TDudette

Two of your statements "hit" me:

"What possessed anyone to build a huge city on below sea level ground is a mystery."--I said the same thing about Pompeii--"They rebuilt it???

and

"NOLA (Bourbon St in particular) is an assault on all the senses."--So true. When hub and I visited there, I was enthralled when a portion of a street was cordoned off, a piano was pushed out and a guy started to play jazz. He had "primed" his hat with coins and the edge of a $100 bill. Be alert in NOLA. I hope you love the food there.

More, please.

Tomsd

Hey - when General Andrew Jackson beat the British at the battle of New Orleans - when we had to whup them again - during the War of 1812 - and Jackson said: Ok - now we have to do something with it!!!!!

They made a great movie - The Bucaneer - starying Yul Brunner as the Pirate Jean Lafitte - who is sympathetic to the Colonies - and New Orleans, with other stars such as Charlton Heston playing General Andrew Jackson, Claire Bloome and Inger Stevens as the fair damsels, Lorne Green (of Bonanza fame), and others.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051436/

Also - have you ever heard this classic song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsRK3DNoa_Q and for the lyrics: http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/c...ton-14929.html

I always loved this part of the song, especially the reference to alligators:


Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.**

We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

Lookin_Glass

The gator is not the only one that lost its mind.

Kwaussie

Ha ha Tom, Geoff & I sang that song all the way down the Natchez Trace, much to the disgust of our children! I'm starting to get my generals in the right armies and order now and I visited a statue of Jackson today near the Confederate museum.

Tdudette, we learnt our lesson on the scammers when someone tried to demand money from my husband for guessing the state his shoes were in! We've got th ehang of just ignoring them now.I just love all the characters in Bourbon street. It's amazing.

Sunny, blue skies greeted our second day in NOLA. Jaime and the men folk took themselves off to the WW11 museum while Sophie and I took in a few historic Confederate statues and went in search of someone to fix my camera. We had no luck with the camera. I'm trying to find a happy side to lugging my expensive gear half way round the world only to have it fail on me in a city full of photo opps. I'll let you know if I find one!

The historians thoroughly enjoyed their museum visit and were intrigued by the difference in dates for WW11. For us the war started in 1939 but of course here the start date is late 1941 and from a US perspective there is little acknowledgement of ANZAC involvement. Even though we didn't go in the museum itself, Soph and I browsed the shop and I wished I'd been here last year before Holiday Actor's production of South Pacific to stock up on costumes and props!

We caught a bus to the Garden District to check out a few of the 'little' houses we might buy if we ever move to New Orleans. This area is home to some seriously wealthy people like Sandra Bullock and Nicholas Cage. The preservation of these old southern homes is magnificent. We also visited the Lafayette Cemetery where everyone is buried above the ground. I have seen this before in Maori cemeteries in NZ where geothermal activity makes underground burial unwise. Here it is because of the high water table, a bayou cemetery. We had coffee and browsed at a 'real' book store and Taine was excited to buy a copy of the latest Wimpy Kid book.

The sun sets early in the South at this time of year so we just managed to see some boats come down the river before we had an early dinner on the esplanade. It was the most disappointing of our meals so far. I had been eagerly anticipating a New Orleans Poboy but I think we chose the wrong restaurant. My shrimp were deep fried, not grilled as requested and the bread was stale and dry. I realised too late that my alligator sausage had garlic in it and they charged me a dollar for a glass of water that I hadn't requested. Never mind, two bad food experiences (the other was Taco Bell, blaaah) in 10 days is a pretty good strike rate.

Tonight we went to an NBA basketball game. We certainly understood this game better than the footy and our cheap seats at the very top of the stadium provided us with a great view. Unfortunately the home team went down to the Utah Jazz. It was easy to identify with the NOLA Hornets because they wear the same blue and yellow as the Deakin Sharks, the team we play with at home! The Hornet's centre, Lopez, was awesome but he didn't have enough back up. As with the Longhorns last week, some sloppy ball handling would have earned my wrath at netball. One guy called and caught the ball out of court and a lot of easy shots went begging. Nevertheless, another great American experience. Hopefully we'll catch a game of something else in a town where we're on the winning team! One of the highlights of the half time entertainment was a troupe of 'senior' dancers. They were heaps better than the hair swinging Honeybees. There's hope for me as a cheer leader yet!

