Beautiful Bayous and The Big Easy!!

Mon Mar 14th - a perfect morning in Bayou Segnette State Park.  We've been itching to ride our scooters, so we'll save the French Quarter and the rest of The Big Easy for tomorrw - today we're taking off for a nice long scoot, exploring bayou country and the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve . . . 

Riding out to the park on Barataria and past Crown Point, we saw beautiful enormous homes on sprawling estates . . .

. . . and all with these fabulous big old trees.

Entering the Park

Fishin' along the bayou.  We were thinking of taking a little hike
 until this jolly fellow mentioned seeing water moccasin here!

Trixie went along with us on our ride today!

Soooooo pretty here!

Harold likes seeing all the palmettos in the swamp . . .

Jean Lafitte National Park has these great boardwalk trails
through the swamp - we sure enjoyed this one!

 . . . another bayou - more fishin'!

We were watching him and he was watching US!

Can you see the wild blue iris (lower right)?

Scooting along, we rode down beside one of the zillions of waterways . . .

And at the end of the road - some locals offering swamp boat and air boat rides - and a funky little shop with some really unique merchandise . . . alligator claw keychains and necklaces, Mardi Gras masks and more . . . 

. . . genuine alligator head, anyone???

. . . or how about one of these authentic voodoo dolls??

Well, time to call it a day - I should mention here that today HAROLD saw two little alligators along the way.  Anyway, it was a super-great scooter-riding day!

Tues - Up early and into The Big Easy as we had plans for a City Tour today! Climbed into the van with our guide, Gene, who gave us a great ride and told us way more about New Orleans than we can possibly hope to remember!

In the French Quarter

more French Quarter

so many of these gorgeous balconies!!

We were a week late for Mardi Gras - but in the
  French Quarter, evidence of the big celebration remains. 

Another typical French Quarter residence

Above & below - some of the "Brad Pitt Project"

This is in the Musicians Village, created after 

Hurricane Katrina to keep the music in town!!

New Orleans is home to some unique cemeteries & here
our guide Gene, far right, is giving us the history.

New Orleans City Park is awesome - and
twice the size of New York's Central Park!!! 

Above & below - in the City Park

Along renowned St. Charles Avenue

Gorgeous ironwork all over the city!

Lake Ponchatrain - it has a 25-mile long
bridge across it!!  Imagine!

In the very delightful Garden District

Sandra Bullock's house in the Garden District

This Garden District home is all decked out for Mardi Gras!

After the tour, waiting for the streetcar
to take us to explore the French Quarter.

Mississippi River

Looking out at the "Mighty Mississip" from the streetcar

We all went out for a little exercise at our campground.
That's the Bayou Segnette!
(Next day we saw two big alligators here, and will post pics later if they turn out!)

After a memorable dining experience -
 simply scrumptious sauteed shrimp!

Okay, so now it's Thursday already and, regrettably, that's it for us for New Orleans.  It was FABULOUS and we would love to stay longer as there's SO MUCH GREAT STUFF to see and do here!!!

But Florida beckons so here we go - on the road again . . .