Louisiana Plantations

 

Less than an hour outside of New Orleans, lies an area of southern plantations.  Unlike Boone Hall, a plantation that we visited in South Carolina, where cotton was King, landowners in this area made their fortunes with sugar cane.   We passed many fields of sugar cane, some being harvested. They look like tall fields of grass.  

We visited Oak Alley plantation, which has a beautiful row of oaks leading from the front of the house to the Mississippi.  One could easily imagine sitting on the second floor veranda, sipping a mint julip, watching the boats go up and down the mighty river. (I tried this drink, and think that the only way you could manage to consume it is by sipping – obviously Bourbon is not my drink of choice!)

New Orleans

Most of New Orleans is only about three feet above sea level.  One of the interesting results of this is that their cemeteries are above ground.  Some of the crypts are quite plain, while others, very elaborate.  They actually have cemetery tours that you can take, to learn about the history of New Orleans "passed".

 

We spent our Boxing Day afternoon paddling down the Mississippi on the steamboat paddle wheeler, the Natchez.  It is one of the original paddle wheelers still working on the river.  We had lunch on the ship as well.  It was a really cool experience (both unique, and chilly!)

Four states in one day

This was a good day of driving - we hit four states in one day.  We started in Florida, went through Alabama and Mississippi and ended in New Orleans, Louisiana.  We spent Christmas here in the "Big Easy".  The different types of architecture in this city are very impressive!  The French Quarter has houses with beautiful iron work, and tons of character on the outside, while others are fairly plain.  Take Brad and Angelina's little townhouse (bottom photo, on the right).  It is very plain on the outside in comparison to some of the others.

Throughout the city there are huge differences in the way people live.  We saw areas that are still full of condemned houses, many that were burnt down.  We saw a few trailers parked on front lawns where people have been living since the devastation of hurricane Katrina in 2005.

There is a lot of reconstruction and redevelopment going on all over the city, but obviously there is still a lot of work to be done.

In the areas that weren't affected by the flooding, there are 

amazing houses from the era when families
made their fortunes in the sugar industry.  The Garden District has grand homes with amazing yards.  Seeing them all decorated for Christmas was even better!!! 

Out campground was in an outlying neighbourhood called Kenner, and was two blocks from the Mississippi River.  In this area there are communities with beautiful brick homes, right beside ghetto - like areas that don't seem cared for at all.  Very interesting in dynamics and cultures.  

But that seems to be the basic feeling in New Orleans - tons of different types of people, all working together, supportive of each other, trying to recover from a huge disaster that almost destroyed their city.

Happy Place

Here is our calm green ocean! (Although it looks pretty blue here).  Toes in wet sand, warm sun, and miles of ocean in front.  A great way to spend an afternoon!

Sunrise on the Gulf

It may look warm and toasty in these photos, but it was quite chilly.  I was wearing my touque, and David's extra jacket and I was still cold!!!  But we toughed it out because the colours were amazing!!

At one point the wind started blowing and the sand hits yourface like tiny little daggers.  It was like a mini 

sand blasting treatment.  Maybe it would smooth away all my wrinkles if I lived here!!

Camping on the Gulf

This is the 
amazing view from our trailer door!

We were staying in Destin, which is on the Gulf Coast.  

We were surprised at how few beaches there were on the east coast of Florida.  It is far too developed to leave spaces for beaches, especially just for campsites.  The Keys were much nicer than the rest of Florida for beaches and state parks.  

After doing some research, we learned that there were lots of nice beaches on the south side of the panhandle so we booked into this campground.

We were not disappointed!!!  

Our site was one row in from the beach and the view was fabulous!  The only problem was that it was only about 15 degrees.  Still warmer than home, but much cooler than the 28 degrees we had a few days ago in the Keys.

The sand was SO white that we would come out of the trailer, and just for a moment, think it was snow.

The sunsets here were the best we have seen on the whole trip!  They seemed to last an extra long time, and went through all the colours of the spectrum.  The camera never seems to do them justice.

We had a couple of days of relaxation here as there is not much sightseeing to do, or things to learn.  Apparently though, it is quite a shopping mecca, with one of the largest collections of premiums outlets in America.  Seeing as we didn't have much shopping to do, this was not a big deal.