Today my happy motherly hiatus of having all my kids under the one roof (or hotel or car as the case maybe) comes to an end. In the morning Jaime & Xavier are catching the overnight Amtrak to Washington DC to continue their honeymoon alone and on Friday Sophie flies back to Austin to finish uni.It's nearly time for us to continue on to Florida alone.
What an absolute privilege and joy it has been to have them all with us on this part of our adventure. I'm planning a family European road trip already ;-)

Tomsd

Really appreciate your thorough/entertaining reports - and you are doing it right - Mates.

And LOL: Growing up - that was a very popular song back int he late 50's - early 60's.

Also just loved the chorus:

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin' on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

For a good, small - point and shoot camera - with 14 Mega Pixels (you really only need 6 MP)- and a 20X optical zoom (think 24 MM to 480 MM in one little camera) - I just bought my wife an Xmas present (she has a big Nikon SLR - with huge lenses) - at Costco - which they may or may not have down in NOLA, but sure they have other camera stores/retailers. It's a Panasonic - model ZS 19 - with the fabled Leica Lens - and it takes pretty good pics.

http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/DMC-ZS19K

It was on sale for $179 - regularly $279.

I had first bought a Nikon Coolpix S6300 - (on sale $129) - with a good Nikkor lens (both brands having glass lenses - while some small point and shoots have plastic lens - which also seems to work ok - but prefer glass) - and it had 16 MP and 10X Optical - or out to 240mm, but took that back after saw the Panasonic/Leica lens model. Think they have it at Staples, and other places: http://www.staples.com/Nikon-Coolpix...12&KPID=464312

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=REG&A=details

There is also a Nikon S9300 model - which costs a bit more and has 18 MP - and 18X Optical zoom - or some such.

Kwaussie

Thanks for the camera advice Tom. I think I'll bear with the iPhone for Florida and maybe pick up a point and shoot in NYC. Just so frustrating to be carrying 5kgs of non functioning equipment. I could use that luggage space for new clothes!

I've fallen in love with the antebellum architecture so today we ventured further afield to check out some more. Oaks Alley is one of several restored plantation houses along the banks of the Mississippi north west of NOLA. Oaks Alley was, and still is, a sugar plantation. The ground here is too wet for cotton. In its prime the plantation had 93 slaves working the plantation and another 20 working in the house. This included a 60 yr old, one armed slave who was only worth $60. I'm guessing he may have been the man in charge of pulling the rope that kept the fan moving above the dinner table while the guests ate.

The house is absolutely magnificent and has been beautifully restored to reflect life in the late 1800s. It is very reminiscent of the regal homesteads in our own part of the world except ours don't have an avenue of 300 yr old oaks leading up to them. It was certainly worth the hour's drive out to see it. The opulence of the plantation house was in stark contrast to the town of Valcherie that we drove through on the way there, highlighting for us once again the divide between rich and poor in the US. We have a similar, growing divide in Australia but it is not so often seen side by side as it is here.

When we got back to town Taine and I went for a walk to the French Market while Geoff & Sophie had a run along the banks of the Mighty Miss. We ate beignets from the famous Cafe de Monde (3 for $2.56) and watched some of the street performers across from Jackson Square. The beignets were delicious although I'm not sure that much icing sugar is good for anyone.

Too tired to venture out for dinner, we tried the hotel's own cocktail, 'Swamp Juice' along with some hot HOT HOT wings. Despite the blistered lips, they were delicious and the swamp juice certainly helped lessen the pain.

The Country Inn and Suites has been a great base for our stay in NOLA. It's only 5 minutes walk to Bourbon St and the River Walk and the service has been friendly and efficient. They have a guest laundry and a constant supply of free cookies at reception!

