hit the house.
We then got taken into another bayou where we saw some more gators and even a racoon! The racoon was really cute! Charlie told us a lot about how the water systems work and how the river has changed over time. The two hours went really quickly and before we knew it we were back at the dock ready to go back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel we headed out down to the banks of the Mississippi River, it was really pretty down there especially since it was such a nice day. We also
passed Jackson Square and took some photos of that. We had lunch at a nice little restaurant where the boys had gator, Shona had some Jumbalya and i had a salad. After lunch, we went to Cafe Du Monde for some iced coffee and French donuts - Beignets. This is all the shop serves and is famous for it. The donuts were really fresh and served warm - but they were covered with icing sugar and heaps of it!! We then headed back down to our hotel for a nap before our big night tonight. It was a nice walk down as Royal Street, which is where we are staying, was closed to traffic and there were many street performers playing jazz and music. Was a really nice atmosphere and it felt like a lazy stroll on a Sunday afternoon!
Got back to our hotel, where we slept for a couple of hours, showered and then met Colin and Shona downstairs for a big night!! We first headed down to Bourbon Street to a blues club for a drink before we had dinner. We went into House of Blues where a really cool blues band was playing. We all ordered
a hurricane and watched the band for about 45 minutes. The hurricane at this place was the best one we have had yet - nice flavour, lots of alcohol! After we left here, we went straight to Decateur Street to the Crescent City Brew House. We all ordered the beer sampler, which consisted of 5 of their beers. The waiter, who looked a lot like Brad, seemed surprised we all wanted it and said it would barely fit on the table. But nonetheless we all ordered it! The beers were really nice, the only one Shona didn’t like was the white beer. For dinner, i had a burger without the beef but with cheese/avocado/mushy and onion which was pretty good. Scott had the duck, which was his favourite meal so far. We all ordered another black forest beer - other than Scott - before leaving to find Frenchmen Street.
Along the way to Frenchman street, we found a little daiquiri bar where we all ordered drinks to go. Col and I got the giant beer, not sure how many ounces but it was huge. Scott got a little daiquiri and Shona got a big one. We walked along drinking and
looking at shops until we finally got to Frenchmen Street. It was fairly quiet for a Thursday and we hadn’t really thought through the giant drinks - as can’t enter most bars with them. So didn’t stop anywhere there, however by this stage we were all busting for the loo. We kept walking until we found a little corner bar, that is open from like 8am Thursday to Tuesday 2pm! We used their restroom and Shona bought another drink from them as she felt bad. Colin took it upon himself to skull the rest of his giant beer before going in to use the bathroom, as he couldn’t waste the beer before buying a new one. This was the beginning of the end. He shortly after threw up in the toilet. We sat outside this place for awhile just chatting and patting the local cat who the bar puts food out for.
We finally, headed back to Bourbon Street¸ passing some cool local houses along the way. So many were decorated for Halloween and looked really cool. We even passed, 2 people in the street that were singing. The guy sounded really good - but he wasn’t really busking so
didn’t stop to watch. Eventually passed one of the pubs we went to the night of our ghost tour and stopped in to buy another couple of drinks - by this stage i’d poured the last of my giant beer out as it was warm and no longer very nice. Took these to go, and headed back into Bourbon Street. Ended up at another jazz/blues club on Bourbon street where we bought another few Abita’s and listened to the band. By this stage Colin was pretty pissed, as was Shona and I - but Scott wasn’t really as he’d taken it a little easy. We ended up walking back to the hotel, grabbing some pizza, taking many photos as we went and called it a night by about 1.30am ish. Soft in our old age, but we’d had a lot to drink and probably ensured we didn’t all get arrested!!
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Mum
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What a trip
Great to hear from you, it's been a while. Sounds like you're having a ball. Those donuts!!!! YUK. Gators and raccoon are cool. Your blogs are certainly very informative, like travelling with you. Glad to hear you're having such a great time. You both may need to go into rehab when you get back if your drunken nights out continue. Just make sure I don't need to come over and bail you out one night. lol Luv ya Mum