Destin is also a big 'destination' for deep sea fishing, but we were quite content with deep sea watching!!! 

We have used the mantra, "Calm Blue Ocean...Calm Blue Ocean"  more than a few times on this trip.  This spot is now the picture we can have in our head as we say "Calm Green Ocean ... Calm Green Ocean" .

The question is, will that help???

Last day at Disney

I have no idea why this is underlining everything today - sometimes I don't like computers very much.

Today we were headed to Aquatica, which is a SeaWorld Park with rides.  Unfortunately it was only about 15 degree that day, and when we got there, it was closed!!!!  The security guard said it was just too cold to open.  We told him that the hardy Canadians were willing to give it a go, but they wouldn’t open it just for us!!!

Luckily, yesterday as we were leaving SeaWorld, they had a deal where you could sign up for an extra free day when you left at the end of the night.  We were not planning on going back, but for some reason we decided to get the extra tickets anyway.  Wow, that was fate looking out for us, since we couldn’t go to Aquatica, we went back to SeaWorld.

This time we did the Atlantis ride a couple of times, and fed the rays, sharks and sea lions.  We also went to the dolphin show again as it was really good.

When we got back to the campground the kids got to go to the movies at the outdoor theatre and Mom and Dad got to do laundry!!!  We went to watch the special Christmas fireworks show from the beach at the campground.  They pipe in the music from across the lake at the Magic Kingdom, so it’s almost as good as being in the park!

Disney's Fort Wilderness (Again)

After leaving the Florida Keys we went to pick up our trailer, which we had left at the Miami Everglades Campground, and headed north, back to Orlando.  When we saw how busy the Disney Parks were during the Thanksgiving holiday week, we decided to leave SeaWorld for our return trip.  We enjoyed our stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground so much that we decided to stay there again.

 

We loved our trip to SeaWorld!  There are tons of Marine animals to see and the shows were really good!  They have a dolphin feeding area where you can buy fish and the dolphins will come up to the edge and you can rub them and then feed them.  David graciously declined the feeding so that he could photograph us  (ever the helpful guy, plus, he doesn’t much like touching fish).  I told him that if my vegetarian friend, Jennifer, could manage holding a fish to feed a dolphin, then he should be able to, but he still declined!!

He was very brave though, and managed to feed the rays in the next area.  They have a huge touch pool like they tried to start in Calgary, where they rays will come up to the edge and you can touch them, or buy food to feed them.  It is sort of like having a rubbery, slimy vacuum try to slurp up your fingers.  Then they get all excited and flap around and get you all wet!!

Most of the campsites at the campground are now decorated for Christmas, some with just lights, but many are unreal!  There are some sites with 20 or more inflatable decorations.  Many people come for the whole holiday, and bring tubs and tubs of decorations.  We thought Halloween campers were crazy for decorating, but this is over the top.  There is one site here that has so many lights and d

ecorations that there is a path going through, and the lady hands out cocoa at night.  Most of these sites are about 40 feet X 50 feet, so it is like a hundred little mini Confederation Park light displays.  We took our bikes and road around just to see them 

all!

Merry Christmas from Destin

Does that look like snow????  It does  when you are surrounded by it!!  It is "singing sand", and makes a sound when you walk on it, kind of like snow on a really cold day.

We are currently in delightful, Destin, Florida.  It is on the Emerald Coast, on the Panhandle of Florida, sitting against the Gulf of Mexico.  The blog is not caught up to this spot, but I am jumping ahead, just to make sure we say Merry Christmas to everyone!!

We are travelling tomorrow to New Orleans, and will be spending Christmas there, but I'm not sure if we will have WiFi.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and safe travelling to those of you who are going visiting during the holdiays!!!

Take Care and Have Fun!!!

David, JoAnne, Sean and Rianna

      

Sean's Fishin' Expedition

The first casts off the dock into the beautiful green ocean, were made by Sean.  We used about 1/3 of the fish as bait and he had a couple of nibbles, but nothing but seaweed fish on the line!  Then we decided to use the whole fish, and on his next cast he caught a puffer!!  As soon as it was lifted out of the water it started to swell up - at it's biggest it was about the size of a canteloupe.  We put him back in the water for a moment before we took him off the line and he went back to his regular size.