One of the nicest things about traveling is the people you meet along the way. We've had some great conversations with folk from all over the world while we've been in NOLA. Today we met a lovely couple, Joyce & Darrell from California, who told us about a website called global freeloaders, a way of finding new friends and free accommodation all over the world. I'm looking forward to checking out the redwoods near Joyce's house sometime in the near future but for now, we're off to Florida!

http://demansersintheusa.blogspot.co...w-orleans.html

emalloy

I'm taking your trip with you. Sounds like lots of fun. I'm looking forward to the AZ, CA part of the trip too.

Thanks for posting so regularly.

Tomsd

Again, love the continuing trip report.

And yes, carrying around an extra 10 plus unproductive pounds is a bummer for sure.

In NYC - there are a ton of camera shops - and I always look at the J & R daily adds in the NY times. http://www.jr.com/

And here is a page by CBS about the best Camera Stores in NYC:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/top-list...ra-stores-nyc/

Tomsd

Uno mas: Here is the Lumix - Panasonic ZS 20 - with a Leica lens - which has a GPS (unlike the earlier model - the ZS 19 - that I bought for my wife) - but some feel the GPS is a battery drainer. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...al_Camera.html

Some of the shops may try to upsell you to a more powerful/expensive camera - but a good point and shoot should be all you really need for 90% plus of the shots.

Kwaussie

Yesterday was moving day. Time to leave the Delta and fly to sunny Florida for some relaxation. We returned our trusty Kia Sedona (not without some issues because the return address on the agreement was an old one!) , put Soph on a plane back to Austin and then flew to Tampa via Miami.

Tampa was warm and humid when we arrived, very similar to Gold Coast winter weather in Australia. The airport is beautiful with a space age shuttle that runs across from the landing area to the terminal itself.

The first thing I noticed today was the Latin American influence in Central Florida. We grabbed empanadas (sort of fried pies) on our way through Miami and our new rental keeps giving us instructions in Spanish! When we visited an Hispanic supermarket I was thankful we hadn't traveled to South America because I don't think I'd cope with the jalapeño flavouring in so many of the foods! Nevertheless, introducing ourselves to this culture was an unexpected bonus of our trip.

This morning we set off down the Gulf Coast with no real destination in mind except that I was keen to check out the shells at Sanibel Island. Florida is Queensland on steroids. Same temperate winter climate, pretty beaches, palm trees and varying degrees of assisted care communities. We were wondering where all the older people in the States were and we found them in Venice! Venice Beach is also famous for turtles and fossilized shark teeth. You can even hire a shark tooth strainer to try your luck on the beach. We passed on the straining but Geoff and Taine took a dip in the ocean and we collected some sand to add to our collection at home.

We followed the Tamiami Trail road rather than the interstate and this gave us our first experience of over water roads, including a couple of what Taine calls 'roller coaster' bridges. In the middle of the over water roads these bridges appear to go straight up and then down again with only normal barrier rails on the sides (no suicide rails like we have at home). Not great for my vertigo but he enjoys them very much.

Arriving at Fort Myers in the late afternoon we found another trusty La Quinta (the best one yet, great pool, big bathroom) and also discovered that we could get a discount with our RACV membership. Score! Then we drove out to the very beautiful Sanibel Island in search of a beach. We passed lots of impressive houses on the long, narrow road out to the beach and then paid, yes paid! to park in the Bowman Beach car park. To get to the beach itself you walk down a path and over a river where fish were literally jumping in the air.

I think we've probably been spoilt as far as shell seeking is concerned given that most of our previous beach combing has been done at Papamoa and Mount Maunganui so I was a bit disappointed with the size and variety washed up on this beach. Still, it was a lovely spot to watch the sun setting on our first full day in Florida.

Tomsd

It must have been a little bittersweet - seeing off the rest of your family - but wow - you guys continued on strong - and are some real road warriors. Driving over those "roller coaster" bridges should have worked up a thirst for a few frosty Fosters, eh?

Any idea how many miles you covered yesterday?

