Alan and Jonna's trip to New Orleans, LA

Our annual winter holiday trip of 2004 was to New Orleans. Jonna had never been to the Louisiana and it was only a few hours drive from Alan's hometown of Crestview, Florida. We went with Brenda and Harvey (Alan's parents) and enjoyed great food and great history in Southern Louisiana. Jonna was sick for all of the trip so we took it easy on the nightlife and running around too much.

Here are some of our photos from the trip.

1) Fishing huts on our swamp tour on the first day of the trip. It was too cold too see many critters, but there were lots of these little floating huts.

2) More of the swamp with a "nutria" (large rat/beaver type mammal) hiding in the grass.

3) A photo of the Great White Heron that was out fishing on the canal behind our cabin in Bayou Signette State Park every morning.

4) View from our cabin at Bayou-Segnette State Park. This spacious cabin was 20 minutes from the French Quarter and in a beautiful setting.

5) View of the defensive works at Chalmette National Battlefield, the site of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. The musuem is small but we bought a few books which described the event in great detail.

6) The monument built to memorialize the Battle of New Orleans.

7) The Chalmette National Cemetary, final resting place for hundreds of Civil War casualties, is attached to the Battle of New Orleans battlefield park.

8) Cafe Beignet was our choice, over crowded Cafe du Monde, for morning fried dough.

9) St. Louis Cathedral, a Catholic church built in 1724, off the main square in the French Quarter.

10) Early morning view of Bourbon Street. We never got there after dark.

11) Jonna in front of Preservation Hall in the French Quarter - a famous venue for live music.

12) The pirate Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, now a bar, where he sold his "pirate booty".

13) One of the Higgins boats, this one in the lobby of the National D-Day museum, which were built in New Orleans during World War II. Alan and Harvey spent nearly four hours in the D-Day museum and still only saw about half of it.

14) The Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District.

15) Architecture in the Garden District.

16) Commander's Palace - where Emeril got his start. Turtle soup to die for but not much for Alan the vegetarian.

17) Just a small bit of the trash we saw on our drive down the Mississippi River to the town Venice. The 80 mile drive from New Orleans to Venice was a depressing insight into what the oil and chemical refinery business has done to the once beautiful bayous of southern Louisiana. This three story high trash pile was in a Halliburton compound.

18) The Tourist riverboat Natchez on the Mississippi River.

19) Jonna and Brenda walking down the "Riverwalk" near the French Quarter.

20) Sunrise view from our cabin.

21) Slave quarters at "Laura - a creole plantation". We enjoyed this tour very much although, unfortunately the main house had recently been damaged in a fire. This historical plantation tour actually discussed slavery issues at length.

22) One of the old sugar kettles used for boiling down sugar cane and converting it to granulated sugar. This one is used in a garden at Oak Alley Plantation.

23) Approaching the rear of the main house at Oak Alley Plantation. This tour was all hoop skirts and mint juleps - with little mention of slavery..

24) The Alley of Oaks.

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Alan Fleming