Some types of puffers have spines on their backs that stick up when they puff up, but this particular species did not. (Some are poisonous as well.)I was quite happy that this fellow had no spikes as it would have made it a whole lot more difficult to take him off the hook.  As it was, he was pretty slimy, but we managed to get him off fairly quickly, and he swam away looking just fine!!

We almost went on a deep sea fishing trip, but there was not enough people booked on the boat to make it worthwhile for the company.  They were quite intrigued with our idea of catch and release for these fish.  We were not interested in keeping anything we caught, we just wanted to experience the catching.  When I 
explained that we were staying in a hotel, and then a trailer, and did not have any place to store them, they explained that any restaurant in the area would cook them up for us.  When I then explained that no one in our family beside myself would eat them, they obviously wondered what the heck we were doing trying to go fishing in the first place!!

Needless to say, all three of us thoroughly enjoyed our fishing experience in the Florida Keys, even if it was just off a dock!!!

Rianna's Report - Fishing

Hola!

I decided to try  fishing after my mom and Sean caught something.  I made a cast and reeled it in, and we saw, eating at my bait, 4 puffer fish and lots of minnows.  Then another puffer came and it was huge!!!

After a while, some parrot fish came too.  Parrot fish are big fish with a beak more than just a mouth.  These ones had bright blue around their eyes, mouths, and at the end of their tail fin.  The puffer fish were not the spiky kind.  The big one was the size of a canteloupe and would be like a volleyball when it puffed up.  We had so much fun watching the fish eat my bait that we didn't even try to catch them, we just let them eat.  

The big puffer ripped off a chunk of the bait, and tons of little minnows came in to eat all the pieces.  We could have just fed the fish forever!!

I really liked the Florida Keys!  They were very beautiful and hot.  It was fun looking at the coral and plants in the ocean and by the beach.  There were 2 macaws at the hotel we stayed at and they talked.  We got to feed some squirrels that live there in the palm trees.  One of them poked me when he took the nut.  Their claws were sharp like needles.

The Keys were fun to go to and it made me very happy to be there!

Now don't cha',....... Barracuda?

O.K., how cool is this??  I caught a barracuda!!!!  We were fishing off the dock at our lovely little place in the Keys, and I managed to pull in this little beauty!!!  I was pretty excited, as you can imagine - and if you are not a fisherman, just try to imagine something really exciting!!!  

We were using bait fish called mullet, which were about 3 inches long (which is about as long as some of the fish we have caught at the lake in B.C.!!)  The manager of the hotel let us use her fishing rod, and helped me take it off the hook.  I was a little concerned about dealing with those teeth, and we didn't have any tools or gloves to get it off.  So I held the fish and she wrangled the hook out of it's mouth.

The water at the end of our dock was only about 4 feet deep, and it was so crystal clear you could see tons of fish (which Rianna will talk about in her Blogspot).    

Any day that involves fishing is a great day, and this was a 
really great day, in a really great place!!!

Sean and Mom's Kayaking Adventure

Have you ever gone kayaking through a mangrove swamp?  We did, and it was awesome!!  We went through tunnels of mangroves that were barely wide enough for the kayak to pass through.  They met overhead so you couldn't tell where one ended and the next began.  There were tons of fish - the coolest were the tiny mullets that would fly across the surface of the water, and come down like rain.  We saw jellyfish, rays, and birds like egrets, herons and pelicans.   We were hoping to see some (small) crocodiles and manatees, but no luck.                                                                                                               
After exploring the mangrove side, we crossed to the other side of the bridge and were out in the ocean.  The water was not very deep in this area, and we had to be careful not to disturb any beds of coral.   In the area near the dock they have these huge fish called tarpons.  We actually fed them earlier that day.  The ones we fed were about 5 feet long.  They would jump right out of the water to grab the fish you were holding.  It was a little freaky, and way too fast to catch with a camera.  David declined this particular experience and was the official photographer!!!  When we were out in the kayak, we could go to this area and watch them swim beneath our boat!  The Kayaking in the Keys was an amazing adventure!!

