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Published: January 29th 2008
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Hope y'all had a Happy Australia Day!!!
Well this will be my final blog before we get back home as we leave here on Tuesday and get back home on Thursday...hooray Kate & Fiko say with a sigh of relief.
This blog will be a bit of a mish mash of suff in no particular order that I have not gotten round to telling you guys about before this...
Before we left Orlando we were going to go to Cape Canaveral but it was a bit off the direct route to get back to New Orleans so when the Thompson's toldus they were going on an airboat ride we thought why not who knows if we get back to Florida again and it is something unique to this area albeit a bit further south.
So we set off Paul was navigator got to the Airboat ride place closeset to town to find the gates locked.... hum... well on to the next one how can you airboat in town anyways? About an hour later we arrived at Southport Park on the lake...the wind was chilly but armed with jackets and gloves we got on board. The guide told
us we were unlikely to see any alligators as the weather was too cold, but about half way through he spotted one in the water. You could only see his eyes and nostrils sticking out of the water so it was pretty impressive that he spotted it...estimated that he was probably about 30 ft long. On the banks we saw lots of birds, herons blue & white, an eagle, a woodpecker and lots more. Also a couple of racoons which is out of the ordinary as they are apparently nocturnal so go figure what they were doing out in the middle of the day?
From there we drove back to New Orleans to watch Robert play was another close game ...they won and Robert is starting to get a bit more time....hooray!
We also did a "Katrina" tour I think I have touched on it in earlier blog but there a few things of interest that we learnt about New Orleans and what happened. The tour guide explained to us that NO is below the level of the river and the Lake on the other side is also higher than the town,which all contributed to the damage.
Trees in Louisiana are all covered in this Spanish Moss...
it gives the trees an eerie sort of look. they actually grow in "the air" ...do not need any soil. I am sure you have all heard of the Upper and Lower 9th Ward which is where a lot of the damage was sustained. There were 2 different "issues" to the water damage. I believe in the Upper 9th Ward it was where the water overflowed the levees but had nowhere to go so all the houses were flooded and stood under water for weeks... in this area you could not see water levels on the houses as it was over their roofs for most of the time. In the Lower 9th Ward it was a different issue here is was running water.... when the levees broke te water ran downhill through East New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico and moved anything that was not bolted down which was hardly anything. The biggest thing for me was you can not get over the miles and miles of damage and how much of it is still in disrepair I can not image how long it will take to recover if ever...
The original part of NO had very little damage other than wind but it ws designed to allow for "water damage" if you can see it in the
photos the shops in the French Quarter are all built with shops on the ground floor and they all have brick floors, the housing begins on the first floor so that if there is any flooding your belongings are OK you go downstairs when the water receeds hose out the shop and start trading again....very practical.
The other unique thing about the housing in the French Quarter is that the wealthier home owners built around a central court yard with the outside boundaries being right hard up against footpath...app arently in the early days the "ladies" could move with realative anonimity between apartments and not be seen from the street.
You can also see by the photos how decorative the homes are and they change for each occassion..when we arrived they were still decorated for christmas then it changed mostly to LSU clolours for the Championship game and now they are covered in Mardis Gras colours...purple green & gold. It is not just the odd house in the Quater but is is throughout the suburbs as well some buildings are even lit up in the colours at night.
Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Holiday and Robert
organised some tickets for the New Orleans Hornets the local NBA team. They were playing against the Milwakee Bucks Andrew Bogut form Australia plays for them. It was interesting to see how they operate it is all aboujt the entertainment andthe game really jsut fills in the time in between.
The Mardis Gras parades are just starting with processions through the Quarter and through major suburbs in and around NO. Robert is playing in Jackson Mississippi on Saturday so we will miss those but there is a couple on Sunday including a Doggy parade (Barkus) in the afternoon and apparently there are hundreds of dogs dressed up in costumes so that should be a bit of fun. The main Mardis Gras parade and subsequent party is actually not until 5th Feb but basically it is an excuse to party...not that NO seems to need one. seems to me the purpose of these parades is for the onlookers to collect as many beads as you possibly can. The people on the floats have to purchase them and spend all year raising money to throw them out at Mardis Gras. On Friday we came across one which was called "Krewe of
Corks" and it was all about wine...everyone wore costumes some very creative they had lunch and I am guessong quite a bit of wine then they congregated outside the restaurant to "walk" through the Quarter. They were accompanied by several golf carts with eskies filled with wone to keep them going. My kind of parade...
You can by law drink alcohol in the streets as long as it is not in a bottle or glass it must be in a "to go cup" which can take several forms. The other thing I have noticed here is that a "glass" is generally more like a bucket!!! see pictures....
One of Robert's games was at Dillard which is a HBU - Historically Black University...you can see by the video what a fun time they have at the games these girls were just supporters nothing to do with cheerleading and they got the whole crowd involved...
We have really enjoyed our time here in New Orleans and meet some wonderful people I can't wait to come back... I would throughly recommend anyone oming to America to include New Orleans in your itinerary and Natchez especially if you are little bit
Along the road you could see all these covered in areas
on the backs of the houses in Florida most seemed to have pools inside them guess there must be big mossies there... historically inclined.
Well signing off now talk to you all soon hope you have enjoyed the sometimes long winded blogs I have had fun doing them.
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Bruce
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We enjoyed your holiday also. Can't wait for the next one. So it's back to the old ho hum for a while. Enjoy the flight home. Catch up with you later. Cheers, Bruce.