Hello everyone.  We had another really fun day in the city.  We haven’t always taken the tourist route in cities we have visited but we are now firm believers in doing professionally run tours.

Today we went on a two and one half hour bus tour of the city of New Orleans and what a city it is.  There is so much more to see and experience besides Bourbon St.  We especially enjoyed seeing the Garden district and the Audubon district.  These are upscale neighborhoods with fabulous old historic homes.  Much like Eastmoreland or Grant park at home.  Our tour guide took extra time to explain how they build homes on a swamp.  It is pretty amazing to hear how much they go through to ensure that they have a stable base in which to start construction.  First they sink pilings 20 feet into the ground then they pour a concrete foundation and then build from there.  This is in the high ground areas of the city.  Most homes are built on pole or block foundations.  Very interesting.

We got to see Brad Pitt’s area where he is rebuilding musicians  homes.  He has donated 5 million dollars of his own money into a foundation and then others can contribute.  He asks architects from all over the world to design green homes fit for the area.  As a consequence you see all kinds of designs for smaller homes.  All with advanced green building techniques and all with substantial solar installations.  I am hoping that I can find a book showing homes that have been built by his group.  That would be interesting.

Afterwards we had lunch at Frank’s Italian Specialties.  Our tour host recommended it for their Mufaletta sandwiches.  Along with the sandwich we had a cup of corn and crab bisque.  We shared one sandwich with our Colorado friends as it was huge.  Erik, you would go crazy over this concoction! 

The town was really crowded today as there were Kentucky fans in blue all over the place.  They were playing for one of the final positions in the SEC finals.  Kyle you would know more about this.  Such a happy crowd.

It is about perfect out tonight so we decided to take Andie for a walk in the park.  There are a lot of families camping here for the weekend.  It made us a little bit homesick. This summer we need to make plans to do the camping thing together.  Those are special times for all.

Of course it is dark out and we are surrounded by swamps.  We had a flashlight which Claudia wanted to make sure she had control of.  We were walking (in the middle of the road) and she heard a sound in the bushes and off she went.  She pretty much left Andie and I for gator bait.

The local campers don’t seem to be concerned with critters.  I think that it would be similar to camping at Lake Billy Chinook and us not worrying about rattlers.

Tomorrow we are going back into the city to do some more exploring.  I think that we will extend our stay one more day as the winds are supposed to really pick up.  Next stop will be Mississippi which is less then 40 miles to the east.

I’ll be loving you,

Grandpa