New Orleans #2

Day 3 was just as busy as the others. My mom wasn't joking when she said that she wanted to see everything.. The day before we talked to a tour guide in hope to get a map of the city and ended up booking a tour that took us all around the city. I was so happy my mom wanted to do the tour because driving around town was so hard for me. You aren't allowed to turn left, you have to flip a "U" turn and then turn right and every street is a one way road. Even with my GPS we got lost lol So that morning we got up and went to the restaurant that we to be picked up and ate Beigents! They were really good but it was like taking a bite of a deep fried heavy donut. They says there is a place in french quarters that is better and we had planned to go there but ran out of time. The tour was amazing. We saw and learned so many things about New Orleans and were able to see devastation from hurricane Katrina. It's sad to hear and see that seven years later people and the town are still suffering from it. I watched all the reports on tv but being there and seeing everything made it come to life. Knowing that where I stood there was 15-20 feet of water on top of me was hard to imagine. It was crazy to see the houses with the "X" on them showing the date they went in the house and how many bodies were found in the house. On a lighter note, I loved seeing all different districts. Our tour guid said they didn't know their north, south, east, west, that they used upriver, downriver, riverside and lakeside. The garden district was the most pretty and I loved the mardi gras beads hanging in every tree, on the street light, and power lines. If I was driving myself I totally would have stopped and looked like a freak and climbed a tree and got one out lol After the tour we hurried and got lunch and were off to yet another zoo.. It was a very pretty zoo but boy was it HOT and Humid!! I have never sweat that much in my life. Poor little Jackson, I didn't know a kid could sweat like that. In joy the many pictures :) Every time we went into the city we drove past the Superdome Our Beigents Jackson enjoying them Oma and Jackson on the tour bus Jackson square An artist gathered all of this wood from around the city after the hurricane and made this. The X on the houses One of many houses distorted from the hurricane One of the levee's This is one that didn't break during the hurricane I wish I would have gotten a better picture but this is showing how hight the water was compared to a house. The tallest blue pole is taller then the frame of the house. One on Tom Cruise's house he donated to the city. All of his houses were the top of the line with everything. Smokey Johnson was driving down the street in his jazzy and came and said hi to everyone. I guess he's a famous blue's/Jazz singer.. IDK This is probably my favorite picture on the tour. I love the colorful houses all around The tree's were amazing too The cemeteries.. quick info on them. They are all above ground because when it floods the bodies would come up. Big groups own one plot, it can be families, churches, whatever. The vaults have two levels in them. The top one is where they put the casket and the bottom is where they sweep the remains of the body when they put another one in.. Yeah gross huh. They said that it takes a body to decay in the heat there a full year. So each person has to stay in their casket on the top shelf for a year. That means if your mom died and then six months later your dad dies you would have to rent a little space on the back wall to put your dad for six months until your mom and been in there for a year and a day and then they would take her out, sweep her remains into the bottom one and then bring your dad out and put him on the top shelf!! Crazy huh and someone asked on our tour if they could use the old casket again and thats a no, its illegal lol You know.. Just a family picture in the cemetery The creepy back wall This vault had thousands of names on it! They were all nuns Some really old creepy vaults.. This was at their art museum. It was labeled "To little to late" showing that most were to late escaping from the hurricane. Jackson asleep on the tour. They said it was only two hours.. try almost four The tree's with the mardi gras beads They said this was the frame of one of the levels of the Eiffel tower. They redid a level and somehow the frame ended up there.. Oh the lovely Zoo This was right as you walked in Jackson hand compared to a bears I love this picture of Jackson with the monkeys A floating house Mom and Jackson teasing the raccoons Jackson in the kids trap Jackson being brave and sitting on the alligator The gross swamp This bird was just sitting in the open. It was really cool to be so close to it. Poor Jackson sweating to death Just a picture of the zoo as we were leaving. It was a really pretty zoo