Louisianna Plantations

I love old houses and being a genealogist, I love history so a visit to some old plantations was a must on my list of things to do in Louisianna.  The first one we saw was Evergreen Plantation. 

Don't forget, you can double ckick on any picture to see a better view and any of the underlined words are links with more information on the topic.

We visited Laura Plantation.  This one was more of an office, the families stayed there just in the summer during sugar cane season so the inside was not "grand" like I expected.

These pots were huge.  They were shipped here from France.  Notice how only the very top is glazed.  They would submerse them in the Mississippi River until they were water logged.  They would empty them and bury them up to the glazed lip and used them as refrigerators.  The inside would stay nice and cool.

These were some of the slave cabins on this plantation.

St.Joseph's Plantation.

Oak Alley Plantation was named for it's 28 evenly spaced live oak trees.

As we were driving along the River Road, we found these scattered slave shacks.

All of these were on the south west side of the Mississippi River. We journied to the other side of the river and found the San Francisco Plantation

Both sides of the river had a levee.  We stopped periodically and climbed to the top to see the river.  There were always several boats going up and down the river.

Steam Boat Cruise

We've been without cell or internet service for 3 days again, so let me catch up.
On Saturday, we ventured out to New Orleans again.  The highway goes right around the Super Dome.

On our way to the steam boat, we decided to take a look at the 9th ward.  We connected with our friends, Paul & Joyce, last week for our Louisianna portion of the trip.  This is their 3rd year down here and they said it has improved alot each year.  But portions of it still looked pretty bad.

Most houses here are very narrow and long.  Almost like a trailor with the door on the end.  They're called "shot gun homes".

So we went to buy our steam boat tickets.

We boarded the boat.

And took off.  With a very loud whistle warning everyone.

The view was good at first, this is St.Louis Cathedral.

But as we got further out, the fog got so thick, we could hardly see anything.

I could, however, see the interesting parts, like the paddle wheel and the deck.

When we got off the boat, we found the streets to be filling up fast with the game the next day.  And in New Orleans you can drink on the streets so it was really getting crazy.  We did have to go to the Cafe Du Monde for some Beignet (pronounced ben-yay).  They are like dough boys, but smaller & better.

New Orleans

Driving along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the view of the never ending beach on the left was absolutely beautiful.  The view on the right, however, was a reminder of the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina.  We could see pool stairs coming out from filled in pools, empty foundations and cement slabs where houses used to be, driveways, paved walkways and front steps leading nowhere and swings hanging from trees not far from those steps.  It made quite an impact on us.

Here we are, New Orleans, these trolly cars run right through town.

Oh boy, here we are on Bourbon Street.

I was surprised at how narrow is was.

Most of the buildings have balconies.

They are also very colorful.

As we walked back to the parking lot, 2 blocks from Burbon St., in front of City Hall was a good old New Orleans funeral celebration.   A policeman had been killed by a hit and run and the funeral had just finished.  It was like you see on TV.  People dressed in black playing jazz music and dancing in the street.  A whole section of the street was blocked off.  It was awesome.  I'm so glad we came upon it.

Biloxi, Mississippi

Here we are in Biloxi, Missippi.  This was taken at the Village Square.  Many of the Live Oak trees were destroyed during hurricane Katrina.  Several chain saw artists offered to create scupltures rather than totally destroying them.  This is the only one that is painted.   (FYI, you can click on any of these pictures to get a bigger view)

This is part of a memory wall, the highest portion on the right shows how high the waves were at this point.  I was totally facinated at this mosaic depicting the angry Katrina ocean.

Highway 90 is filled with these, they are spectacular.

Here is an angel in Bay St.Louis, actually there are 2 angels.  The story is that there were 2 people hanging on to this tree for 3 hours during Katrina.  Check out the link.

Here is a Live Oak tree to show how big they are.

This was a neat.

See how little Don & Bruno look.

Since gambling is illegal in most states, many coastal states have casinos on barges in the water.  Several of those were picked up by the wind and water during the storm and dropped accross Route 90.  The Hard Rock Casino was just a few days away from opening when Katrina hit and it was demolished, except for this sign.  It has since been rebuilt.

Florida Pan Handle

Here we go on the rest of the Florida Pan Handle. The sand is so white that as we drove along, it almost felt like Maine. The sand peeking up through the grass looked just like snow.

Check out the sand dune, looks just like a snow bank.

On our way to our next stop, Biloxi, Mississippi, we stopped at the Pensacola Naval Air Station to visit the Naval Air Museum.

It was very interesting. It was huge and had many displays.

This one's for you Aiden.

Port St.Joe

We visited Don's aunt in New Smyrna, my sisters in Sarasota and Sun City and friends in Naples, Punta Gorda, Dade City and The Villages.

While we were at Lake Griffin State Park (visiting at The Villages) the volunteer at the gate, who was from Kentucky, noticed our Maine plates and mentioned that he had friends from Auburn. It happened to be someone Don worked with several years ago. He and his wife were volunteers there so we visited with them a few times. It is such a small world.

We finally headed west early Friday morning. We met up with our friends, Paul & Joyce, in Port St. Joe on the Florida pan handle. We had "no bars" for 4 days, even forgot what day it was.

We took the Jeep on the beech and let Bruno run, he had such a good time, chasing sticks, running away from the waves, etc.

All the houses on the shore are on sticks. There is so much property for sale. Many developments started and abandoned. We saw some with all the roads and driveways done with pavers, all the utilities in, everything ready to build, but the entire property for sale.

We found a spot where there were pelicans preening themselves and dolphins fishing. That's Don watching them.

Fort Meyers, FL

We went to see the Thomas Edison Winter Home in Fort Meyers, FL. I never realized how much he invented. He was the only American to file pattens for 65 consecutive years.

The grounds were absolutely beautiful. He experimented with plants from all over the world in his search for an alternative to rubber to help his friends Mr. Firestone and Henry Ford (also his neighbor). Check out the roots on this tree.

This is the front of the Thomas Edison House. Unfortunately it was so cold that we didn't spend as much time as we would have liked.



One of his inventions, I guess you could call it the first juke box.

It was a long cold day, Bruno thought he was going to take over our bed to keep warm.

Trying to catch up

I have been trying to get back on this blog but had forgot the password. I've finally got it figured out (I think)

We left Maine 12/27/09 and went to Rehobeth, Ma. for the night. Paul & Joyce and us left 12/28/09 and ventured to Hagerstown, MD to stop for the night. We met up with Steve & Sharon there and we traveled to Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, Fl. together.

We overnighted in Statesville, NC and Brunswick, GA

This is a picture of the poster of the Manatees at Blue Spring State Park.
There were over 100 manatees at the park. This is a couple of them


We are trying to hide in our campsite. Very tight, had to have some branches cut to be able to exit without damaging the coach

The main gate at Blue Springs.

Enough for now, I'll try to get more tomorrow

10 Days

Wow, has it been hetic for the last few days, snow and ice about everyother day. Lucy had a retirement party on Mon.
Tuesday she had to go to NH for a death of her sons mother-in-law. It was black ice ont the way home and she went into a ditch, she wasn't hurt, just scared.
I have been working on the coach except for the last couple of days I haven't done much as it has been in the single numbers temp wise. This cold really makes me want to get out of here NOW.
Only 10 more days of this.