Hotels

Love a good hotel!  These are two of my favorites on our trip along the gulf.

Orange Beach Hotel

This local paper must tell you about the winter clientele!

Chateau Hotel

French Quarter

Did you bring your horse?

Loved the courtyard, it was like four different buildings combined to make one hotel.

Pool was nice to look at, too cold to swim!

The room was old, but clean. 

And breakfast delivered each morning.

It doesn't get better!

Museums

USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park

Mobile, AL

The boy scouts in Lousiana drive hummers!

National Naval Aviation Museum

Pensacola, FL

Replica of an atom bomb.

Pensacola Lighthouse

Laura: a Creole Plantation

We went to this plantation museum in Vacherie, LA.  Laura Plantation was one of the largest sugar cane plantations in Lousiana in the 1800's. The main house is a typical early 1800's French Creole house.  The Mississippi River was visible from the front porch.

Our guide, Charles, told us about the the Duparc family.  They lived in this house during caning season and spent winters in the French Quarter.  Since this was a summer home, it wasn't very elaborate.

Garden view from the side porch.

View from the the back porch.  Left is the outside kitchen and to the right is the food storehouse.  (Kitchens were required to be a separate building because of fire codes.)

The door to the kitchen building was so short!  It didn't see much bigger than a chicken coup.  And to think that hundreds of meals a day were made here for both the white family and all of the slaves.

These are just a few of the remaining slave cabins still standing from the dozens that were here.  Two doors on each house meant that two families lived here. 

February Road Trip Along the Gulf Coast

Before we left Paxton had a good time playing with our suitcases. 

We began our trip in Panama City,FL, visiting my sister, Cathy.

New Orleans

We spent most of our time in New Orleans, six hours west of Panama City.  We stayed at the Chateau Hotel in the French Quarter.  Most of the buildings in this historic area were built in the 17 and 1800's.

This is a typical house in the quarter.  It's called a double shotgun because all of the rooms are in a row, you can see out the back door from the front door.  Years ago this would have been two homes, but as it now has only one address, it is probably a single family home.  I noticed almost all of buildings in the French Quarter are symetrical.

The balconies are cast iron.

All buildings have workable shutters for privacy and hurricanes.

Brad and Angelina have a house in the French Quarter, just around the block from our hotel.

Through out the narrow streets you see these tour mule carts.  Many decorations from Mardi Gras were still hanging from balconies.

Interesting graffiti on a door.

Many of the Bourbon Street signs were missing.  They must be a popular souvenir!

Beer, anyone?

The sidewalks are terrible and dirty.  You really have to watch your step.

All of the streets are very narrow and are one way.  It is much easier to walk, especially since there is vitually no parking in the French Quarter.

The cemeteries in New Orleans are unique as they use above ground family tombs because of the high water table.  The deceased person is placed in the tomb for 101 days and then their remains are added to the others down a shaft at the back of the tomb.  When the name plaque is full, they attach it to the side and put a new plaque on the front.  Many generations of family members are entombed together.

Our bus tour took us through areas of New Orleans that were affected by Hurricane Katrina.  Six years later and you still see abandoned houses.  These notes were spray painted by the National Guard after the home was checked for survivors.

Musicians Row, a housing project for New Orleans musicians, is a collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis.  The large blue building in the back is a community center for youth music.

Back to Jackson Square, the center of the French Quarter.

Some strange people hang out here.

A couple getting married in the park.  Note her shorts and his t-shirt, it must be an informal wedding!

After 17 days traveling the gulf coast, this is what we came home to, with a weather storm forcast of 12-18 inches of snow!