Rianna and Dad's Dolphin Adventure

We tried to go deep sea fishing today, but it didn't quite work out - but Plan B was pretty good!  Rianna and David went to the Dolphin Research Centre and had a little interactive time!!  The puppies got to go too!   Rianna got to help give some training signals, and they learned a bunch about the Florida Keys Ecosystems.  She absolutely loved the experience and since she still wants to be a Marine Biologist when she grows up, this was a great way to learn about the job!!

The staff here work with injured dolphins rescued from the wild, and conduct research about the behaviours they see.  Sounds like a great job to me!!

22,000 km and as south as we can go!!!

This is a monumental stop on our adventure!  Key West is the farthest point south  on the Continental US, and that means that after this, we are heading home!!!                                               We watched the Sunset at Mallory Square, and it was quite spectacular!  We stopped earlier in the day at a beach and explored through the mangroves, and paths of sand that went out into the Caribbean Sea.  We could walk out for hundreds of metres and it was still only waist deep.

        The scenery along this highway is amazing!  We drove alongside the bridge from the movie True Lies (which just happened to  be on TV a couple of weeks ago.)                                            The water comes in colours that are hard to describe and there are tropical plants and flowers everywhere.  The gardens that I could grow......           Life moves at a slower pace here, and after the continual pace that we have been moving at, this is such a wonderful change!

Fantastic Florida Keys

After getting off the cruise ship, we picked up our puppies and were heading south!  Unfortunately, when we went to drop off our dirty laundry at the trailer, and pick up a few things, we found that SOMEONE had forgotten to take out a can of frozen orange juice in the freezer, and then that same SOMEONE forgot to prop open the fridge and freezer doors while we left the trailer in storage for a week in the hot Florida sun. Who knew that it would explode when it started to ferment?                                                          Needless to say, SOMEONE then had to spend an hour or so scubbing the mold out of the fridge and freezer before leaving the trailer for a few more days.  Yet another trailer lesson learned.     
We are staying in the Florida Keys for a few days, and have found a wonderful little hotel called the Sands of Islamorada.  We have a huge living room with a TV and a hide-a-bed, and a full sized kitchen table.  There is also a bedroom with two queen beds, a kitchenette, and a bathroom.  I tell you all this because we were so excited after four and a half months in a 10 foot wide trailer, and a week in a room smaller than the trailer, that this hotel room was like heaven!!!                                                                  But this little piece of temporary home heaven was greatly surpassed by the view at the end of the dock!!!  We spent ages just watching whole flocks of pelicans dive into the ocean while fishing.  I think they might be my new favourite bird!                                                                                

More Cruise Photos

The colours of the water never come out as nice in photos as they are in real life.  The only other place I have seen water this beautiful was in Australia (thanks Jen!!)   This is our boat - the Norweigan Jewel!                                                        I never knew there were so many varieties of palms - but our favourite of course, had to be the coconut palm.  This is Rianna in Roatan, beside the ocean where we went SNUBA diving.                                                                                                                                                   David and Rianna found a lovely swing made of bamboo (not as comfortable as you might think to sit on!)                                 

Coconut Palms in Costa Maya

Today was a beach day - swimming in the ocean, playing volleyball, soaking up some Mexican sun.  It was very relaxing !!  We spent most of the afternoon here, and as it turns out it was a very good decision, as the next port did not work out at all.

On Saturday, we were supposed to be stopping in the Bahamas at a private island owned by NCL.  Passengers were going to take ships to get to the shore where we would swim, snorkel, and have a big barbeque.

Unfortunately, the seas were so rough that they could not use the boats to take passengers, and so we ended up sailing right by the lovely little island.  We were so happy that we had our beach day on Thursday.  It was still nice enough to be outside by the pool on the ship, but the day before had been a sea day, too, so we were getting a little tired of just sitting by the pool.

                                                                                       
The staff arranged for some extra entertainment that day instead, and that was really good.  They had The Cat's Pyjamas, an acapella group, playing on the ship, and they were awesome!!  I guess they have been on Oprah, and some other shows.

