new orleans, louisiana.

louisiana,"the pelican state," is known for a lot of things. it has cities that proclaim to be the frog capital of the world, the buggy capital of the world, the cajun capital, the duck capital, and the crawfish capital, it has the longest bridge over water in the world (at 24 miles over lake pontchartrain), and is the only state without counties (it is separated into parishes). it is also home to the largest fresh water basin in the world and that is a lovely sight. a long section of the freeway is almost completely over water, swamps with trees growing out of it and grasses above the water line. there were a lot of storms we drove through, with some very brooding clouds. it made for slow traffic but beautiful scenery.

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danielle and i arrived and checked into the hotel/condo timeshare place my dad got for us and it was so fancy! it was much nicer than we had expected. so we looked forward to sleeping in those nice big beds after staying on love seats in texas. unfortunately, we didn't actually do much in new orleans. our only full day there, neither of us were feeling very well so it wasn't until the evening that we got out and walked around the garden district. the houses are big and beautiful and there are beads hanging from most of the trees, remnants of mardi gras passed. and then because of the heat and lack of food, we did not go farther. it was such a beautiful city, the parts i did see and i definitly would like to go back.

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we were anxious to get on our way to florida so we left when it was still dark. lousiana bid us farewell with a beautiful sunrise.