Went to a number of PGA golf equipment conventions in Orlando - and finally drove down the west coast - as far as Venice - and loved it.

If you head back up toward Orlando - and have a chance to get to the Astronaut Hall of Fame - an hour or so east of Orlando - toward Cape Kennedy/Canaveral - you might enjoy it and they have a great flight simulator there - just like flying in a jet fighter. http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/as...l-of-fame.aspx

BTW - hope your balky camera is able to function at least some (or are those all shots from your I-Phone? and not bad if they are) - and as for point and shoot cameras - saw an add in the morning paper yesterday - and went to Fry's - a big electronics type warehouse, http://www.frys.com/

They had a great deal on a Samsung WB 150 - with 14 Mega Pixels and an 18X power Optical Zoom, but most of all - a Wi Fi option - so you could send pics directly to your computer (much like a cell phone can). http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/L14173685.jpg

It was on sale for only $89 - less than half - and it also has a good lens - a 24mm Schneider wide-angle lens - and with 18X zoom - so it can reach out to about the equivalent of a 430 mm lens.

For some reviews - see: http://www.testfreaks.com/digitalcam.../user-reviews/

It may not max out in low light situations - but it does have a built in flash.

Anywho - Keep On Trucking!!!

TDudette

Sorry about your camera! Could you mail it home? Get it insured.

Kwaussie

Yes Tom, it was a bit bitter sweet but that's the way it goes with kids. They grow up and start living their own lives! So unfair of them ;-)
Not sure how many miles we did yesterday. The instructions on the rental are all in Spanish so we can't read anything on the dash! The camera is working with the long lens on, it's just the 17-85mm that's not working. Yesterday's shots, were in fact all from the iPhone using the camera+ app. Not bad for a phone..

Tdudette, ridiculously, I have my old dslr (that I left at home) insured but not this one. I thought we'd fixed it yesterday with some alcohol swabs but 3 photos later the error message was up again.

The Everglades are the big, soggy bit at the bottom of Florida. We went there today and I got to handle an alligator!

Coming out of Fort Myers we passed an amazing display of wealthiness. There are so many mega shopping complexes, I'm not sure how they can possibly all survive. My guess is that the residents of the ornate, gated subdivisions like Pelican's Nest & Cedar Creek have little else to do but shop when they aren't at one of the dozens of country clubs along the route. It was all very manicured and pretty, like a movie set.

We took Highway 41 rather than the interstate and I was pleased with the choice despite the amount of roadwork and construction going on at the Miami end of the Timiami trail. It's a great way to get an overview of the glades and there are any number of places you can pull over for information, airboat rides or 'gator viewing. We got our first alligator sighting on the side of the road. There are little channels of water that run along each side of the highway and the alligators literally lie on the banks or wander across the road if they feel like it. As we discovered at several info stops, the alligator differs from the croc in more ways than its sensitive tongue. Alligators by nature are simple, indolent creatures who have no desire to attack you unless you put part of yourself near their jaws!

Attempting to combine some culture and history along with the day's environmental lessons, we stopped at the Miccosukee Indian Village in time for their alligator show. The show itself was pretty tame. As mentioned before the alligator is actually a pretty timid creature and it took quite a bit of prodding to get these animals to move. I felt a bit uncomfortable about having paid to stir them up for our entertainment but I was more than happy to take my turn at holding one of the babies afterwards.

The story of the Miccosukees is an interesting one.They historically inhabited the upper Tennessee Valley but under continuing encroachment pressure from European-American settlers, many migrated to northern Florida during the 18th and 19th centuries.
They formed a major part of the Seminole tribe, which formed in the eighteenth century in Florida. The United States (US) government forced most of the Seminole/Creek from Florida. Those who remained in Florida fought against US forces and afterward, they moved into the Everglades to try to evade European-American settlement pressure and became the Miccosukees.