Missing out on the last days activities was kind of tough, but the rest of the cruise was

absolutely wonderful, so we are not complaining.

Could be worse, we could be stuck in a trailer with two kids....oh yeah, wait for it.......

Birthday Boy in Belize

Sean celebrated his 13th birthday in Belize today - it will be kind of hard to top that next year!  We had signed up for the White Water Rafting excursion in Belize, thinking that this would be an exciting way to spend the day.  Instead it turned out to be a really hot, really slow, float down a tame river.  But we did get to see monkeys, crocodiles, birds, and tons of iguanas!

We had his birthday dinner at one of the nicer restaurants, called Tsar's.  It was right at the back of the ship, and we went during sunset so that was pretty spectacular!  We also got the room deocrated for him, and a decadent chocolate cake, prepared by the ships chefs!!  It was so rich, we couldn't even eat it all!!
We don't think that this little taste of Belize did the country justice, and would like to come back and see more of it some time.

This is a male iguana (which we know because he is yellow!!)  They like to sit way up in the trees and sun themselves.  This one was probably at least four feet long.

We heard the howler monkeys long before we could see them, but we only came across them a couple of times all afternoon. 

Roatan, Honduras

This is Rianna, standing at the base of a Kapok tree.  I took this picture just for those of you who have read the book, The Kapok Tree, and who, like me, have always wanted to see one in reall life!!  It was huge!!!

We took an excursion to Gumba Limba Park where the kids and I went SNUBA diving.  It is like SCUBA diving, but instead of carrying a tank of oxygen, your mask is attached to a hose that goes up to the surface where it is attached to a small raft, which is filled with your oxygen supply.  This allows the diver to go down 10 to 20 feet below the surface, using regulated air.  The raft follows along with you as you swim.  The three of us just had to keep in the same area, which was just fine with me!  We did not have to get certified, just a quick lesson beforehand.  We saw tons of fish and coral, and it was really fun!

We were in small groups of five, and our instructor took Rianna's hand so she had the best tour of all!!  

Afterwards we just spent some time at the pool and the beach with an awazing view!!

While we were diving, David walked around the park and saw monkeys, parrots, agouti (carribbean rabbit), leaf cutter ants and lots of mosquitos.  They would not let him dive because of his asthma, so we were pretty bummed that he couldn't join us - but he still wanted us to go and try because that's just the kids of guy he is!!

The island is quite hilly, with amazing ocean views, but a little scary at times.  Sean had to sit in the front seat of the little bus on the way out, and was a little freaked by the time we got to the beach!!  They do zip line tours there as well, and so the cliffs going down on either side of the road

made for interesting travel.

We went back to the cruise ship for lunch, and then walked around town for a bit.  Rianna got her hair braided in the market, and it looks really nice.

It was very interesting for all of us to see the towns and people of this area.  Honduras is a a developing nation, and the people on this island depend greatly on the cruise ships for tourism.  One of our guides was a 16 year old girl who had quit school and was working to make enough money for her sister to go to Teacher's college, and then she would have her turn to go.  She gave us lots of insight into life here.  What we could see of the towns and people along the way was a bit of a learning experience for the kids, too.  We understand that the mainland has been having some civil unrest lately, but we felt very safe on the island.  All in all, it was a great day!

Exciting Everglades

Before we left on our cruise we had been staying at the Miami Everglades Campground, and so of course, we had to go for an airboat ride through the Everglades!  If I could get the video to play on the blog, you would be impressed!!!  It was really awesome!

The lovely little alligators that we saw within arms reach of our boat were pretty cool, too!  David was re-living his television memories of Gentle Ben (Ha - who knows what I'm talking about??)

The area where we are staying has tons of agriculture as well, fields of tomatoes, flowers, okra, acres of palm and banana trees, papaya, mango, avacado - it is so neat to see how all these
foods are grown.

It has been about 28 degrees most days, with  100 % humidity.

We hear that our friends back home who had to make a road trip to Edmonton experienced the world's coldest temperatures that day at -50 degrees Celsius.  That is ridiculously cold and nasty.  We are doing everything we can to absorb all the heat down here and send warm thoughts back home to Alberta!!!