By the time we reached Florida City we were so hungry I was afraid Taine would start eating his own arm so we made our first visit to a US Maccas. It was all the same rubbish we get at home, minus the lettuce (although there was definitely lettuce on the picture!) and much cheaper. Today's special was a cheeseburger for 59c!
For dinner we visited the crab restaurant across the road. Disappointingly they had run out of crab but Geoff & I had a yummy seafood plate of shrimp and grouper. Our side tonight was fried, green beans. These are, quite literally, greens beans fried in batter.
Soooo delicious!

5alive

Wow! I am so pleased to have found this trip report. You are a fun writer and I look forward to the rest of your trip.

Really loved your description of this portion of the trip as I have never been to any of those places. You really give us all a seat in the Kia with you. Btw, Whole Foods is a national chain, and as Michael said, their meat (and produce) is top of the line organic stuff, but the price has caused them to be called "Whole Paycheck."

I don't know if you have much computer time, but our family also took a big trip to New York and DC this summer...click on my name and look for Epic East Coast Vacation under trip reports. Maybe it will add a few ideas of what you may enjoy doing.

Five Alive

5alive

Oh, and Lookinglass, this was milk-snorting-through-nose funny:

Lookin_Glass on Nov 28, 12 at 3:29pm
The gator is not the only one that lost its mind.

TDudette

TTT

Kwaussie

Thanks 5alive. I had, in fact already read your trip report before we left Aus and made reservations at the Affinia Dumont based on your experience Ha ha, 'whole paycheck', love it. I have since discovered Publix which is more in my price range but I did enjoy the whole foods experience!

michaelq

Loved reading your report!

Kwaussie

Thanks michael, I'm enjoying having the encouraging comments on this forum. It's like having extra passengers in the car to share the journey with

Staying in the same place two nights in a row is a bit of a luxury for road trippers. It was nice to wake up and not have to jump out of bed to repack the bags and the car and we even got a load of washing done before heading off for further exploration of the Everglades.

Our first stop was the Robert is Here fruit stand. The fruit shop has been built on the same spot that a much younger Robert had a fruit stand as a little boy and now it's a thriving family industry complete with some animals to feed and the best milkshakes you will ever taste. I was drawn here by previous trip reports extolling the magnificence of Robert's milkshakes and I wasn't disappointed. Taine had dragon fruit, I had strawberry & key lime and Geoff had papaya. They were all delicious.

Then it was on to the Everglades Alligator Farm for an airboat ride and another look at the local gators. The airboat ride was fun and after years of watching Miami Vice & CSI it was one of those 'must dos' for Australians. We do try not to do any damage to the local environment while we're traveling so was a bit of a conscience struggle. The Everglades is a beautiful and delicate eco system and I'm pretty sure the noisy airboats aren't doing anything to help the balance of nature.

The farm also had the ritual gator feeding session. The pond (about 50 metres across) housed 250 adult alligators, most of whom looked like concrete statues lying on the banks when we got there. In fact, I was ready to bet money that some of them were fake. However, when the bell went for feeding time they were like my Year 9 english class when the lunch bell goes, suddenly becoming very animated (in an alligatorish kind of way!). I wasn't overly impressed with the feeding session or the snake display even though Taine got to be the star of the show pulling snakes out of the bag. Nevertheless, the farm was reasonably priced and I was satisfied that we'd 'done' the Everglades.

From there we entered the Everglades Park itself ($10 per car) and made our way to the Royal Palm Info Centre to walk the Anhinga Trail. Anhinga are birds that live in the glades. The spend a lot of time spread eagled in the trees to dry their wings. The track was a nice way to see the everglade environment in its wild state. We saw lots of bird life and fish and quite a few gators. It's about 1km long which is plenty. There's only so much waving grass we can manage in one day.

Craving a home style salad we called back in at Robert is Here and bought some salad greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and an enormous avocado. Combined with a bag of frozen vegies and some fried chicken I think we have staved off the scurvy for another day.

Bokhara2

This is great, KiwiAussie! I've just skimmed and now, of course have "The Battle of New Orleans" earwig! We had an open air theatre in our nearest town & the owner often used to play it at the end of the night. It was a great tune to go off singing. Hearing it again instantly had me back there.

Saving for a proper read later. Thanks again!